ISSUE 01 SSUE 1 2020...SOUTH AFRICA - HOW WE ARE DOING THE ROLE OF FORESIGHT CPSI IDEAS THAT WOR 11...

THE SOUTH AFRICAN PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION JOURNAL

VOL.10

2020ISSUE 01

2020SSUE 1

54PAGE awards &

accoladesPUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION AWARDS 2019

20PAGE public sector

innovationsLET’S TALK: A DIGITAL PLATFORM FOR PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST

08PAGE insights

WHY FORESIGHT MATTERS

AS A TOOL TO OPTIMISE INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY

UNDERSTAND DELIVERCREATE

ISSN:2075-6054

THE CENTRE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE INNOVATION (CPSI)The CPSI is mandated to develop innovative, sustainable and responsive models for improved service delivery. The work of the CPSI is guided by an understanding of innovation in a publicsector context as “the creation and implementation of new service delivery solutions (systems, processes, methods, models, products and services) resulting in significant improvements in outcomes, efficiency, effectiveness and quality”.

The CPSI facilitates the unearthing, development and implementation of innovative ideas within and throughout the public sector. It achieves this by facilitating pilot projects aimed at demonstrating the value of innovative solutions, and through activities that create an enabling environment within the public sector to support and sustain innovation. The CPSI’s cross-sector reach makes it a resource for the whole of government, thus bridging institutional boundaries.

Through active research and knowledge sharing platforms and products, the CPSI identifies and shares lessons and information on innovation trends nationally, across Africa and internationally. The CPSI partners with a range of individuals and institutions in government, business and communities in exciting and mutually beneficial ways. This partnership model allows us to leverage financial and/or intellectual capital in support of government priorities.

VISION: A solution-focused, effective and efficient Public Sector through innovation.

MISSION: To act as facilitator for the unearthing, development and practical implementation of innovative solutions within and throughout the public service.

MANDATE: • Provide the Minister for the Public Service and Administration with independent, diverse and forward-looking research findings and advice on innovative service delivery with a specific focus on government’s priorities.

• Enhance public service transformation through innovation partnerships for incubating, testing and piloting innovative solutions.

• Support the creation of an enabling environment for innovation within the structures and agencies of the South African government.

2 CPSI IDEAS THAT WORK

2.1 Ramping Up Innovation for Global Competitiveness

2.2 Why Foresight Matters

2.3 Design Thinking: A Tool to Optimise Innovation and Creativity

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Insights

1.1 From The Editor’s Desk

1.2 Editorial Team

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Editorial

3.1 Let’s Talk

3.2 Y-CAP

3.3 Kenya Plastic Pollution Solution

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Public Sector Innovations

5.1 SA Launches New Tax App

5.2 Announcement of Gauteng’s Top-Performing Primary Schools

5.3 Sniffer Dogs Taking on Africa’s Poachers

5.1 Human Waste on World Innovation Stage

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News Briefs

4.1 Ms Phuti Ragophala

4.2 Ms Shamila Ramjawan

4.3 Ms Tracey Bulmer

4.2 Ms Amanda Blankfield-Kosseff

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Getting to Know Innovation Trailblazers

ISSN:2075-6054

IDEAS THAT WORK: The South African Public Sector Innovation Journal is a biannual journal published by the CPSI.

ADDRESS:Batho Pele House, 546 Edmond Street, Arcadia, South Africa

Tel: +27 (12) 683 2800Fax: +27 (12) 643 [email protected]

6.1 Public Sector Innovation Awards Winners for 2019

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Awards and Accolades

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7.1 The New Science of Radical Innovation

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Book Review

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www.cpsi.co.za

An electronic copy of thisjournal can be downloaded from

3CPSI IDEAS THAT WORK

From now on, Ideas that Work will be available as a hardcopy at a limited scale for those who still marvel at the feel and smell of paper, and online on our organisation’s website cpsijournal.co.za This will be shared on social media as well.

editorial

FROM THE

EDITOR'S DESKWELCOME SEKWATI

Welcome to this edition of the South African Public Service Innovation Journal: Ideas That Work. This journal is compiled and published by the Centre for Public Service Innovation as a critical platform to drive innovation in the public sector in order to improve service delivery to citizens.

It is one thing talking about innova-tion but putting it into practice is, as you would appreciate, totally some-thing else. For quite a while now, the editorial team of Ideas that Work, has been mulling over the idea of going digital with this Publication. That time is now. Earlier this year, over and above the usual paper-based format, we launched an online platform as an alternative conduit for our wealth of articles and case studies for public servants and other interested readers continentally and globally.

Therefore, from now on, Ideas that Work will be available as a hard-copy at a limited scale though, for those who still marvel at the feel

and smellof paper, and online on our organisation’s website: cpsijournal.co.za, this will be shared on social media as well. This idea of diversifying our output of this publication is long overdue con-sidering the fact that many publishers worldwide have, for quite some time now, been publishing online. Not only is this a commendable move because of the number of people that we will reach henceforth, but, of crit-ical importance, we are adding our penny’s worth in supporting efforts to curb global warming by reducing our carbon footprint. But, more than that we are also practicing what we preach, innovation.


EDITORIAL TEAMBack to the issue at hand. Talking about innovation and being inno-vative, public officials have been at it again, pushing all frontiers work-ing on innovative solutions to solve service delivery challenges. In this edition, we feature a number of them including Let’s Talk, a digital platform that is meant to bridge the commu-nication gap between municipalities and communities, amongst others.

We also feature, based on presenta-tions made during our previous year’s Public Sector Innovation Conference, two highly engaging and inform-ative articles on Design Thinking and Foresight. The two concepts of Design Thinking and Foresight rep-resent the latest, foremost schools of thought which are highly critical in service delivery improvement, par-ticularly how our understanding of reality and its various nuances shapes the way we think and approach ser-vice delivery issues.

In the section on news briefs, we once again include some interesting and inspiring innovations by various people, mostly outside the public service, to solve challenges that they have observed, albeit around citizens as they go about their lives or indus-try, e.g. healthcare. These, and other stories that we feature, will hopefully inspire all of us to be proactive and constantly look for new and better ways of doing things, particularly now as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect the world and shape its des-tiny in ways never anticipated.

WELCOME SEKWATI

Deputy Director: Enabling Environment

LYDIA SEBOKEDI

Executive Director (acting)

PIERRE SCHOONRAAD

Chief Director: Research and Development

LINDANI MTHETHWA

Chief Director: Solution Support and Incubation

MMABATHO MASHABA

Deputy Director:Communications

NSIZWA DLAMINI

Deputy Director: Innovation Research

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WHY FORESIGHT MATTERS

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Public Sector Innovations

LET’S TALK

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insights

DESIGN THINKING

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RAMPING UP INNOVATION FORGLOBALCOMPETITIVENESSWHAT PUBLIC OFFICIALS NEED TO DOBy Mr Senzo Mchunu, Minister for the Public Service and Administration, MP

t is important that we all recognise and acknowledge the role of innovation as an integral part of our thinking and doing things in the public sector. While not a silver bullet, innovation can certainly help tackle numerous challenges, such as violence against women and children, combating corruption, providing healthcare, and delivering quality education.

Anyone who underestimates the role of innovation and its relevance for the survival and development of countries and advancement of humanity, does that at their own peril. Innovation continues to play a pivotal role throughout the globe. This has been brought to the fore by the arrival of the 4th Industrial Revolution, which demands a rethinking of how we approach things, including service delivery.

It is crucial that as a government and the Ministry for the Public Service and Administration, in particular through the CPSI, we promote innovation by

embracing new technologies to modernise our systems and processes in order to meet the needs of people living in South Africa.

According to data from the Global Innovation Index, an international body involved in surveying develop-ment around innovation throughout the globe, Switzerland, Sweden, the United States, the Netherlands, and Canada are world leaders in innovation, followed closely by a number of countries in Asia.

These countries are regarded as part of the advanced world and lead in many fields and aspects of life, such as health and education. The countries that are ahead within the innovation space invest strongly in research and innovation to advance growth and development.

INNOVATION AT A GLOBAL, CONTINENTAL AND NATIONAL LEVELI

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relentless effort to harness and new approaches, such as strategic foresight and design thinking to help us accelerate our transforma-tion, growth, and development. We need to consistently revisit our policy and regulatory frameworks to update them to ensure flexibility and ongoing relevance to the present-day reality. This means being innovative and visionary enough to conjure up new solutions and approaches that respond to the prevailing realities.

The task of the CPSI should include coming up with innovative ways of recognising innovation and encourage its application and practice throughout the public service. The CPSI needs to move beyond recognising innovation by also providing thought-leader-ship and expertise to drive it. For that to happen, CPSI needs to be better positioned and resourced to make sure that they do their work effectively and efficiently. It needs to be capacitated to help the public service as a whole to nurture innovators and initiators, who will take our country to a higher trajectory in terms of innovation

As Africans in the sub-Saharan region, we need to learn to move faster and more decisively. Importantly, what is required at an individual level is a change of mindset – we need to push the boundaries and move beyond our comfort zones.

We need to embrace innovation and avoid being stuck in archaic ways of doing things. We must always be ready to experiment with innovative and advanced ways of delivering services effectively and efficiently to put our country on a developmental trajectory.

We need to work hard to shed the age-old stigma attached to public officials, either through their own making or otherwise, where to the public, we are generally known for being forever lethargic, lazy, and absent from work. The Batho Pele principles compel us to show absolute dedication and commitment to serving citizens at all times.

