Sustainable Development Strategy Using Indigenous Knowledge and Entrepreneurship

Abstract

The slow rate of economic and sustainable development in developing countries has been an issue of interest to researchers, policy makers and foreign direct investors. This conceptual paper supports the view that indigenous knowledge applied by indigenous entrepreneurs and the resulting grassroots innovations they generate provide an unexploited idiosyncratic source of growth which hold great potential for delivering sustainable development. It advocates the need to substitute prevailing top-down development strategies for more collaborative bottom-up engagements, as grassroots innovations have been known to deliver sustainability benefits in areas where top-down measures wrestle. Home-grown solutions tend to be more sustainable and readily acceptable since they use locally available resources and incorporate the socio-cultural values and interests of the local population. The paper thus argues that indigenous entrepreneurs provide an opportunity to imbibe conventional strategies with more sustainable indigenous practices. It concludes by advocating the need to integrate indigenous knowledge systems and mainstream knowledge systems as a means of attaining sustainable development as well as developing effective, low-cost and ecosystem friendly production and consumption patterns. The implications for research, policy makers and foreign direct investors are discussed.