Open innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic policy responses in South Africa and Kenya.

Abstract

Most governments upscaled technological adaptations and integration into public service delivery during the COVID‐19 pandemic policy responses globally. This article analyzes the context of open innovation (OI) applications and initiatives that characterized public innovation trends and impacted government agencies' responses to contain different consequences of the COVID‐19 pandemic in four critical areas: economic recovery strategies, logistics and supply chain, digital health‐care partnerships, and collaborations. We show how policy responses increased the uptake and upscaling of OI strategies in Kenya and South Africa. In both countries, government agencies, among other things, upgraded innovative or created online integrated portals for instant data sharing and used knowledge management platforms to monitor the COVID‐19 pandemic prevalence in transportation systems and the delivery of vaccines. These enabled effective policy communication and tracing of COVID‐19 patients, organizing the population for the vaccination drive, and generating timely data for further action in the four mentioned sectors.Related ArticlesLachapelle, Erick, Thomas Bergeron, Richard Nadeau, Jean‐François Daoust, Ruth Dassonneville, and Éric Bélanger. 2021. “Citizens' Willingness to Support New Taxes for COVID‐19 Measures and the Role of Trust.” Politics & Policy 49(3): 534–65. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12404.Liu, Zezhao, and Zhengwei Zhu. 2021. “China's Pathway to Domestic Emergency Management: Unpacking the Characteristics in System Evolution.” Politics & Policy 49(3): 619–50. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12407.Pelizzo, Riccardo, and Abel Kinyondo. 2014. “Public Accounts Committees in Eastern and Southern Africa: A Comparative Analysis.” Politics & Policy 42(1): 77–102. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12062.