Innovation is also a critical enabler when it comes to the achievement of the seven priorities of government, as outlined by the president. As public servants, we need to explore innovative ways to achieve these priorities. This is precisely the time to be innovative and creative, so that we can turn our misfortunes into fortunes.

It is only when we turn against corruption - when we embrace high standards of ethical conduct in the public service – that we open up space for innovation. For our country to realise a complete turnaround, it requires a progressive, visionary mentality and a concerted effort to free ourselves from the grips of corruption, ‘siloism’, and an aversion to change. Being part of the global village requires that we ramp up our efforts to be competitive for the sake of South Africans who yearn for a better life. Therefore, with the commitment to build an effective and efficient public service as a progres-sive, long-term mandate, it requires a

A CHANGE OF MINDSET TO DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY

IN CLOSING

Mr Senzo Mchunu,Minister for the Public Service and Administration, MP


By Dr. Geci Karuri-Sebina, Visiting Research Fellow at the Wits School of Governance and an Associate with the South African Cities Network

You see things, and you say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were, and I say ‘Why not?’

- George Bernard Shaw

ITS ROLE AND IMPACT IN POLICY, PLANNING, AND PRACTICE

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FORESIGHT


As African policymakers, public administrators, and development practitioners, we face contexts that are both complex and complicated to plan around. The realities of our contexts are an accumulation of actors and issues that may manifest uniquely at a hyper-local level, and generally lack any useful anteced-ent or documented methodology or textbook approach for how to deal with them. This reality does not affect policymakers only; it also applies to those at all levels of practice.

Futurist Jim Dator theorised that there are four basic ways in which people tend to think about the future, resulting in what he terms the four archetypical futures: • There are those who think about

the future in terms of collapse: they think that the trajectory they are on is not sustainable, and thus everything is going to fall apart eventually. This is the typical dystopian, doom-and-gloom future.

• Then there is the continuity group, who think that the future will be business as usual: they believe that life may have its ups and downs, but that ultimately, people always find a way to prevail as they have over the years. For them inertia can be sustained.

• The Disciplinarians believe in human beings’ capacity to self-discipline so as to ensure their survival. So, we will somehow find a way to change ourselves and our behaviours to suit the context so as to be resilient.

• The last group believes in transformative futures - that human beings have the capacity to quantum-leap themselves and/or their conditions to a vastly different state, which may change everything.

INTRODUCTION

THE ROLE OF FORESIGHT IN THE AGENDA OF GOVERNMENT

In many organisations where people are employed, including government institutions, there are all kinds of balanced scorecards or performance agreements that set out outputs expected from each employee. Globally, countries are similarly subscribed to various charters that bind them to certain deliverables over a period of time; typically, the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); continen-tally, African Union (AU) Agenda 2063; and locally, the National Development Plan 2030 (NDP).

The NDP serves as a roadmap or blueprint that seeks to put South

Africa on a growth trajectory. Vision 2030, which is contained within the National Development Plan, spells out a number of targets that have to be achieved by 2030. These include job creation, infrastructure develop-ment, promoting a green economy, quality education, healthcare for all, combatting corruption, building a capable state, and building a cohesive society. However, while South Africa may have covered significant ground in terms of its NDP project, there is still a lot that has to be done to deal with many of the legacies that have long characterised the country.

How do we tackle our complex reality if these are the four pre-exist-ing archetypal ways in which the future tends to be construed? Can we possibly consider a future reality that is more open-ended, or are we fixed into tunnel vision? In my opinion, working within any complex context fundamentally requires the unleashing of imaginations, getting more creative, and enhancing open engagement by civics to help us gain a richer and less inhibited perspec-tive of the future.

Particularly, as South Africans, or more broadly as Africans, our way of viewing the future should reflect many imagined possibilities because our possibilities are in many ways hitherto unimagined and unprece-dented. It can be argued that our possible futures have been impinged upon over the ages at many levels – from coloniality, to societal, political, and economic upheavals, and more recently, by the impacts of technolog-ical and climate change.


What is common amongst these visions or blueprints is their convergence around a set of issues or development objectives that are perceivably universal. As a result, other than being ambiguous about their means, there is clarity of expression in what is expected to be achieved.

Similarly, many other countries have shown commitment to achieving these goals or targets and have invested significant resources to build their capacity to work towards that. One of the key areas that many of these countries have invested in is innovation. Innovation has become focal as a key lever, enabler, and catalyst and is described almost universally in terms of liveable towns and cities, vibrant economies characterised by growth and development, and sustainability in several dimensions, including ecological, environmental (climate change), social, and fiscal.

As reflected above, there is not much difference between South Africa and other world countries in terms of the kind of future they would like to achieve. Vision 2030, which is enshrined in South Africa’s National Development Plan (NDP), clearly sets out the critical targets that it suggests, which, if achieved, would put the country on a positive developmental trajectory.

THE SOUTH AFRICAN SITUATION

Currently, South Africa remains one of the - if not the - most polarised and unequal societies in the world, with the gap between the rich and poor continuing to grow even wider.

Furthermore, there are a myriad of other challenges in the country, which include ethnocentric divisions (racial, tribal, nationalist) amongst the communities, high disease rates, inadequate and inequitable education and healthcare systems, insufficient job opportunities or economic access, chronic corruption, and deteriorating infrastructure.

These c i rcumstances are compounded by other key factors, including a population that is growing, dynamic, and unevenly distributed as the major urban centres continue to grow at unprecedented rates. At the same time, the realities of climate change have already begun to affect the liveability and productiv-ity of many parts of the country as we face the vagaries of drought, floods, storms, and natural disaster.

These systemic challenges mean that the South Africa’s NDP project finds itself playing out in a specific and crippling context; one which is chequered, coloured, and full of biases and disparities. While this context could be attributed to legacy, the reality is that it is still germane now. No matter from whence or whom, we face circumstances and phenomena that we cannot ignore as we contemplate our futures.

This context rears its ugly head in many respects, including economi-cally, socially, and politically. For instance, South Africa has the sixth largest number of malls in the world, and alongside that there is a flourish-ing informal trade sector where the majority of people actually do their shopping.


Since the emergence of innovation as a critical enabler and catalyst for service delivery and government administration improvement, many countries across the world have done much to ramp up their capabil-ity using technology and other innovative responses. Similarly, South Africa has made considerable strides in harnessing innovation to turn the lives of its citizens around. However, despite all these efforts, world indices on innovation (such as the Global Innovation Index - GII) point to a rather lacklustre performance when compared with how some countries

I have already alluded to the government of South Africa facing the unenviable task of delivering services to citizens under very difficult conditions, many of which are deep legacies, including the bureaucracy. ‘Solutions’ in the sense of innovations are in great abundance, which can purportedly deliver more desirable futures.

However, the stakes are high given the many challenges to service delivery improvement, such as population dynamics; political administrative interface; the auditor general; the shrinking economy; looming austerity measures that are making it difficult to perform; climate change, which we are told has to be a priority; and the 4th Industrial Revolution, which is presented as both a problem and solution. All these factors inevitably demand a change in the approach of public servants to their work and to their perceptions of reality.

are doing.

While some African countries are improving in terms of innovation indices (for example, Rwanda and Kenya), there has been an apparent annual decrease in South Africa’s position. Yet there is no doubt that South Africa most likely has the best policies and plans on innovation in the region.

Upon interrogation – for example of the GII – what emerges is the seeming imbalance between our innovation inputs in terms of investments, which are undoubtedly the highest, given our relative economic status and our resultant innovation outputs, and outcomes. One of our stumbling blocks is, therefore, our innovation inefficiency. We tend to fail where it matters most; where we have to respond and account, the governance ends.

While both the formal and informal business modes generate compara-ble revenue in some cases, estimated at close to ten billion Rand in the case of a Sandton mall/Johannesburg CBD block comparison (Zack, 2018), the reality is that policy, planning, and futuring all fail to make much of the latter.

At play are modernist and traditional issues and other concerns, which, one may argue, are not adequately processed and engaged with. Therefore, the recurring question from entities like Oxfam about whether we are able to create a different kind of economy in lieu of our continued, blatant inequal-ity should be treated as a critical futuristic question. By questioning the future, we are able to probe and point to the possibility of alternative, imagined futures while, at the same time, prompting immediate policy analysis and action towards achieving new possibilities (Inayatullah, 2008).

Part of South Africa’s policy response has been the new Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) White Paper that was compiled by the Department of Science and Technology in 2018. Titled Science, technology and innovation enabling inclusive sustainable South African development in a changing world, the paper acknowledges the importance of sustainability and inclusion in ensuring government success in driving shared growth and develop-ment. Amongst its objectives, the paper sought to:

• Instil a culture of valuing science, technology, and innovation, and integrates STI into government planning and budgeting at the highest levels;

• Adopt a whole-of-government approach to innovation;

• Create an enabling and inclusive governance environment;

• Create a more innovation-enabling

environment;• Increase and transform NSI

human capabilities;• Expand and transform the

research system;• Expand and transform the institu-

tional landscape, and• Increase funding and funding

efficiencies.

The paper declares that, “Together, we need to create a new common sense and design an economy that benefits everyone, not just the privileged few. A new human economy that would create better and fairer societies, where workers would receive decent wages, women and men would be treated equally, children would have opportunities, and no-one would live in fear of the cost of falling sick.”

