The world has witnessed many international and African philanthropic foundations addressing issues of African countries from health to agriculture to education to governance with associated research and innovation development and capacity building. While undoubtedly impactful, these efforts have come with
challenges. As Carnegie famously wrote in his book, “It were better for mankind that the millions of the rich were thrown into the sea than so spent as to encourage the slothful, the drunken, the unworthy.” This mindset continues to drive many philanthropy to date, including the delivery of AID through official development assistance (ODA) from developed to developing countries.
Solomon Nwaka’s Social and Technological Innovation in Africa: Sustaining and Post –https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-16-0155-2
COVID-19 Research for Development in Africa (2021), and others have described a fragmented landscape for research and innovation in Africa that is largely driven by uncoordinated aid financing, and lack of structured local financing and coordination. With the decreasing ODA toAfrican countries now at play,and as Foundations explore ways to help in filling the gaps, it is important that Foundations align their support with internal innovation mechanisms of the continentand its countries
