Helping UNESCO to manage innovation in Tanzania
The Centre for Research in Innovation Management (CENTRIM) is providing training in the skills needed to manage innovation, which will facilitate economic and social development in Tanzania, one of the poorest countries in the world.
Many Tanzanians are living below the World Bank’s poverty line. However, potential for progress is evident. Tanzania’s growth rate has averaged nearly 7% since 2006, which is above the average for sub-Sahara Africa. Tourism is the most important source of foreign currency, with many thousands of people climbing Africa’s highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, or visiting the great national parks, such as the Serengeti, each year. However, power supplies are erratic, services are unreliable and only 50% of children attend primary schools. The country has few mineral exports (with the exception of gold and diamonds) and a basic agricultural system. Products such as coffee, cotton, sisal and tea are grown and Zanzibar (part of Tanzania) is the world’s third largest producer of cloves.
Many international organisations and charities are striving to improve the quality of life for the citizens of Tanzania, including United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Recently, UNESCO has supported a review of Tanzania’s National Science, Technology and Innovation System helping lead to the understanding that innovation could provide a key to unlocking Tanzania’s potential for social and economic development. Simple innovations, like more fuel-efficient cooking stoves or new ways to purify water, can make a huge impact on poverty and improve the lives of millions.
UNESCO recognised that there was a need for many more people in Tanzania to feel that “I can, and I will, contribute to innovation”. CENTRIM's Managing Innovation course, a research-based two-day skills training programme, was selected by UNESCO as being the right instrument for empowering and enabling Tanzanians to become innovation champions.
In 2010 CENTRIM's Howard Rush and Dave Francis conducted a two-week initial train-the-trainer programme in Tanzania. After intensive study and many skills practice sessions, in March 2011 four trainers were ready to deliver their test classes. All are now licensed to deliver the programme making them the first trainers in sub-Saharan Africa to achieve this recognition. The trainers’ goal is to facilitate productive innovation across Tanzania.
This is an important step; it has been recognised for more than a decade that poverty will not be alleviated by doing more of the same: new ideas are required. With the Managing Innovation training programme, Tanzania has a tried-and-tested way to develop the practical skills needed by everyday innovators.
In Tanzania, four trainers who have been certified by CENTRIM to deliver the two-day Managing Innovation course are actively working with 46 senior staff of the largest local pension fund in the country - the National Social Security Fund. The pension fund managers attended a Managing Innovation course in September 2011, and are now implementing their action plans. Attendees included all of the fund's Headquarters Directors, Zonal Directors and Regional Directors.
The Managing Innovation course was first run in Serbia in 2006 and has since travelled to many counties around the world. Clients have included oil company Total at a new installation in Venezuela where the course was run in-company for a team of staff and local stakeholders; medical technology company Medtronic, with headquarters in Minneapolis, which has put over 1,000 employees globally through the course and several economic development organisations in Venezuela Chile and Brazil. In total, over 4000 managers around the world have experienced the Managing Innovation course.
Continuing professional development for practising teachers in Mauritius
A collaborative Partnership between the University of Brighton and the Institute of Education (Mauritius) is building Continuing Professional Development capacity through a series of projects to address limited higher education development for teachers.
The University of Brighton has been supporting the Mauritian Government since 1998 with its efforts to increase educational attainment.
Through a series of projects to address limited higher education development for practising teachers, the university developed a programme to support qualified teachers in gaining a masters level qualification, in response to a Mauritian Government directive that all practicing teachers must hold postgraduate qualification by 2013.
Working in partnership with the Mauritius Institute of Education (MIE), an Education Leadership and Management specialist route of the University of Brighton’s MA Education was developed. A key focus meant the programme had to reflect the local needs of the island state and become sustainable to ensure impact within the teaching community and, ultimately, increase the attainment of pupil’s education on the Island.
The initial MA programme has been extended and is now developed and delivered collaboratively with MIE staff who include graduates from the earlier Mauritian MA cohorts. The University of Brighton’s capacity-building approach has led to over 175 students to date successfully graduating with the MA award. Many of these graduates are now senior education leaders within Mauritius and are having a significant impact on pupil attainment and the development of the Mauritian education system. At least six graduates have gained positions as Rectors, or head teachers, and others have progressed from the MA to the MIE. Other former students now work for government agencies such as oversees Consulates and local authorities as well as for the British Council.
The MA education programme has offered opportunities for those who are already in those positions to have a programme of professional development that will support their career changes. Progression and impact continue to be a major theme for the MiE. The University of Brighton was further contracted to deliver an Ed.Phil, with the first cohort starting in December 2011.
