Systemic policy instruments for inclusive innovation systems: Case study of a maternal mHealth project in South Africa

Abstract

Innovation for inclusive development refers to the development of products and services for and/or by marginalized communities with the aim of improved economic and social welfare. Innovation systems present a framework for analyzing actors, institutions, interlinkages and societal subsystems that contribute to the emergence of innovation for inclusive development. However, the innovation system framework requires a re-orientation as an analytical tool to 1) support a systematic process towards identifying barriers to inclusiveness 2) systematically define the root cause of systemic problems or barriers for innovation for inclusive development, and finally, 3) to provide a framework against which to formulate systemic policy interventions that systematically enhance the environment for innovation for inclusive development.The main contribution of this article is to deduce a systemic policy intervention framework and roadmap towards developing more inclusive innovation systems. We explore policy interventions to position innovation systems more inclusively by considering a case study of a large-scale maternal mHealth project (MomConnect) in South Africa. The article concludes that the use of a systemic policy intervention framework, as derived in this paper, may greatly enhance the design of large-scale projects and innovation systems towards improved inclusivity.