INNOVATION IN SOUTH AFRICA - HOW WE ARE DOING

THE ROLE OF FORESIGHT


As a country, South Africa requires a multi-pronged approach to innovation and foresight in how we engage with the challenges at hand. We have no choice but to act immediately to deal with our urgent challenges, many of which are historical and make life intoler-able for many in the present. Our current dilemma is that having barely scratched the surface in our attempt to deal with these, we also have to confront the pull of the future, which is very difficult indeed in the current context of such glaring inequality. As a result, our prospects of working for the future that we envisage becomes even more remote.

The Forward Engagement Project (Fuerth, 2009) offers that foresight for anticipatory governance should be considered as compound and systemic, and as both experimental and empirical. Foresight – the way forward – is posted as integrating four key constituent elements:

• Hindsight – which is an awareness of forces that originate in the past, carry through the present, and may persist into the future in some form but must always be understood to offer wisdoms that are temporary and local;

• Insight – which refers to self-awareness, including our unconscious biases and limitations;

• Topsight – which is sometimes also termed the ‘bird’s-eye view’, offering an awareness of the overall complex system, with all its parts, interlinkages, and interactions; and

• Prescience – which speaks to intuition and attunement to weak signals in ways that could possibly be enhanced through technologies, like artificial intelli-gence, but are usually an innate skill that some people have.

ANTICIPATION AND FORESIGHT


A systematic approach to foresight can contribute to making sense of and moving into and beyond some of the contextual and governance challenges that we confront. It may offer the possibility of engaging with the past in a rehabilitative way, while at the same time, address issues of the present to foreshadow the future and vice versa.

The futures study space offers a number of tributary fields, methods, theories, and capabilities that can be levered to support policy thinking and action. The idea of futures literacy has recently emerged through the studies of anticipation to suggest an essential capability that is crucial to understanding how we can “use the future” for anticipatory governance (Miller, 2018). It begins with engaging with our anticipatory systems and assumptions. These include the different understandings of how and why people hold certain impressions and hopes about their future – our opinions, desires, wishes and dreams.

Studying these makes it evident that we all have strong assumptions about the future, shaped by whatever circumstances and dispositions, and that we tend to project these onto the future. And it is most often the case that those assumptions that we hold about the future are hierarchical and very presumptive, while the real world is actually complex and emergent. What you see today, you could not have predicted 10 years ago. The future is actually unknowable.

If we can come to terms with this uncertainty, the theory is that it can be liberating and empowering to acknowledge that there are many influences on the future, and that these are in themselves complex and often contradictory. This humbling recognition allows us to open up the space of engaging with the future; offering the space of imagination to the many, and not just to the few.

Heterarchical, rather than hierarchical, engagements with the future would suggest that imaginaries about the future could come from top to bottom, or bottom to top, or side to side, or all of the above; that we could conceiv-ably democratise futuring, such that foresight becomes an all-inclusive process instead of the ludicrous and limiting idea that a hundred people will understand, imagine, plan, and deliver for a billion people.

Policymakers and practitioners additionally face the challenge of lacking historical data to fully inform their actions on crucial and emerging issues. The future is after all unknowable, and no two situations are ever exactly the same. We can – and do – use our past experiences and probabilities to develop plans, preparations, and contingencies. It is sensible to do so, as it is probably better to have imperfect plans than not to plan at all.

However, the crucial question is: How do we also free ourselves from our own biases and limitations in perceiv-ing the future? From viewing the world in terms of binary oppositions, that is, whether things can only seem similar or different, good or bad, normative or realistic, fatalistic or deterministic, projection and predication, black or white. How can we stop limiting our space of imagination and agency with the strictures of inadequate data, incrementalism, risk aversion, and ‘used’ futures?

Ultimately, the question is simply one of how we can get into a real space of novelty where we can imagine and create many different futures, particularly given that most of our establishments are hierarchical, imposing the kind of system where planning is done top-down, mostly involving a powerful, exclusive elite

of senior patriarchs whose ideas are imposed on the rest of the organisa-tion. In such a context, foresight will not transform the hierarchy but would more likely be used to reinforce it. We have to think seriously about the futures we want to see if we hope to see anything different.

Anticipatory governance does not stop only at the level of imagination, of course. It also requires attention to what happens next – to our processes, relentless and tireless efforts, behaviours, and institutions.

Foresight also provides a range of tools that may be helpful in these regards. Causal layered analysis, for example, is a method that enables us to dig deeper below superficial phenomena into what happens at the most fundamental levels – of culture, values and belief. The idea here is that to get into the upswing, where you can transform futures, where you can even imagine doing something different, you have to be able to engage and change the things at the very bottom.

You have to dig deep, ask those questions, speak that language, and have those imaginaries in order to engage and shift the trajectory of what you seek to do. It is otherwise very difficult and potentially meaning-less to try to change the surface behaviour – the symptoms – if you don’t systematically work into a process of deep change.

What futures literacy offers is a foundational capability in how we understand our engagement with the future as a basis for a wider action space in the present. And what foresight can offer policymakers and practitioners is a range of tools that can help us make sense of the tasks of governance in a contextualised, but not necessarily a context-bound, way.

The form the future takes in the present is anticipation- Riel Miller


AS A TOOL TO OPTIMISE INNOVATION AND CREATIVITYBy Mr Richard Perez, Founding Director, Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking at the

University of Cape Town

Things can get volatile and complex but they constitute the new normal. Ours is to make sense out of it.

- Albert Einstein

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BACKGROUNDthe behind-the-scenes design activity that went into developing them. The next step in the ladder represents those people whose apprecia-tion of design is purely at a styling or aesthetic level, such as colour, shape, and material. The next step in the ladder is where the focus shifts towards the value design can play in developing products and services; for example, the impact of service design in the financial and insurance sector.

As we move further up the ladder, the focus shifts towards the value design can play in the more abstract space. Here, the focus moves from the design of products and services towards the design of experiences, for instance, designing the right

DESIGN THINKING Design thinking has its roots in the design discipline. As with many other disciplines, design has been disrupted by technology and needed to discover new value propositions. Over the past 10 - 15 years, design thinking has become a prominent approach to addressing more complex and abstract challenges whilst yielding new ideas, interven-tions, and solutions.

The evolution of design thinking can best be illustrated using the Danish Design Ladder. Starting at the base of the ladder are people or individuals that generally have no appreciation for design i.e. they are surrounded by designed objects and experiences on a daily basis but they do not recognise

Every era has problems that are typically associated with it and the kind of solutions that would be relevant according to the demands of the time. However, relevant as such solutions might be, they would not necessar-ily be applicable in solving problems that might occur in the future. To solve problems of the future would require a change of approach and a kind of thinking that is different. How can this be done?


CREATIVITY AS A CORE SKILLTHE ORIGINS OF DESIGN THINKING

In the next step of the ladder, design becomes even more abstract, such as adding value to the development of strategies and policies. At this level, we see how design can be used as a way of working, a mindset or a way of co-creating that culminates into impactful and sustainable policies and strategies.

From time to time, the World Economic Forum (WEF) publishes a framework that focuses on skills of the future. In their 2015 publica-tion, WEF listed the 10 most critical skills that would be highly sought after in any workplace of the future. Of these, creativity was ranked number 10. For 2020, however, WEF’s prediction presented a completely different ranking, where complex problem-solving came out at number 1, followed by critical thinking, and creativity moving up to number 3.

Creativity is an inherent human quality found in all of us. From an early age, human beings are consist-ently explorative and experimental. However, this in-born ability is subsequently suppressed by the kind of education system that we are exposed to, as well as the many workplace environments we find ourselves in. Many young individuals go into the creative sector because of their ability to draw, ending up in professions such as architecture, product design, and graphic design. Through their formal education, their creativity is developed and nurtured

Design thinking has existed for many years. In 2003, it was popularised thanks to a team at Stanford University in the US who received funding from the founder of SAP (Hasso Plattner) to set up a school of design at the university. They produced a number of innovative programmes and numerous writings to popularise design thinking, explaining that the real value of design is found in the thinking process to get to the solution rather than the end solution itself.

The current value of design is now in considering what role it can play beyond simply developing products or services. This means going beyond the end object or service to focus on the actual thinking and mindset that delivered the end result. Anchored on the concept of empathy, design thinking is the journey that begins with understanding and exploring the problem space, knowing who your user is, what their needs are, and then moving through a journey of sense-making, idea development, idea building, and then idea testing.

in a very structured way. Those that do not follow that path miss out on the structured learnings of being creative and typically land up in non-creative sectors. However, creativity is a natural ability we have as humans, and it is important for us to realise that we all have the ability to be creative - it is just a matter of unlocking it and gaining back our creative confidence.

DESIGN THINKING AND DIVERSITY – THE AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE

With the establishment of the School of Design Thinking at the University of Cape Town (d-school), design thinking took on a broader dimension based on the African context. It seeks to leverage the rich diversity we have on the continent, which is a character-istic of African society. Fundamentally, innovation and creativity are located in the diversity of thinking; in the African context, there is multi-lay-ered diversity in culture. A lot of research initiatives corroborate the fact that Africa stands at a unique and advantageous position because of its diversity. Africa has the potential to lead from the front in design thinking because of the extra layers of diversity that it brings to the creative process. This diversity brings with it the unique ability to develop ideas and concepts that cannot be found anywhere in the world.

However, it is important to note that while thinking diversely is of critical importance, most important is the environment in which the thinking and activity takes place. The University of Cape Town’s School of Design Thinking has made it a point to create the kind of teaching and learning environment that makes everyone feel that they have a licence to think differently and explore without any fear of judgment. The d-school is fully interactive with a learning environ-ment that fosters creativity and co-creation.

