The Power of COVID-19 Innovation in Developing Countries
Though the ongoing pandemic has brought suffering and economic hardship, the need for immediate solutions to save lives and regain economic stability has sparked unforeseen innovation. Since January 2020, the public, private and philanthropic sectors have mobilized $9 billion for the development of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostic tools.
Contrary to popular belief, innovation in response to COVID-19 has not solely occurred in developed nations. A global study of a thousand new technologies or modifications of existing technologies developed in response to the pandemic found that African innovators were responsible for 12.8% of these solutions. Emerging economies are a crucial source of innovation that should not be underestimated by developed nations. Investors should fuel the promising talent in developing countries, as their discoveries can benefit us all.
Innovators in emerging economies typically operate under strict resource constraints; this forces solutions that are inexpensive, easy to manufacture, and applicable across different climates and geographies. Scientists in Senegal have developed a $1, ten-minute COVID-19 test that does not require any laboratory equipment to administer. Medical experts in Rwanda have also created an algorithm that allows them to determine the optimal size for COVID-19 pooled testing. While governments of developing nations can implement these innovations, some can be used to accelerate processes and lower costs in industrialized countries.
A lack of resources similarly forces innovators in emerging economies to repurpose, rethink, or improve existing solutions for new challenges. In Ghana, a company specializing in spraying crops, AcquahMeyer Drone Tech, repurposed its drones to disinfect open-air markets and public spaces. This example offers a lesson on how nations can save time and resources by leveraging existing infrastructures into new solutions.
Certain African countries have also drawn from their experience with the Ebola epidemic to respond to COVID-19. For example, Ghana’s reuse of Veronica buckets. These simple washing stations are incredibly useful in remote areas as they do not require running water. Similarly, Sierra Leone has repurposed the advanced community contact tracing approaches it developed during the Ebola epidemic. Sierra Leone’s contact tracing system focuses on identifying cases, notifying contacts, and facilitating safe quarantines by providing meals and housing for families to isolate. The State of Massachusetts, inspired by Sierra Leone, designed the Massachusetts Contract Tracing Collaborative, the first large-scale contract tracing program in the United States. Developing nations’ experiences with past epidemics have thus enabled them to develop tools to better overcome the current health crisis.
Emerging economies like Cuba have also demonstrated comparable research expertise by developing their own COVID-19 vaccines. Cuba has thirty years of experience in biotechnology and immunology, notably producing the world’s first meningitis B vaccine. Despite minimal access to the latest technology, Cuba’s vaccine, Soberana 2, is currently undergoing clinical trials. If deemed effective by the international medical community, this vaccine would be a significant step towards controlling the pandemic in developing nations; it does not have stringent refrigeration or mobility requirements that complicate distribution in remote areas. These medical advances are just a glimpse of the extraordinary innovative activity in developing nations.
The pandemic has not only highlighted the innovative capacity of developing countries, but also the power of large-scale, international collaboration. While competition plays an important role in driving innovation, global knowledge sharing can help strengthen COVID-19 innovation and broaden its reach. To contain the spread of the virus, it is critical that innovators ensure their solutions are accessible to other nations so they can redirect their resources to other areas of the COVID-19 response. Chilean innovators have set an example for knowledge-sharing by creating an unpatented, inexpensive COVID-19 test, purposefully allowing other countries to use their technology. International organizations have also established mechanisms to ease and promote cooperation, such as the WHO Regional Office for Africa which created a database of innovations and a COVID-19 technology access pool to share intellectual property and data.
In addition to cooperation, innovation demands strong investment and adapted policy frameworks. Though developing nations have strong human capital, they require investments to improve and implement their innovations. A study by the World Intellectual Property Organization revealed that in 2017, high-income countries invested nearly five times more in R&D than middle and low-income countries, excluding China. Developing nations must also implement policies that promote entrepreneurship and research. Low and middle-income countries display an incredible capacity for innovation, but they will not attain further research and development capabilities without the support of investors and a set of policy tools that bolster innovation.
COVID-19 has spurred unprecedented levels of innovation, driving individuals across the globe to develop solutions that address the challenges of this health and economic crisis. Innovators in developing nations have been a crucial player in this landscape, promoting radical solutions that are often inexpensive to manufacture and can function in remote, low-resource environments. It is important to not romanticize scarcity and invest in the innovative capacities of developing countries — benefiting both the developed and developing world.