Geographical Indication (GI) options for Ethiopian Coffee and Ghanaian Cocoa

Frameworks for Analysing African Innovation
ILO measured informal employment using the residual method, which assessed
existing statistical data from population censuses, labour force surveys and/or
household surveys, and compared countries according to international benchmarks
(ILO, 1993). In recent years, the OECD has begun to give greater emphasis
to country-specific innovation surveys than to international comparisons,
because the former are seen as more effective tools for policy-making and business
planning to facilitate the building, sharing and application of new knowledge
(OECD and Eurostat, 2005).
However, Fred Gault (2010) has highlighted the fact that, in many developing
countries, measuring innovation in the IE is not amenable to standard innovation
surveys. Gault has proposed the use of case studies, based on structured
interviews, as an alternative research approach. According to Gault, “ [t]he results
may highlight the need, for example, to treat agriculture as a knowledge-based
industry in a global world, rather than a subsistence activity, or the need to protect
indigenous knowledge so that its use can continue to benefit the community that
has developed it over time” (Gault, 2010, p. 133).
5. A framework for development through IP
Parallel to the emergence of a heterogeneous literature on innovation, entrepreneurship
and the IE, researchers have constructed an increasingly sophisticated
definition of “development” as encompassing not simply economic growth, but
more fundamentally, the promotion of human freedom. For example, Amartya
Sen (1999) focuses on political, economic and social rights and opportunities
that advance the capabilities of the individual. Martha Nussbaum (2000; 2011)
argues for an approach whereby all people are afforded a minimum threshold
of capabilities, including bodily health and integrity, as well as control over their
environments. Thus, while economics is still heavily influential in theories of
development, it no longer dominates policy discourse. The dialogue has become
infused with international affairs, political science and law (including IP law).
There is now concerted reflection on how innovation can best contribute
towards achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by
2015. Calestous Juma and Lee Yee-Cheong (2005) have highlighted the important
role that innovation and innovation policy can play in this regard. Juma and Yee-
Cheong stress that innovation has the potential to increase the ability of existing
science, technology and innovation programmes to reduce poverty and expand
human capabilities, particularly in the areas of public health, agriculture, energy
use and information and communication technologies (ICTs). Development
scholars have also begun to explore how innovation can contribute solutions to
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