The d-school runs numerous programmes, where students from various backgrounds and disciplines are taught the design thinking mindset and frameworks over a period of time. Core to the learning experience is the focus on a challenge for the student to work on. It is through finding solution to these complex challenges that the students are taught the design thinking mindset, resulting in innovative solutions that demonstrate the importance of diversity.

The Design Ladder (based on the Danish Design Centre, 2001)

STEP FOUR4

Design is a key strategic

element in our business model

DESIGN AS STRATEGYSTEP THREE

3Design is an integrated element in

development process

DESIGN AS PROCESSSTEP TWO

2Design is

used as finish, form-giving or styling in

new products/services

DESIGN AS FORM-GIVINGSTEP ONE

1Design is

not applied systematically

NON-DESIGN


SEEING THE WORLD THROUGH A DESIGN LENS

Designers frame a challenge through three distinct lenses. The first lens, which is typically where people limit their thinking is the ‘viability lens’. For example: “How much is that going to cost us to design?”; “What will the intervention cost us?”; “What would be the return on investment?”; “How much money is it going to save?”

The other lens that people often get caught in is the ‘feasibility lens’ i.e. the technology lens – limiting their solutions by asking the questions, such as: “What is the type of technology to be used, whether new or pre-existing, as well as cost implications?” In design thinking, we recognise these as being important constraints when identifying a solution, however, we enter the problem space firstly through the

‘desirability lens’ i.e. asking the questions: “What is the need that we are trying to solve for?”; “Who has this need?”, and “In which context does it exist?“ Using the desirability lens, we uncover the need behind the need, pain points, and challenges - but at a human level. This is typically what is called the human-centred component of design thinking.

The human component is one of the most important since it determines the kind of ideas that will address the needs and aspirations at a human level. The other two lenses are important constraints but brought into the process a little later. Too much preoccupation with address-ing constraints often results in the deployment of solutions that do not meet the need of the end user. Billions of Rands often get spent on products that never see the light of day as they never addressed a real need.

When addressing real needs, it is important to move from the explicit to the meaning. That is, forming a conclusion based on a deduction from an observation, which is usually inferred. Design thinking encourages engaging with the end user, develop-ing insights, and empathy to really understand the need behind the need. This will ensure the design of a solution that takes into consideration a comprehensive context about the person and the real need that they have.

Design thinking is also about striking a balance between reflection and action. It is important to ‘bathe in the problem’ and take time to explore and reframe the problem space before jumping into solution mode. However, with its focus on bias to action, we should not waste too much time but move as fast as we can into building and testing hypotheses – as the sooner you build and test something, the sooner you are really going to learn whether you are on the right trajectory to solving it.

Design thinking also emphasises the importance of action over words. It may be called ‘design thinking’ but it is really ‘design doing’. This bias to action results in the develop-ment of rapid prototypes in the form of physical models to help the students understand whether they are addressing the right problem or not. However, this does not rule out the importance of critical thinking and rigours discussion and debate.

One of the most important aspects in design thinking is the value that it attaches to co-creation and collabo-rative thinking. Accordingly, design thinking promotes the notion of ‘we’. It is about bringing together teams of people in a true trans-disciplinary space – where the key words shift from the egotistic ‘I’ to multi-discipline, inter-discipline, and transdisciplinary. We move from the ‘silo’ effect towards resource combination, interaction, and trans-interactive spaces that accommodate diversity. Modern-day challenges are more complex and, thus, cannot be solved through single disciplines alone but rather through the interaction of multi-disciplinary teams that work together. Besides the innovation that comes from the process, team effectiveness and co-creation are other key outcomes. However, the main challenge is to ensure proper training to function at that level.

As part of the learning journey, students training at the d-school are given a variety of problems or challenges to work on, e.g. how men might contribute towards stopping violence against women and children. All problems in design thinking are treated and framed as design challenges. The students spend their time at the d-school working in teams on these challenges whilst at the same time, building their competencies in design thinking. Design thinking leads to identifying tangible, innovative interventions into the problem space that ultimately lead to a shift or change in the norm.

While many people understand design thinking to just be a process, it, in fact, requires a much larger ecosystem to be fully effective. This ecosystem does comprise of the need for a process i.e. some sort of structure/framework to follow. However, also critical is the adoption of multi-disciplinary teams (to ensure diversity of thinking), and finally, a physical and flexible space in which to practice the work. This is not an approach that can be done in traditional meeting rooms as using incorrect spaces can prevent the creativity, collaboration, and co-crea-tivity in a team.


• It tolerates ambiguity and failure. Design thinking embraces failure as part of the learning and understanding journey.

• It encourages and stimulates visualisation as a platform for co-creation, communication, and sharing.

• It has a very strong user-centred component and involvement. It promotes engagement to accommodate different views and inputs, particularly in the public sector where citizen participation is critical.

• It drives creativity and innovation. By embracing divergent thinking, it allows us to think creatively and in unconstrained ways.

• It supports iteration and experimentation, where the solution is allowed to emerge over time; where each step of the way you are de-risking the ideas and testing assumptions in a risk-managed environment.

• Design thinking also promotes intensive analysis at critical times of the process.

• Design thinking promotes a holistic systems view. This is primarily about looking at a problem within its context and understanding the inter-relation-ships with the various parts.

DIVERGENT THINKING AND CONVERGENT THINKING

DESIGN THINKING AS A MINDSET

Divergence and convergence are key concepts in design thinking. During the process, you will follow both a divergent thinking process as well as a convergent thinking process. Divergent thinking is about explora-tion and discovery, whilst convergent thinking is about synthesis and making choices. Each person has their own inherent comfort zones and as such, it can feel like an uncomfortable journey for many. For example, with its bias to action, we often need to make decisions based on incomplete or conflicting data, which is a very uncomfortable experience for many people.

The design thinking journey can be messy to start with, where one needs to have patients as the solution emerges over time. The journey emphasises the importance of embracing failure as a key strategic factor that contributes to eventual success.

Design thinking is about a different way of working. There are many tools and methods and, of course, action. But of greater importance is developing the correct mindset, which ultimately takes on board the issue of culture applicable to both the individual and organisation. It advocates for a culture change from siloism to collaborative working. The key benefits of design thinking include:

• Design thinking promotes collabo-ration and working together. It enables different departments and disciplines to come together and work collectively on common problems.


In order for design thinking to thrive in an organisation, one should look at it from a balanced perspective. Accordingly, organisations are typically viewed through two lenses, i.e. those that are more attuned to analytical thinking and those that are more attuned to intuitive thinking.

Organisations that, according to their internal culture, are too analytical in thinking, are very linear, very rational, very structured, and convergent; making sense of things using the inductive and deductive logic. These are organisations that are built for optimisation and reliability. In addition, they are tuned for exploita-tions, i.e. how to get more out of the

available resources. Such organisa-tions have a lot of individual-based incentives, meaning people are rewarded for their individual excellence (the concept of IQ).

Conversely, there are organisa-tions that are more intuitive in their approach. They are more holistic and systemic in terms of their view. Such organisations are more divergent in their thinking, more system in their approach, and focus a lot on abductive logic. Such organisations are built to create, to explore and experiment. Their work environments are mainly team based and functions along the ‘we Q’, i.e. the importance of the collective intelligence rather

than the individual. In such organisa-tions, much attention is diverted towards the creation of a culture that is about being innovative, creative, and explorative.

Key to an organisation is to find a balance between these two states, where a culture of both can live in harmony with each other; what we refer to as an ambidextrous organisation

DESIGN THINKING IN ORGANISATIONS


public sector innovations


A DIGITAL PLATFORM FORPUTTING PEOPLE FIRST

LET’S TALK

A mobile app that is more than just a communication platform but also a research and business intelligence tool for public officials to facilitate public participation.

Let’s Talk. The platform enables citizens to report service delivery issues to help government in service delivery and policy planning, thereby improving the communication and relationship between local govern-ment and its constituency.

The App helped to report service delivery challenges, vandalism, and theft of public assets, as well as engaging on the development and implementation of municipal by-laws and polices. intelligence tool for public officials to facilitate public participation. This mobile app is, however, more than just a communi-cation platform. It is also a research and business intelligence tool for public officials to facilitate public participation.

any service delivery protest actions in municipalities take place because of citizen dissatis-faction with government’s service delivery, that is, the perceived inabil-ity by government to deliver services or, where they are delivered, their quality.

However, as Saya-Setona’s research revealed, often times these protests are triggered by the lack of commu-nication between government as the service provider and the community who are users of these services. This communications gap reduces com-munities’ ability to report service delivery issues to government while on the other hand, government is not responsive, not due to capacity con-straints but because officials are outof touch. As such, officials are in

By Mr Moepi Setona, Chief Innovator, Saya-Setona

conflict with their own set of princi-ples of Batho Pele (putting people first).

Responding to the apparent negative perception of local government by citizens, Saya-Setona launched a pilot project in the Thulamela Municipality in Limpopo called: Putting the Citizen at the Centre of Governance. This ini-tiative is in partnership with SALGA and supported by the UNDP. It is implemented in line with an MOU signed between SALGA and the United Nations, South Africa. It is fur-ther aligned to SALGA’s focus on the use of innovation to improve public participation in local government.

At the heart of this project is a locally developed digital platform called

MPROJECT DESCRIPTION


Using the app, citizens are able to receive news updates related to ser-vice delivery from either the Offices of the Premier or the municipality’s Mayor. Once they receive this infor-mation, citizens can rate services and learn what the local municipality is doing in their area related to a par-ticular service (see screen 2 and 3 below). In addition, citizens can send alerts about service delivery issues to local government and receive replies (screen 4).

