Project
A training event in Helsinki, Finland, where Boost Up finalists from SADC were invited to attend Slush, Europe's premier start-up event
The Southern African Innovation Support programme contributed to the growth of new businesses through strengthened innovation ecosystems and sharing of good practice among innovation role-players in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
Combatting poverty in the SADC region requires investment in science and technology, as well as better management of the resources required to bring new or improved products, processes and services to the market. Funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, the Southern African Innovation Support (SAIS) programme contributed to this process over two phases across the region by specifically focussing on national and regional innovation systems supporting early-stage entrepreneurs.
Running from 2011 to 2016, Phase I of the programme or SAIS 1 achieved the following:
Phase II or SAIS 2 was launched in 2017 and concluded in 2022 with Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia as partner countries. The programme took the objectives to the next level, focussing on early-stage entrepreneurship and related innovation systems.
The programme’s success is a result of three key instruments: funding, capacity building and networking. These three were integrated in activities geared towards SAIS 2’s three main objectives:
What was SAIS 2's value proposition?
Importantly, SAIS 2 focused on innovation support organisations as they host and coach entrepreneurs and act as focal nodes connecting role-players and resources into joint activities. The goal was to improve the linkages from local to global knowledge and channel learnings for the benefit of whole ecosystem. SAIS aimed to facilitate access to resources that can help guide startups in their tech development while building capacity among new ventures as technical, managerial, entrepreneurial and entrepreneurship all augment also investment readiness. SAIS learned that partnerships with big businesses in a chosen industry helps to acquire knowledge and experience.
What were SAIS 2's key instruments?
The SAIS 2 innovation fund successfully financed 26 transnational projects or consortium entities from more than one SADC region, engaged over 90 innovation support organisations and helped over 1000 MSMEs and startups. Because of the nature of the programme, SAIS 2’s impact extended beyond the five participant nations and the SADC region.
“We see that there is a demand and there’s an opportunity for a much larger cross-border cooperation between the different innovation actors,” said SAIS 2 Lead Expert Ilari Lindy. “Having an understanding of what your peers do in a different country or different ecosystem may also give you impetus to enhance your operations and introduce some new transformative elements into your work.”
The first two calls for proposals had three funding windows revolving around the themes of Stronger Ecosystems, Scaling Enterprises and Inclusive Innovation, all of which aligned with the programme’s objectives.
The third and last call for proposals were dubbed “RE:innovation Challenge” and targeted pilot products, services and processes to test or validate their solutions, with the goal of strengthening entrepreneurship systems. Applicants were supported by an innovation support organisation based in a SAIS partner country.
Funding Window 1, with the theme Stronger Ecosystems, financed projects designed to develop a better understanding of SADC’s innovation ecosystems, as well as enable innovation support organisations’ to serve their clients better. Among the projects financed under Funding Window 1 were:
Funding Window 2, which revolved around Scaling Enterprises, financed projects geared towards early-stage entrepreneurs and innovation support organisations’ capacity to assist them. Some of the projects supported under Funding Window 2 were:
Funding Window 3, geared towards Inclusive Innovation, financed innovative projects that included and engaged socially and economically excluded communities. Examples of projects financed under Funding Window 3 were:
As for RE:innovation Challenge, projects that were supported in testing and validating their solutions included:
Some SAIS knowledge products
More than funding, SAIS 2 ensured the long-term success of its outcomes through capacity-building and networking efforts. These efforts gave rise to various training programmes like BOOST UP and a group of networking hubs called “Connected Hubs”.
BOOST UP was a three-part support programme co-organised by SAIS 2 and Connected Hubs, which was newly launched as the Southern Africa Innovation Collective. The programme elevated tech-driven startups’ ability to be investment-ready. To participate in this programme, startups had to provide solutions to societal challenges.
A participant in BOOST UP 2020, Dawa Health is a Zambia-based enterprise that runs an eponymous weekly advisory mobile application for expecting mothers. It features a self-monitoring kit that gives soon-to-be moms access to remote maternal health services.
“It can be hard to find the right partners and working with large organisations and programmes like SAIS 2,” said Tafadzwa Munzwa, Dawa Health’s co-founder alongside Chungu Chama. “And the experience and networks [BOOST UP] brings can make a huge difference to a startup.”
As the 2020 winner of BOOST UP, which doubled as a competition, Dawa Health earned a trip to Finland for two team members and even access to Finnish opportunities.
“I think the biggest benefit I got from BOOST UP was meeting our mentor. In fact, after the programme finished, we formalised this relationship, and our mentor is officially serving on our advisory board,” Tafadzwa said. “The other thing we really appreciated was meeting the other founders. It was amazing to meet other entrepreneurs who have similar experiences to ours.”
In 2020, SAIS 2 fully achieved its objective of improving staff and organisational capacity among innovation support organisations. It also achieved its goal of improving international expertise on innovation management among innovation intermediaries, entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs through Connected Hubs network, promoting the regional startup competition BOOST UP. This helped expand networking collaboration activities in Southern Africa.
Apart from the expertise of the team, what contributed to the programme’s achievements were its unique features. Notable among them are:
SAIS 2 served thousands of enterprises over the course of its implementation, and it will serve many others thanks to its extensive support of organisations that aim to empower local enterprises.
OCED Case Study SAIS2
