Sustainable and Inclusive Innovation Africa – SIIA
SIIA is an international research center that aims to enable evidence-based decision-making to accelerate sustainable and inclusive start-up ecosystem development in Africa.
Why we do what we do
Africa needs to accelerate its socio-economic development to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
~90%
of people living in extreme poverty in 2030 will live in Africa
Crespo-Cuaresma et al (2018)
~50%
of population in Sub-Saharan Africa have access to electricity
Worldbank World Development Indicators (2023)
~15%
of population in Africa faced acute food insecurity in 2023
Global Report on Food-Crises: Mid-Year Update (2023)
AfDB
- the African Development Bank has identified private sector invest-ment as a top priority area to lift transition countries out of fragility
African development Bank (2022)
3x
funding raised by African start-ups in 2022 vs 2019 with 4.4bn USD in 2022
The Big Deal – African deal database
The private sector and innovation is widely seen as key to the solution …
… but how it can optimally drive SDG impact is not well understood in the specific African context
90%
of the African labour force works in the informal sector vs 15% in OECD countries
African development Bank (2022)
8%
of the population in Africa go on to tertiary education after high school vs 84% in US
4km
of roads per 100km2 in Ethiopia vs 180km in Germany
+10
researchers featuring a diversity of backgrounds and having published in leading international journals, incl. Nature Energy, Research Policy
+4
leading research institutions: University of Oxford, Nuvoni Research Center Nairobi, ETH Zurich, University of Wuppertal
+3
impact streams structure the work of the research center: academic Research, Practioner engagement, Economic Consultancy
SIIA is a world-class research programme which studies how different types of innovation drive sustainable development impact in Africa
Lean more about SIIA
Our work is funded and supported by