Using the app, citizens are able to establish chat groups with other citizens in their wards and with local councillors (screen 5), thereby promoting active or participatory citizenship.

Finally, the app makes provision for all functions to be sent by SMS to accommodate citizens who do not have access to data or a smart phone.

For local government, the app provides for the following:• Sending live news updates to

citizens in a particular geograph-ical area related to service delivery disruptions.

• Receiving real-time reports of service delivery complaints related to a certain geographi-cal area to inform engagement with the public.

• Receiving verifiable citizen-gen-erated data on service delivery for reporting against Integrated Development Plans. This data can be disaggregated by age, gender, and race.

• Receiving ratings on services in an area to help inform policy.

• Establishing chats with citizens in a particular area to help inform policy development and issues related to service delivery.

• Hosting a tool that can be used for Community Development Worker casework.

Using the app, local municipality is able to also work with appointed NGOs and CBOs to build citizens capacity, empower them to advo-cate for their rights, and to support them in holding local government

accountable. Furthermore, citizens and NGOs can have a ‘read only’ access to all screens that the Mayor of the Municipality can view, thus enabling additional openness and transparency.

1. HOW THE LET’S TALK PLATFORM WORKS8:30

8:30

8:30

8:30

1

2

3

4

58:30


2. OUTCOMES AND IMPACT

3. CONCLUSION

The project importantly incorpo-rates a digital civil society network to empower citizens to advocate for their rights in relation to service deliv-ery. In that way, it promotes active or participatory citizenship.

The project can further improve rela-tions between local government/municipalities and the NGO sector, hopefully bringing an end to service

delivery protests and strikes. Now implemented at Thulamela Local Municipality, the Let’s Talk project is still at an early stage, with significant scaling potential.

What is more important, the Let’s Talk project delivers against SDG 16, with a desired outcome of improving trust between citizens and municipalities/government.

The pilot with SALGA focused on three outcomes, namely:

OUTCOME

OUTCOME

OUTCOME

Citizens feel empowered, con-nected with their government, and engaged constructively in public service delivery.

Thulamela Local Municipality uti-lises citizen-generated data as part of its decision-making and feels connected constructively to the needs of citizens.

A stronger, more collaborative relationship between local gov-ernments, NGOs, and other community interest /lobby groups.

INDICATORS

INDICATORS

INDICATORS

Citizen satisfaction score increases a year after the project is launched, and positive feedback is received from platform users.

An online dashboard owned and ran by government partners with action orientated commentary on how they utilised the data was accessible to citizens.

A functioning civil society network established in the province with an ongoing, solution-focused dialogue with government facil-itated by UNDP if process in municipality not already in place.

1

2

3


YOUTH CITIZENS

PROGRAMMEBy Amanda Blankfield-Koseff, CEO Empowervate Trust

ycap


e have a challenge in South Africa, where there is a ten-dency to feel helpless in the face of problems – to wait for government or other organisations to fix the issues, to complain and feel like victims. This is the background to the problem we responded to. We needed to find a way to empower and motivate our citizens from a young age to be proactive citi-zens, change agents, and possibly social entrepreneurs when they complete schooling.

INTRODUCTION

The solution was to create the Youth-Citizens Action Programme (Y-CAP) under the Empowervate Trust NPO, which has two elements: personal and team development, as well as community development. How it is done is that we provide a toolkit, a step-by-step guide to how to run a project, the skills and tools needed, how to measure the impact at the end of the project, and ensure it is sustainable.

We work with the Department of Basic Education to implement the programme in public schools nation-ally (we had 400 in 2019). There are district, provincial, and national showcase events, where the most impactful project teams are rewarded and encouraged to continue.

The programme has been running successfully for 10 years. We are doing our best to fundraise, so that it can survive for many more decades and need as much support as we can get to ensure this.

The programme can become a fran-chise for other countries to use in their schools; it can be used for adults in communities as well. The method-ology has already been used to help new business owners to write busi-ness plans.

We have seen positive changes in educator and learner mindsets, as well as the culture of schools over the past 10 years of Y-CAP. Research by Unisa1 shows how Y-CAP changed the status quo from being helpless to becoming proactive and saw learn-ers become pioneers in the school once they’ve been empowered with the Y-CAP tools.

THE INNOVATION

IMPLEMENTATION SUSTAINABILITY

REPLICABILITY

CHALLENGES AND LESSONS

IMPACT

The challenges are getting buy-in from principals, who sometimes say they only want to focus on aca-demics. We explain that the Y-CAP programme actually empowers and motivates learners to want to succeed in all aspects of their lives, includ-ing academics. We also believe in the holistic development of young people, including positive values. The principals who support Y-CAP see the positive changes that it brings to their school and they, therefore, usually participate annually

W

12018, Vorster, M. The Case of Character Edu-cation to address Challenging Behaviour in a Gauteng Primary School. UNISA


kenya plastic pollution solution

The sheer enormity of this plastic pollution and the catastrophic consequences that it would have on land

and marine life was a major concern

million plastic, bottled drinks are bought every minute globally, while some 500 billion disposable plastic bags are used every year, says the United Nations (UN). Nearly a third of plastic packaging escapes waste collection systems and at least 8 million tons of plastic leak into the oceans each year, smothering reefs and threatening marine life. Plastic also enters water supplies and the food chain, where it could harm people in the long term, the UN states.

In Kenya alone, more than 3 million tons of waste is produced, of which only 8% is recycled. As a result, there are mountains of plastic buckets, bottles, and jerry cans discarded by residents, hotels, shops, and schools all over. The sheer enormity of this plastic pollution and the catastrophic consequences that it would have on land and marine life was a major con-cern, particularly to Hope Mwanake, an Environmental Scientist who ran a waste collection service in Kenya’s central town of Gilgil.

BACKGROUND

A

Hope Mwanake


Adapted by Welcome Sekwati from an article by Nita Bhalla. (First published in IOL News Africa, 13 December, 2019)

As an Environmental Scientist who also ran a waste collection service, Mwanake spent an enormous time thinking about what could be done with the plastic waste. What emerged after a lot of brainstorming, research-ing, and experimenting was a product that was not only value-added with market demand, but, most impor-tantly, one that would help to reduce plastic waste in the environment.

Along with business partner and fellow Environmental Scientist, Kevin Mureithi, she founded Eco Blocks and Tiles in 2016. It is the first company in Kenya to manufacture roof tiles and other construction materials from plastic and glass waste.

Mwanake and Mureithi’s tiles are more durable, lighter, and easier to transport and install than concrete or clay tiles. They are also safer for rain-water collection. Each tile is priced at 850 Kenyan shillings ($8.50) - equiv-alent to the price of concrete or clay tiles. An average three-bed house requires 1 000 to 2 000 tiles.

The company employs four perma-nent staff and supports scores of community garbage collectors by purchasing their raw material - plastic and glass waste chucked by Gilgil’s residents. So far, they have turned more than 56 tons of plastic waste into 75 000 tiles for 30 homes and businesses.

The project saves forests, too. Customers save up to 40 percent on wood when using eco-tiles, said Mureithi, to the benefit of their pocket and the forests. The eco-tiles are also helping Kenya’s booming con-struction industry to cut its carbon emissions by providing more green and sustainable alternatives to con-crete tiles.

Cement, a key ingredient of concrete, releases 5% to 8% of global green-house gas during its manufacturing process, according to the Global Cement and Concrete Association, a non-profit organisation.

As governments and companies look to cut planet-warming emissions, in line with the Paris Agreement goals to limit global temperature rise to “well under” 2 degrees Celsius (3,6F), finding ways to ‘green’ construction is key.

Scientists-turned-entrepreneurs Mwanake and Mureithi first carefully examined the properties of plastic and glass. They then literally cooked empty shampoo and vegetable oil bottles in a big drum and mixed the molten polymer with sand crushed from glass waste.

Looking at what came out as an end-product, Mwanake said: “It looked like a strange porridge but once placed in moulds and cooled, we found [that] we had a very strong and durable product.”

Since the pair set up the com-pany, they have tapped into crowd funding and attracted grants from organisations, such as South African-based packaging firm Mondi and Netherlands-based ViaWater. The commercial production of the eco-tiles began in 2018.

THE INNOVATION

ADVANTAGES CONCLUSION

HOW DID THEY DO IT?

Mwanake said it was vital to boost visibility and awareness to grow her business, as many Kenyan consumers had a negative view about eco-friendly, recycled products. “Unlike western countries, where labelling a product as ‘eco-friendly’ is consid-ered a positive by consumers and is quickly snapped up, in Kenya it can be seen as a negative; as if the prod-uct is of lower quality,” said Mwanake. “That view is slowly changing but it is taking time. We just have to reach it.”

Through word-of-mouth, promotions in hardware stores, and social media posts, the start-up has attracted dozens of home owners and small businesses this past year.

The company has also gained sup-port from the Kenyan government, which is promoting the use of sus-tainable, greener materials as part of efforts to reduce carbon emissions generated from the east African nation’s construction industry.

“With the growing population, expanding urban fabric, and commit-ment to provide affordable housing and net-zero carbon buildings by 2050 in Kenya, such products have a potential market,” said Kenya’s National Construction Authority (NCA). Pollution is also a concern, so repurposing plastic to construction is a “win-win”, the NCA added in a statement


getting to know innovation trailblazers

The moment we become comfortable with community challenges, we lose humanity.

