Omwansa Calls for Systemic Action to Close Africa's Research-to-Impact Gap
Africa has built dynamic innovation ecosystems, but too many promising solutions fail to reach the populations they are designed to serve. That was the central argument advanced by Dr. Tonny Omwansa, Head of Secretariat of the Innovation Agencies in Africa (IAA) Network, at the launch of the BioSustainability Design Programme in Nairobi on 16 April 2026. Delivering the keynote address, Dr. Omwansa argued that the critical deficit is not the absence of ideas or research capacity, but the connective infrastructure required to move innovations across institutions, sectors, and borders at scale.
A Structural Deficit, Not a Capacity Gap
East Africa's innovation landscape has undergone measurable transformation over the past decade, with significant expansion in startup activity, increased institutional investment in entrepreneurship, and growing policy recognition of innovation as central to economic transformation. Yet the translation of research outputs into viable, scalable solutions remains persistently weak.
Dr. Omwansa was direct in his diagnosis. "We have strong ideas. We have capable researchers," he told the audience. "Systems to facilitate the translation are not strong, and too often, innovative solutions fail to reach the people they are intended to serve in a scaleable and sustainable manner." The causes, he argued, are specific and addressable: "They are not grounded in user needs. They are not tested in real environments."
Sub-Saharan Africa's research and development expenditure remains at approximately 0.38 percent of GDP, well below the African Union's one percent target, constraining the depth and durability of research-to-market pipelines across the region.
The Role of Ecosystem Architecture
Dr. Omwansa framed the challenge not as a failure of individual innovators or institutions, but as a deficit in ecosystem architecture. Effective innovation systems require functional linkages between academia, industry, government, and communities, as well as institutional actors capable of coordinating those linkages at a regional level.
On the role of the private sector, he was particularly pointed: "It is an end user of innovation adoption. It is a co-creator of solutions. It is an accelerator of solutions." He added that private sector engagement "helps ensure that innovation is grounded in demand, shaped by real constraints" and "gravitates innovation towards self-sustainability."
On academia, Dr. Omwansa noted the growing pressure on universities to move beyond knowledge production: "They must actively engage with industry and entrepreneurs to ensure that research translates into solutions that reach people." He concluded that "strong academia-industry linkages are therefore not optional. They are essential."
Need-Driven Methodology as a Design Principle
The BioSustainability Design Programme, funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation with a budget of up to DKK 97 million and implemented through the WFP IGNITE Innovation Hub in East Africa, applies a need-driven innovation methodology anchored in the Stanford BioDesign process. Participants begin with problem identification rather than solution development, and engage directly with stakeholders across the food systems value chain.
Dr. Omwansa described the programme as "built on a need-driven innovation approach, a problem-based approach, starting not with solutions, but with problems," adding that it "brings innovators into direct engagement with stakeholders across the value chain and applies human-centered design principles that emphasize testing, iteration, feedback, and refinement."
Implications for Policy and Institutional Practice
For national innovation agencies and development funders, the programme offers a replicable model integrating academic rigour, private sector engagement, venture development support, and regional network infrastructure. As Dr. Omwansa summarised the ambition: "If we get this right, we can unlock a powerful pipeline. From research, to innovation, to enterprise, to regional impact."