Enabling Environment for Research and Development Growth in Africa:IP Protection, Challenges, Drivers and Approaches

The disadvantaged status of economic development for most countries in Africa, coupled with the challenges faced by these countries in areas of basic human needs, continues to be a hurdle to the successful research and development initiatives on the continent as priority continues to place funding-emphasis on addressing basic human needs. The comparatively low level of research participation by higher education institutions, particularly university level, coupled with the absence of a globally significant involvement of Africa’s-industrial sector in research, are factors that will need to be addressed if Africa’s contribution to global research output is to realize significant growth. This is particularly important as industry and universities continue to be the main drivers of growth in the area of innovative research development and research application. In light of these challenges, the assertion that research has value for Africa and hence the need for Africa to continue improving its global profile in research, this paper presents a discusses different approaches to IP development, acquisition and protection and how each of the approaches can be utilized towards growing the level of Africa’s participation and contribution to research and development output. While drawing attention to research collaboration approaches and to the envisaged benefits of such collaborations, the paper identifies higher education systems, industry, and governments are key drivers of research and development, and hence the need for Africa to leverage on, as well as focus on development to a level where these drivers become more pronounced as instrumental to driving achievements in innovative and impactful research and development for Africa.