- Phuti Ragophala

PHUTI RAGOPHALA

A SERIAL INNOVATOR

IN CONVERSATION WITH


What drives you to innovate?

Finding yourself being surrounded by challenges sharpens your mind. My level of love for education, empathy, energy, and passion propels me towards helping needy learners and community members. As such, that makes me get out of my comfort zone and continue making education fashionable, as well as a tool to fight ignorance, poverty, and unemployment.

I am driven by the challenges that community members are facing. I am unable to sit back and relax when I see other people suffering. This inspired me to launch my NPO, called Phuti Training and Motivational Speaking, after my retirement as an educator. What do you aim to achieve with your NPO?

The aim of the NPO is to address the following challenges:

• Digital illiteracy: The 4th Industrial Revolution is upon us and learners and educators need to be equal to the task as they require digital skills to enhance teaching and learning. We will not be able to acquire digital skills without getting the basics right. These include reading with understanding, writing legibly, and enhancing food production. Generally, we are not a

reading nation. My aim is to groom a nation of readers because readers are leaders. In 2017, I launched a community reading club project to inspire young authors.

• Producing own food: I also use my backyard garden to teach children how to produce their own food using available natural resources.

Looking back at your journey as a public sector innovator, what challenges did you encounter?

The journey of being an innovator is not easy; it is very tough, especially in the public sector. It needs a leader who is decisive and takes risks, even if that makes you unpopular. For example: during my tenure as school principal in 2006, after finding out that Oprah Winfrey was going to open a new school for girls in South Africa, I tampered with the school’s language policy. Consequently, the use of English became a medium of instruction for learners from Grade R to 7. This almost cost me my job. However, out of this unpopular idea, five girls from the school were admitted to the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, SA. I am proud that, today, these learners are the pride of their communities.

Innovation requires people to go the extra mile in what they do. They need to be passionate and empathetic.

In your view, what impedes innovation in the public sector?

I am of the view that the following factors are major impediments, to name but a few:• Rigid policies;• A top-down approach of doing

things;• Lack of succession planning, and • A one-size-fits-all approach.

What are your concluding remarks?

Based on my experience in the education sector, I have some key recommendations:• Recognise employees and their hard

work to innovate and improve service delivery at all levels in the midst of daily challenges.

• Facilitate ongoing training on innovation for staff at all levels, ensuring it is appropriate for their scope of practice and with practical components.

• Capacitate managers both psychologically and with the necessary resources: for example, sufficient clerks and support, staff so that managers can be more hands on to support their staff in efforts to do situational analysis, brainstorm and implement improvement projects

• Provide ongoing reminders that innovation starts with the basics of courtesy and respect for our end-users

2011Limpopo Office of Premier

Excellence Award

2014Microsoft Innovative

Educator Expert (MIEE)

2011ISPA Super Teacher of the

Year by COZA CARES

2012South African Hero by eTV


Educator Expert(MIEE)

2015CEO Magazine Most

Influential Woman in Africa Award: Education and

Training


Educator Fellow


Educator Expert (MIEE)

2016Women in Government by Regional Business

Achievers Award

2016SADTU Leadership Award

2016Eduweek SABC Education

Lifetime Achievement Award

2016Women in Government by Regional Business

Achievers Award

2017Fellowship status from

Africa Federation of Teaching Regulatory

Authorities

2018Top 50 Inspiring Women in

Technology

2017Indian Government in

Mumbai Leadership Award

2017Varkey Foundation Top 50 Global Teacher Prize

Finalist

20196th World Education Congress Education Leadership Award

2018Femina Woman Super

Achiever Award

2020Kader Asmal Silver Award

2019Kader Asmal Award

Which awards and accolades did you receive after you were recognised by the CPSI?

Accolades are a cherry on top. The main thing is to change the lives of needy people through education. After being recognised by CPSI in 2010, I had several awards bestowed on me:


As an innovator, what sets you apart from others?

It has to be my passion for my product. I am an advocate for menstrual hygiene and, currently, a doctoral candidate researching Menstrual Hygiene Management amongst adolescents with intellectual disabilities in South Africa. This study is a first for South Africa. Therefore, my passion stems from not just supplying a healthy, eco-friendly product but also being a voice for menstrual hygiene management.


Passion and purpose. I believe the world is your oyster. Once you introduce something that becomes successful, one looks for additional avenues in which to innovate.

Undertaking an innovation journey is not easy. How did you overcome challenges associated with being an innovator, especially as a social entrepreneur?

Becoming an entrepreneur has been one of the most challenging but exciting experiences of my life. The journey thus far has been rocky yet extremely humbling at the same time. I can certainly confirm that I have respect for any person who decides to invest in their own venture.

I am a firm believer in balance. There has to be a balance to everything in life in order to function optimally.

It is in this light that I have been able to successfully juggle being a single mother while driving my career and business (self-funded). I would be lying if I said that it was easy but it has definitely made me a stronger person. I am also lucky that my children look up to me as their role model and take after me in terms of independence. They are my pillars of strength.

How long did your innovation take from its development to implementation?

The aim of creating the PrincessD Menstrual Cup, an alternative sanitary product to tampons and sanitary pads, was to help disadvantaged rural girls. Their education is disrupted because some girls miss 5 - 7 days per month without the use of a menstrual cup.

The PrincessD Menstrual Cup is an environmentally-friendly, cost-effective, and sustainable solution for these girls and women. We found that because it’s a ‘green’ product, all girls and women who menstru-ate are able to benefit from it by using a healthy and clean sanitary product. The menstrual cup, which is ultra-soft, is made from medical-grade silicone and reusable for 10 years. It has no toxins, bleaches, dyes, or other chemicals, which makes it hygienic and healthy to use. It is a greener alternative to disposable tampons and pads, as it does not add to landfill. Sanitary pads and tampons are not eco-friendly as it takes approximately 500 - 700 years to biodegrade.

INTERVIEW WITH

SHAMILA RAMJAWAN

FAMRAM SOLUTIONS


The PrincessD Menstrual Cup has a lot of other benefits as well: it is completely comfortable for using during sports, such as running, cycling, scuba diving, swimming, yoga, dancing, or any type of activity, as it offers safe, secure, discreet, and leak-free protection for up to 12 hours at a time.

One menstrual cup is equivalent to approximately 3 000 sanitary pads/tampons over a 10-year cycle. So, no more messy toilets or blockages in toilets either. Our combo pack comprises of a menstrual cup and a compact, foldable silicone steriliser cup (we are the only supplier with the silicone, microwavable steriliser cup). In the deep rural areas, girls face devastating conditions, where they have nothing to use during menstrua-tion and have limited access to water.

At the end of the menstrual cycle, only 250 ml of boiling water (one cup) is required per month to sterilise the PrincessD Menstrual Cup for 15

minutes! In most rural areas, girls fetch water from the river, boil it, and then sterilise their cups.

In terms of the development, it took me approximately two years, which included R&D, to create a prototype and then introduce it to the market.

How would you motivate other people to be innovative against all odds?

Women are strong and can overcome anything. Never give up. I believe that one must always tell their story because it motivates others. We have all fallen and jumped up again, so pick yourself up and be proud to be a woman. Your circumstances do not define your future: rise up and take hold of your destiny. Inspire others to innovate!

Which factors do you think impede innovation in the public sector?

Definitely a lack of finance.

What do you think should government do to promote innovation in the public sector?

Government is trying to assist and promote innovation. We need to be more visible, as small businesses cannot afford extensive marketing due to the exorbitant costs of marketing. Instead of always trying to assist small businesses in funding, which is, of course, limited to a number of small businesses, help us promote our businesses, such as having link with our logos on government websites.


Closing Remarks?

I would like to share with your readers some of my quotes.

“Nobody will ever realise your struggle until you disclose your story. Be the one to comfort others by talking about your hardships and where you come from. It will surely inspire others and create awareness that there are opportunities out there that they can grab and steer their own ship to success. Never ever give up.”

“Your message to the world must be words of encouragement, motivation and inspiration. If you live it share it.”

Kindly share with us some of your awards and accolades that you have received over the years

Semi-finalist: Emerging Entrepreneur Category: SA Council for Business

Competition

2016 2016Panache Woman

of Wonder Awards

2016Finalist: Unsung Heroine category: Real Architects of Society Special Award

2016Finalist: Margaret Hirsch Achiever

of the Year Award

2017Nominee: Standard bank Top Women

Entrepreneur Awards

2017Finalist: Social Entrepreneur Category: Business Women

Association Awards

2017Winner: OWAMI Women’s Award

2017Finalist: Top Performing Entrepreneur: National

Business Awards

2017Global Awardee: Centre

for economic & Leadership Development

2017Global Female

Leadership Impact Award

2017Global Women Leaders

Hall of Fame

2018Woman of Stature

Awards: Entrepreneur of the Year

2018Global Awardee: Iconic

Woman Creating a better World for All Women

Economic Forum

2018Finalist: Entrepreneur of

the Year: Oliver Empowerment Awards

2018Impact Award:

Ladies of All nations International

2018Finalist: National Business Awards

2018

Change Maker Award

2019Winner: Manager of the

Year: Business Leadership South Africa

2019Country Winner: Most Influential Woman in Business: Pan African

Awards

2020Honorary Award: Women

Appreciating Women

2020Awardee:

100 Successful Women


As an innovator, what sets you apart from others?

