Innovation Champions Model for Sustainable Rural Local Economic Development: A South African Case Study

Abstract

Abstract In 2019, the South African Governmental Agencies introduced the programme, termed innovations champions for local economic development (IC4LED), which involves the placement of trained personnel into selected rural municipalities to jumpstart local economic development (LED) in these under-resourced areas. Since its inception, the programme was introduced in only two municipal districts, namely, Vhembe (Limpopo Province) and O.R. Tambo (Eastern Cape Province) District Municipalities with the assistance of the partner Universities of Venda (UNIVEN) and Walter Sisulu (WSU), respectively. Recently, Zululand District Municipality and its partner Zululand University were invited to participate in the programme. The function of the partner universities is to recruit and train Innovation Champions (IC) and place them in LED Units of Municipalities to serve as coordinators between innovators/entrepreneurs and University, government agencies and other stakeholders. ICs also assess the commercialisation potential of the innovations/entrepreneurial ideations and process for inclusion into the local, regional, national and international value chains with the purpose of advancing sustainable LED. The chapter attempts through the document analysis involving the thematic content method to assess the effectiveness of IC4LED approach in promoting sustainable rural livelihoods and LED. The documents analysed include government agencies, Municipalities’ Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) and University reports. Although IC4LED shows great potential, its implementation into the local government system is too slow arising out of skills shortages, lack of information and a sense of disconnect and apathy between stakeholders.