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Disruptive innovation for inclusive renewable policy in sub-Saharan Africa: A social shaping of technology analysis of appliance uptake in Rwanda.

ABSTRACT: Rural off-grid renewable energy solutions often fail due to uncertainties in household energy demand, insufficient community engagement, inappropriate financial models and policy inconsistency. Social shaping of technology (SST) of household appliances provides a critical lens of understanding the involved socio-technical drivers behind these constraints. This study employs an SST lens to investigate appliance uptake drivers in 14,580 households in Rwanda, such that these drivers can aid in policy design for green growth at the grassroots level. The methodology includes an epistemological review of non-income drivers of appliance uptake. Empirical analysis using a binary logistic regression, based on which disruptive innovation pathways were derived for fostering green growth. Results showed that appliance uptake was highly gendered and skewed across the Ubudehe (social welfare) categories. ICT-devices like mobile phones and radios had a higher likelihood of ownership than welfare appliances like refrigerator and laundry machines. Fans and cookers also demonstrated a greater probability of ownership. Disruptive innovation pathways were derived from leveraging the ICT-driven wave of appliance ownership, creation of service sectors through off-grid renewable solutions and promoting cleaner fuel-switching of cooking energy at the household level. Further policy implications were drawn to support the creation of consumption identities for green growth.

SUBMITTER: Muza O

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7893685 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:The Lisbon Strategy was adopted by the Heads of State and Government of the European Union (EU) in 2000. By moving science into a central position for the development of a European knowledge-based economy and society, its adoption at political level seems to have been a powerful catalyst for the increased involvement of scientists in science policy in the EU. Recognising the need for scientists to act collectively in order to contribute to shape the future of science policy in Europe, a pioneering group of European science organisations leaders and representatives, as well as other scientists, initiated a European, interdisciplinary, inclusive movement leading to the creation of the European Research Council (ERC) to support basic research of the highest quality. Having scientists' campaign for the funding of bottom-up research by the EU Framework Programmes exclusively on scientific grounds, and for an ERC, was a unique event in the recent history of European science policy. For the first time, the scientific community acted collectively and across disciplinary or national boundaries as a political actor for the sake of a better science policy for Europe. As is often the case when first-hand experience is gained through the creation of a new organization, novel forms of collaboration arise. The European biomedical community has recently proposed the creation of a strategic action plan for health research (the European Council of Health Research; EuCHR), provisionally translated at present into a Scientific Panel for Health (SPH) research in Horizon 2020, the EU's research-funding programme for the period 2014-2020. The creation of such Scientific Panel should be viewed as an important contribution by the biomedical community as a major political agreement has been reached on the need for a comprehensive and long-term scientific strategy to accelerate research and facilitate innovation at EU level. It is our belief that describing and analyzing the process leading to the creation of the ERC and SPH (2002-2014) should be widely shared with the research community in general, as this may contribute to the understanding of the evolving relations between scientists and science-policy making.

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Disruptive innovation for inclusive renewable policy in sub-Saharan Africa: A social shaping of technology analysis of appliance uptake in Rwanda.

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