Innovation is not something out there for special people who work in fancy places. We are all innovating daily; most of the time we just need to stop and take stock of what we are actually doing and think of ways to strengthen our efforts. An innovator cannot work as a ‘lone ranger’; teamwork is of the utmost importance. You need to work hard to ‘infect’ others with your vision.

An innovator needs to be prepared to go the extra mile within the available resources of staffing, equipment, and time. Innovators must not forget the end goal: to make the patient experience better and, ultimately, improve quality of life in some way. For me, that means being the person who enjoys a challenge since it provides an opportunity to find solutions and grow in the process.

TRACEY BULMER


Ms Tracey Bulmer, Chief Supervisory Physiotherapist: Paediatrics section at Chris Hani Barag-wanath Hospital. The unit’s Standing Box project, a low cost solution assisting children with Cerebral Palsy to stand, was entered and won the 2018 Public Sector Innovator of the Year Award.

GETTING TO KNOW



I have decided that if I am to continue my career as a Physiotherapist in the public sector, I cannot stand by and become part of the status quo; I must be part of the solution to improve patient experience of care through efficiency and access to health and rehabilitation services. The overwhelming response received from the end users, that is our patients and their families, is motivation enough to continue innovating.

How did you overcome challenges, especially in the public sector?

Strategic planning and goal-setting are vital to cultivating an environ-ment for innovation, whether big or small. Despite staff rotation and turnover, the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital (CHBAH) Physiotherapy Management Team has built targets for various projects into departmen-tal and sectional operational plans to encourage continuity and sustain-ability.

Our department has a culture of innovation and embraces quality improvement as the norm. We have an extremely coherent and supportive management team, that encourages us to be “almost competitive” in our efforts to improve services. Our Department Head is very much in touch with her staff, which encourages persever-ance to achieve goals, despite low staff numbers and high workload.

How would you motivate others to become innovative against all odds?

When faced with something that doesn’t work well, you can either waste time moaning about it or you can use the time to brainstorm and try possible solutions: this is innovation. Start with something small where you are now; something tangible and achievable. You never know where it

may lead. A few years ago, we were given a sample of a wooden standing box to try out for our young cerebral palsy patients. It stood unused in one of the rooms until the owner eventually reclaimed it. In 2016, a visit from Sukumani Dream, a NGO that also started making these boxes, convinced us to look once again at the roll-out of standing devices. This had been a longstanding desire of mine; however, it took a dynamic physio team to grab hold of this vision and make it happen. Our innovation journey started with the issuing of one standing box.

What factors impede innovation in the public sector?

Public servants often display low morale in the workplace. Factors such as poor physical working environments, a lack of resources, poor safety, a lack of support from supervisors and peers, and insuffi-cient leadership and direction from management result in people feeling overwhelmed.

New employees may come with many innovative ideas but soon succumb to the atmosphere of “just getting through each day.” When we are in survival mode, we do not innovate. There may also be a lack of continu-ity due to staff turnover: valuable projects are not carried out for long enough to obtain results and lessons learnt are not handed over, thus it takes the next person a while to build momentum again.

What could government do to promote innovation in the public sector?

• Recognise employees and their hard work to innovate and improve service delivery at all levels in the midst of daily challenges.

• Facilitate ongoing training on innovation for staff at all levels, ensuring it is appropriate for their scope of practice and with

practical components.• Capacitate managers with the

necessary resources, including psychological care and sufficient support staff so that managers can be more hands on to guide their staff in efforts to do situational analysis, brainstorm and implement improvement projects.

• Provide ongoing reminders that innovation starts with the basics of courtesy and respect for our end-users.

Which accolades and awards have you received since being recognised through the Public Sector Innovation Awards Programme?

The CHBAH Physiotherapy Department was acknowledged for their innovative efforts in the winning Standing Box project by Minister Mchunu, Minister for the Public Service Administration, and Dr Masuku, MEC for Gauteng Health, during a visit to the hospital in November, 2019. A spin-off from this visit was an interview about the project featured in the Gauteng Health Employee Value Programme (EVP).

An article on the ministerial visit was also featured in the DPSA Bulletin. The SA Public Sector Innovation Journal: Ideas that Work, featured an article on the project that won Innovator of the Year in 2018. The SA Society for Physiotherapy’s Hands On publication also highlighted the good work being done in the public sector. During discussions with EVP representatives, interest was taken in writing up a business case for the CHBAH Physiotherapy Department as a whole, taking into account all the existing projects and service delivery initiatives. We were invited to present on the Standing Box project during 2019 at the launch of the CPSI Awards, the CPSI conference and the CPSI Awards ceremony


CEO OF EMPOWERVATE TRUST

AMANDA BLANKFIELD

-KOSEFFAs an innovator, what sets you apart from others?

I think that the difference is that I had a vision and didn’t leave it at that; I started working on the actions to make the programme come to life. Over the past eleven years, the programme has been evolving and developing each year. The feedback we get is important and helps us to improve wherever possible. Comfort is the enemy of innovation.


I innovate when I see there is a gap or need that has to be filled or addressed. When it came to my attention that youth wanted to be active citizens but can’t without any skills or platform to do so, I decided a change (or innovation) had to be made. That is how Y-CAP started.

Undertaking an innovation journey is not easy. How did you overcome challenges associated with being an innovator, especially in the public sector?

The programme is a Public Private Partner (PPP), which means that

I was working at an NPO at the time. We approached a funder (private) and government (public) to help us to work on the programme, Y-CAP. So, from the beginning, it was a collaboration. This made the task more manageable. There were still challenges but with three sectors involved, we managed to overcome them.

Similarly, how would you motivate other people to be innovative against all odds?

I would say to people that innovation can be done if there is a passion-ate and committed person or team driving it. It takes courage and perseverance to create change and innovate. Don’t give up!

Which factors do you think impede innovation in the public sector?

There is a lot of bureaucracy, politics, and lack of resources (human and financial) that can be challenges in the public sector. This is why having PPPs can help with these issues. Partnerships can overcome the weaknesses in some sectors by using the strengths of others.

What do you think government should do to promote innovation in the public sector?

Perhaps create a platform where innovations can be piloted and analysed. This way, when they are implemented, the design has already been tested and the process can repeat until it’s finalised. This could be done through CPSI.

What other accolades and awards have you received besides being recognised through the Public Sector Innovation Awards Programme?

Before the CPSI Awards in November 2019 our CEO Amanda Blankfield-Koseff was a finalist in the Europcar Women in Leadership Award category in the Absa Jewish Achiever Awards. Empowervate has also been awarded the Education Excellence Award from the Gauteng Premier’s Youth Excellence Awards, as well as the ROCCI Community Builder Awards two years in a row.

Compiled by Amanda Blankfield-KoseffE-mail: [email protected]: www.empowervate.org

Ms Amanda Blankfield-Koseff’s youth development project Youth Citizens Action Programme (YCAP) was awarded a Special Ministerial Award at the 2019 Public Sector Innovation Awards.

INTERVIEW WITH


NEW TAX APP LAUNCHED IN SA TO MAKE VAT EASY

An innovative new VAT app, developed by a tax expert at hApp-e-tax, is now available in South Africa.

revisions of the acts and legislation; it is updated immediately when new tax legislation or SARS information is introduced.

Herschel Alpert, Chief Executive of hApp-e-tax, said: “It’s a major step forward from the hard copy books and online searches that have been available [un]til now when searching for VAT information. I was inspired to develop this VAT app after the success of the hApp-e-tax income tax app, which was released two years ago. With a great adoption rate and positive feedback, we had numerous requests to offer VAT and other indirect taxes and with a few enhancements, we have managed to deliver exactly that.” The app pro-vides comprehensive information,

he app is the mobile answer to VAT queries for accountants, auditors, tax practitioners, lawyers, and even entrepreneurs who do not have access to specialised teams.

This simple-to-use tech innovation will make it easier for people to navigate through content to fully understand and apply South African VAT legislation.

The app includes the VAT Act, Customs and Excise Act, Securities Transfer Tax Act, Estate Duty Act, and Transfer Duty Act.

In addition, users will find all of SARS’s published rulings and can even print directly from the app. The app has quick turnaround times on

which is simple to navigate, with an intuitive search engine that can be accessed even without an internet connection.

Providing all the tax information needed in one app, this smart tool has seen thousands of downloads for both iOS and Android stores for mobile use on Apple and Google smartphones and tablets.

Users can try the hApp-e-tax apps free for 30 days. They then have the option to choose whether they want the income tax version priced at R489 or the VAT and indirect taxes version for R379. Both apps are available at a discounted price of R825. Users can upgrade or downgrade these ver-sions at any time.

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news briefs

First published in Business Report Online, 22 January, 2020


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PANYAZA LESUFI ANNOUNCES

TOP PERFORMING PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN GAUTENG

‘TO KICK-START A SKILLS REVOLUTION’

EC for Education Panyaza Lesufi has announced for the first time the performance results of more than 900 primary schools in Gauteng, saying the move was intended to empower Grade 1- 9 learners to achieve functional literacy and acquire skills that match labour market demands.

By Inside Education March 7, 2020

Photo: Gauteng Education Department/Twitter

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news briefs


Lesufi was addressing 6 000 teachers, HODs and principals at the inaugu-ral primary school summit held at the Rhema Bible Church in Randburg, north of Johannesburg.

“We are going to measure perfor-mance of primary schools – from the performance of the principal, school teachers, HODs and the resources and infrastructure of the school. We are transforming the whole education sector and preparing our children for a better future,” said Lesufi. “Gone are the days when primary schools were recommended in terms of the uni-form the learners wore to school. We are now going to apply rankings to all schools just as we grade hotels in terms of stars, from 3 to 4 and 5 stars.”

