A.H.M. Leliveld

The effects of restrictive South African migrant labor policy on the survival of rural households in southern Africa : a case study from rural Swaziland

Abstract Using survey data from Swaziland, this article investigates how a possible restrictive South African migrant labor policy might affect the survival of rural households in Swaziland. The main finding is that in the short run relatively “young” households, with few working members and a weak economic position in the local rural economy, are among the most vulnerable. In the long run the survival of most Swazi households with migrants in South Africa will be at stake given the meager prospects for returning migrants to find employment in Swaziland.

Frugal Innovation in Africa: Tracking Unilever's Washing-powder Sachets

Western-based multinational enterprises (MNEs) have played a major role in the introduction and marketing of new products and services in Africa?s consumer markets. Frugal innovations are the result of the recent ambitions of mostly MNEs to design and sell products for and to consumers at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP). This chapter presents a case study which suggests that better collaboration with African partners in order to supply goods to the BoP in a profitable way is of great importance. The OMO sachets were a success from a sales perspective and turnover increased greatly over figures from the early 1990s due to the introduction of the more affordable economy-sized sachets. Finally, the chapter considers whether, by addressing frugal innovation for Africa, product innovations brought into Africa by foreign parties can increasingly become influenced and transformed a priori by Africans, before the products have entered the African market. Keywords: Africa; Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP); frugal innovation; OMO sachets; Western-based multinational enterprises (MNEs)

Transforming Innovations in Africa

In Transforming Innovations in Africa the authors explore how external innovations (products, technologies, services, institutions and processes) that were envisaged, developed and designed elsewhere, came to be innovatively and sometimes unexpectedly appropriated and transformed within Africa.

Frugal Innovation and Development Research

This article sets the scene for a special issue on why frugal innovations are increasingly important for development research. While the top-down business and management literature on frugal innovation has claimed developmental relevance, we give at least equal importance to much longer-standing bottom-up development studies discourses on grass-root innovation, bricolage, and livelihood strategies. We argue that we need both literatures for a better understanding of how frugal innovations relate to development. Accordingly, we position the articles in this special issue in the frugal innovation and development debate. Finally, we discuss the relevance of a frugal innovation lens in how two major global trends are impacting upon global development opportunities: the global diffusion of 3rd and 4th Industrial Revolution digital technologies and global population dynamics. We consider these two trends to be major entries for future research on frugal innovation and development.Cet article pose le décor pour un numéro spécial sur les raisons pour lesquelles les innovations frugales sont de plus en plus importantes pour la recherche sur le développement. Tandis que la littérature “top-down” du monde des affaires et de la gestion au sujet de l’innovation frugale a revendiqué une pertinence dans le monde du développement, nous donnons au moins autant d’importance aux messages bien plus anciens, portés par les études “bottom-up “sur le développement, à propos d’innovation à base communautaire, de bricolage et de stratégies de subsistance. Par conséquent, nous placerons les articles de ce numéro spécial dans le débat sur l’innovation frugale et le développement. Nous soutiendrons que nous avons besoin des deux littératures pour mieux comprendre comment les innovations frugales sont liées au développement. En outre, nous discuterons brièvement de la pertinence d’adopter une perspective d’innovation frugale dans l’analyse de la façon dont deux grandes tendances mondiales impactent les opportunités de développement international : la diffusion mondiale des technologies de la 3ème et 4ème révolution industrielle et la dynamique démographique mondiale. Nous considérions ces deux tendances comme thèmes majeurs pour de futures recherches en matière de innovations frugales et développement.