Thinking Differently
Innovation: AIPA's basic approach to Development
Dr Gopi N Ghosh
Director and Chief of Policy Research
Asian Institute of Poverty Alleviation, New Delhi
Demography, natural resources, market dynamics, technology and climate - all are rapidly changing in this volatile world. With these changes the problems that the society faces - both long term and short term- are also assuming different dimensions. Rural poverty, food insecurity, urbanization and agriculture - all face unprecedented crises never experienced before. A large number of rural populace in India – predominantly poor- is still critically dependent on agriculture and other sundry rural avenues for their employment and livelihoods. The rural infrastructure that is expected to support health, education, drinking water, transport and communication and other basic services is unfortunately not keeping pace with the increasing need and demand of a billion plus people. The implementation of public service delivery is abysmal. A paradigm shift in thinking of the way we address the fundamental problems of our society and particularly of its economy is therefore urgently required. Greater emphasis is thus to be put on knowledge, information and innovation to cope up with such challenges.
Innovation is as old as human civilization. Variously described as something ‘new’, ‘unique’, ‘different’ or ‘improved’ – be it a product, process, design, technology, system, service or solution - innovation is key to improve the lives and livelihoods of people. An innovation can be big or small, new or improvised, complex or seemingly simple. It can happen through systemic change (transformational). It could be small change in an incremental way or though big break or what is called radical transformation. It is not the source, type, industry and style of innovation that matters, what important is the innovation's impact on the public or ultimate user.
Innovation was previously understood to be happening only through scientific research, corporate endeavour, commercial entrepreneurship or industrial invention and technical excellence. Innovations could not only be technical achievement, but also be a social intervention, project design or system of its management and manner of implementation. Social and grassroots (rural peoples’) innovations that stimulate social change assume significant importance now - given the pre-eminence of fulfillment of common people's needs and aspirations in a democratic polity.
Why do we need innovation? It is important the way we think about the problems or issues that affect us. It is more important how and why many solutions that we prescribe for the tackling various ills of the society. An dispassionate situation analysis suggests that run-of-the-mill approaches could take us only that far in our tryst with progress. As the nation's poverty, incidences of hunger, diseases, destitutions are still quite unacceptable, and the resources prove to be inadequate for the growing populace, the "business as usual" policy is not remained as an option any more. We have to be not only more intelligent and imaginative in understanding the nuances of such diverse challenges and strive for plausible solutions given the kind of complexities - social, political, technological, ecological and economic - that we have. The areas of innovation thus can be diverse and multi-faceted; right from how to analyse the causal factors for our problems; how to inspire people in finding out their own ways; what kind of developmental approaches to adopt and what new technologies to induce and ensure their appropriate applications; how and when to respond to changing market dynamics. Indeed, the list is endless, where innovative approaches play a pivotal role in the success of the any development venture.
We have to be more pro-active in our business orientation and utilize the creative ability and indomitable spirit of entrepreneurship of the people to make them self-reliant in the pursuit of income and livelihoods. The very approach to innovation may be organic and spontaneous; rather than mechanistic and hierarchical. Our unique ways should make people more confident, improve their livelihoods, assure better growth and performance in both of their individual and collective endeavours. Further, smart innovation helps in achieving efficiency, productivity, quality, competitiveness in the market with reduced the cost.
Notably, individuals are the backbone of innovation- and many entrepreneurs are doing innovation in their own ingenious ways. Increasingly being recognized as what is called "Jugaad Innovation" by people and companies worldwide is a very flexible, frugal and un-structured method of generating original ideas and solutions. This idea is emerging as cost-effective ways to innovate and achieve breakthrough growth in a complex and resource-scarce world. Invigorating areas of education and research, information and communication, partnerships and relationships, commerce and manufacturing, trade and investment, institutions and infrastructure – all may trigger a flurry of creative activities across disciplines. Pro-active policies, institutional coordination and judicious support can create an enabling innovation environment, wherein people are inspired to experiment, take risks and adopt new ideas. Such a creative ecosystem calls for freedom, incentive structure, resources, shared learning and encouragement to challenge existing paradigm and search for viable alternative solutions towards sustainable development with justice, equity and equality.
Closed mindsets, outdated perception and bureaucratic hurdles kill innovation; though success in innovation has never been a linear narrative. Serious lapses notwithstanding, many innovations – big or small - may still be happening in agriculture and rural development across the countryside. However, due to poor knowledge management, lack of social cohesion and right institutional architecture, diffusion and dissemination of such local level innovations are widely acknowledged as problem areas. Sharing, collaboration, recognition, application and scaling up are other grey areas in our society that we must attempt to address to reap enormous dividends.
Our nation urgently needs to draw up robust strategies to promote all-round innovation providing holistic solutions with regard to productivity, natural resources, institutions, wastage, conservation, sustainability, technology and partnership with particular focus on disadvantageous groups and communities, resource-poor areas, small farmers’ sustainability, reaching the unreached and upholding the basic rights of the dispossessed and less privileged with due respect and dignity.
- Log in to post comments
© Asian Institute of Poverty Alleviation