/ 16 September 2014

Towards a brighter future for Africa: Design can make the difference

Imagine if Africa could become the door on which global citizens and companies knock when it comes to innovation?

According to Gavin Mageni, head of the SABS Design Institute, South Africa’s official design promotion body, design can make a difference to Africa’s fortunes.

“I am confident that well-designed products, services and systems will create new socio-economic value for South Africa,” says Mageni. He adds that Africans are intrinsically innovative and have harnessed good ideas and innovative thinking to overcome a multitude of adverse circumstances. The Design Institute is geared to show what design can do to move innovation into the mainstream African psyche, leading to economic growth and a better life for all.

The SABS Design Institute is an Innovation Summit partner and will select three Pitching Den participants to go through to the Design Institute’s Counterpoint Programme. The annual Pitching Den competition give entrepreneurs, researchers, inventors, incubators and innovators across all industries a chance to pitch their creative ideas to a panel of judges to stand a chance to win a share of R25000.

During the Counterpoint Programme the Design Institute surrounds each entrepreneur with a design team that helps to create the product, brand and business model simultaneously. The design team works alongside the entrepreneur during work days at the Institute and also at a distance when the entrepreneur is off-site.

Says Mageni: “The Institute believes that new businesses start with the right combination of person, idea and business model. The Institute therefore uses a holistic approach to developing all three of these aspects along a structured design process.”

Overcoming Africa’s challenges

One of the most pressing issues facing South Africa at present is unemployment. The Design Institute aims to use design to produce new entrepreneurial businesses and also to ensure that existing SMMEs are more successful through process reengineering and supplier development programmes. According to Mageni, design should be used to address national priorities of which creating decent jobs and education top the list.

According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk 2014 report, South Africa has the third highest unemployment rate in the world for people between the ages of 15 to 24. This report estimates that more than 50 percent of young South Africans between 15 and 24 are unemployed.

The Design Institute believes that it can address youth unemployment through embedding design in the process of nurturing entrepreneurship. New jobs will not come from the formal employment sector. “South Africa’s youth need to design sustainable entrepreneurial businesses,” says Mageni.

The problem facing South Africa is huge: Only 7% of South Africa’s youth are involved in early stage youth entrepreneurship activity – the lowest within 10 selected African countries.

The fact is that design spans R&D and innovation, turning research into commercial products and services. The Design Institute’s role is to link the elements of the national innovation system together so that entrepreneurs can navigate the system to grow businesses to reduce youth unemployment.

Earlier this year, the Design Institute’s Counterpoint Programme mentored 43 candidates to transform their product or service ideas into a workable prototype. The Design Institute offered the services of a multi-disciplinary team of experts consisting of designers, engineers, branding experts and business experts. The process took a multi-layered approach where the first step was to develop the entrepreneurs themselves, then to develop their product or service idea and finally developing the business side of the idea. Tracking the entrepreneurs’ success was part of the process.

One such a candidate is Shalton Mothwa. The Design Institute developed two energy-saving products for Mothwa and the pitching, coaching and concept development has led to several successes. Mothwa is a finalist in the SAB Innovation Awards competition. He also participated in the ‘Get in the Ring’ pitching competition and was the overall winner for Gauteng. He will be competing against the rest of the national winners to stand a chance to go through to the final round in the Netherlands in November. The Design Institute has introduced him to the top developer of wireless products in South Africa – Dennis Greenwood – and to the chief executive of Incredible Connection to further develop the commercial aspects of his business case for the laptop bag. Mothwa recently pitched his ideas to the City of Tshwane to great acclaim.

Time will tell whether design initiatives such as the Counterpoint programme, the World Design Capital, the Innovation Summit and others will become the fuel that will drive the rise in Africa’s fortunes. There might be indeed be a day when Africa is the door on which global citizens and companies knock when it comes to innovation, and it might happen sooner than we think.

design.sabs.co.za

This article is part of a larger supplement. This has been paid for by the M&G‘s advertisers and the contents signed off by the organisers of the Innovation Summit