Main results of the South African Innovation Survey 2005

A survey undertaken on behalf of DST by CeSTII

It is widely accepted that innovation is key to economic growth. Countries where research and innovation are high on the national agenda are best suited to prosper in the knowledge-based economy. Conversely, countries whose economies are mainly dependent on natural resources and basic industries tend to lack competitiveness and flexibility in adapting to changing global trends. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has long been concerned with the measurement of research and experimental development (R&D) and innovation activities.

This, the third book in a trilogy studying transformation in post-apartheid South Africa, follows on two studies published in 2000: Infrastructure Mandates for Change and Empowerment through Service Delivery. This volume, with the help of 15 case studies, assesses the prospects for empowerment through economic transformation in South Africa.

One of the greatest challenges South Africa faces is rural poverty and education. This book graphically illustrates the conditions that make the dreams of a better life for all virtually unrealisable in rural areas. Through the voices of rural people themselves, the reader is told not only what the problems are but also what can and should be done. Emerging Voices is a richly documented portrait of the lives of communities in selected rural areas, and specifically their thoughts and feelings about education. It is a book that can come at no better time as South Africa is poised to launch a major offensive against poverty in rural areas. Education, this book shows, must be a central component of such an initiative. Collectively, the chapters illustrate the complexity, interconnectedness and intractability of the challenges that face rural communities and education in South Africa in particular and less developed countries more generally.

For a long time economists have warned that abundant natural resources are bad for economic development because their exploitation stunts manufacturing exports, favours rent-seeking activities by politically well-connected people, and generally leads to unsustainable policies for which, as so often, the poor end up paying the price with lost growth and opportunity. But over the last few years the so-called resource curse has been revisited as historically uninformed, theoretically unsatisfactory, empirically incorrect, and largely useless for development policy.