Lesufi said from 2020 academic year, Grade 1 to Grade 4 learners in the province would now learn about coding, sign language, entrepreneur-ship and many other skills to match the labour market and the demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

“Our focus is to build the skills of the future. We need to embrace new changes that are coming in future as a result of technological advance-ments. If we don’t get our education system right we will never get the skills for our economy.”

The summit was also addressed by the department’s Deputy Director-General Albert Charney and Head of Department Edward Mosuwe.

Gauteng Premier David Makhura delivered a keynote address.

“This inaugural summit is quite historic. We are not only fixing edu-cation. We are fixing the foundational phases of our education system. A house built on shifting sands cannot withstand the storms,” said Makhura.

“Todate, the spotlight was on matric results only. We must now shine the

spotlight on our primary schools. This summit is important for us because the Diagnostic Report says the problems we have in matric and post-matric stages arise from the early phases of our education system.”

Makhura said education was impor-tant for the future of Gauteng – the country’s economic hub, which com-prises of approximately 14.7 million people.

“As it were, 85% of Gauteng’s total budget is spent on Education, Health and Social Development. We must spend all our resources to educate our people.”

Mosuwe, Gauteng Education’s HOD, said in his presentation that one of the most worrying issues of primary school results was the increasing high failure rate and repetition.

At least 21 000 learners failed their Grade 1 schooling in 2019.

“Most of the overage learners are due to having repeated at least one grade in their school career. Most of the learners who are at least two years older than their cohort would have repeated grades in more than one phase,” said Mosuwe.

“In the interpretation of the numbers above, it is important to remem-ber that a learner may not repeat a year more than once in a phase. Accordingly, the number of learners repeating in the “last grade” in a phase; i.e Grades 3, 6 and 9, appear fewer than in the following grades – Grades, 4 and 10. Grade 7 is an exception, as this is the last year of primary school and schools seem to promote learners so that they can move to secondary school.”


AFRICA’S POACHERS

SNIFFER DOGSTAKING ON

news briefs

By Tira Shubart : Adapted from an article that was first published in BBC News, 18 January 2020


oachers in Africa, who are now armed with military-style weap-ons and even helicopters to hunt their prey, have a new adversary: dogs with a nose for detection.

Many countries on the African conti-nent still have an abundance of wildlife roaming their countries. Thousands of tourists visit these countries from all over the world to see the animals. This rise in tourism translates into socio-economic development, job creation, building of schools and clin-ics, and hunger alleviation.

However, in many of these coun-tries there is a massive danger of the wildlife being decimated because of ruthless poachers who are becoming more sophisticated by arming them-selves with high-calibre weaponry and other modern, high-tech equipment.

Over the years, there have been many cross-border collaborations to bring an end to this challenge and thanks to innovative thinking, a solution was eventually discovered.

and contraband electronics like illicit mobile phones, amongst others. The sense most used by detection dogs is smell. According to Will Powell, Director of Canines for Conservation, the programme is in the form of “a Public-Private Partnership” with gov-ernments that helps them develop dog units with their wildlife organ-isations, which includes strategy formulation, standard operating procedures, and veterinary protocol. “With their help, we select rangers and train them as detection dog han-dlers,” said Mr Powell.

Dog handling has become a sought-after job among employees of wildlife authorities in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Botswana and, most recently, Cameroon. The handlers learn their skills over an eight-to-10-week period.

Handlers are carefully matched with their canine partners, which is impor-tant as some handlers have not been around dogs before, or have only known dogs as guard dogs. During the period, they learn to love, care for, and respect their dogs.

Dogs are selected and brought over from some countries in Europe, such as the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, where there is a culture of working dogs in various settings.

According to Wikipedia, detection dogs or sniffer dogs are dogs that are trained to use their senses to detect substances, such as explosives, illegal drugs, wildlife scat, currency, blood,

THE INNOVATION

THE PROGRAMME

The solution came in the form of detection dogs, also known as sniffer dogs. More than 50 of these specialised dogs were deployed in key locations across six African countries where poaching was taking place at an alarming rate.

P

According to Powell, during the selec-tion of detection dogs, preference is given to animals that are open, con-fident, and level-headed enough to able to deal with distraction and trav-elling. Furthermore, the dogs must be gregarious and friendly to deal with a number of dog handlers.

SELECTION AND TRAINING OF DETECTION DOGS


Two breeds, namely Malinois and Springer Spaniels, excel as detector dogs. Malinois, which are Belgian Shepherds, are famously intelligent, tough, and can cope with heat. The Springer Spaniels have good noses and a friendly nature. They also have another advantage. According to Powell, there are many people who are afraid of dogs. To many of them, Shepherds with pointy ears are regarded as scary, while Spaniels with their floppy ears look less aggressive. “In areas where you are working around people, it’s easier to use Spaniels,” added Powell. Both breeds have a strong work ethic because they love to be busy.

Training the dogs to a top level in detecting takes four to five months. According to Powell, the dogs are first taught to detect ivory, as it is the hardest smell to detect.

Rhino horn and pangolin scales are easier to pick up. They are then taught to detect lion bones and teeth, which are trafficked for Chinese medicine now that tigers have been largely wiped out.

All the wildlife products they must find are hidden in a variety of realistic ways. In the field, the dogs have found ivory and rhino horns concealed in coffee and chillies, as well as wrapped in layers of foil and plastic. They have

even found a lion’s tooth hidden in a thermos.

When the dogs find something, they are rewarded and given their toys. The shepherds have tougher toys to chew on than their soft-mouthed Spaniel colleagues. The specially-trained dogs go on to sniff luggage and cargo for ivory, rhino horns, and pangolin scales.

The working life of a dog depends on the breed. For the Malinois, that can be between 12 and 13 years. When their working life is finished, they are found appropriate homes or are returned to Mr Powell’s base in Tanzania.

Since their deployment, the detec-tion dogs have sniffed out various contraband - elephant tusks, rhino horns, and pangolin scales. This has led to the arrests of hundreds of traffickers and the disruption of smuggling routes. In addition, there have been almost 400 seizures of illegal wildlife products since the programme, funded by the African Wildlife Foundation, began in 2011.

Traffickers now know that detec-tor dogs are checking international flights, so Canines for Conservation also works with the East African port authorities in Mombasa and Dar es Salaam.

TRAINING OF DETECTION DOGS CONCLUSION


By Helen Swingler

Civil engineering master’s candidate Vukheta Mukhari (left), in the Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment, was one of a handful of young global graduates invited to present at the Design Indaba. Pictured with him are his supervisor, Dr Dyllon Randall, and master’s graduate Suzanne Lambert.

Photo: Robyn Walker

HUMAN WASTEON WORLDINNOVATION STAGE


tion and human waste sectors. This is thanks to some intricate chemistry between urine and bacteria - a natu-ral process called microbial carbonate precipitation. This creates bio-bricks from human urine, collected from waterless urinals.

The by-product in fertilizer

The bio-bricks were developed by Mukhari and master’s student Suzanne Lambert of the Department of Civil Engineering, working under Randall. The bio-bricks were unveiled at UCT in 2018 to huge acclaim, signalling a par-adigm shift in the way society views human waste.

Biomimicry a design template

Continuing the theme of waste and sustainability, Mukhari told his audi-ence that while civilisation had made huge strides to emerge from “a cave into the four-walls-with-a-roof and more food than we can eat”, the planet was imploding.

Biomimicry would provide a template for restoration and future design that worked with nature and ecosystems to inspire innovation and solve complex human problems.

Quoting biomimicry pioneer and biologist, Janine Benyus, he said, “Humans need to remember we are not the first to build structures, to master fluid dynamics or harvest moisture from the air and make things waterproof. Nature discovered all this long before we did and there are still so many discoveries to be made. We have only scratched the surface.” And UCT was leading the way.

He described how Randall and his students had uncovered something extraordinary. “We grew the world’s first bio-brick made from human urine with the help of Sporosarcina pasteurii bacteria. My supervisor calls them Steve. We took some sand and aggregate, mixed it with bacteria, sealed it in a mould … and pumped urine through it.

“The bacteria break down the urea in the urine, which releases carbonate ions in a calcium-rich environment. This forms calcium carbonate, or calcite. This is the same calcium carbonate that nature uses to form seashells. The calcite naturally cements the sand par-ticles together to form a bio-solid.”

Since then the team has been working to improve the bio-brick’s compres-sive strength. In three years, they’ve improved that exponentially from 0.9 MPa to 16 MPa, equivalent to the strength of clay bricks.

To market, to market

“Part of our current research is to opti-mise and refine the bio-brick so that it can be taken to market,” said Mukhari, pointing to unprecedented urbanisa-tion worldwide. “This is important as the construction industry is responsi-ble for consuming 40% of the planet’s energy and 12% of water, producing one-third of the carbon emissions and 40% of the waste.”

Sustainability is key. Clay and con-crete bricks require large amounts of energy whereas bio-bricks are made at room temperature and created by recycling “waste” material through a natural cementation process.

“There has to be a better way of doing this civilisation thing,”

niversity of Cape Town (UCT) master’s candidate Vukheta Mukhari said when he pitched his research at the 25th Design Indaba. That research is revolutionising the way society sees human waste.

The design and innovation festival was hosted in Cape Town at the Artscape Theatre Centre in February 2020. Mukhari is one of the young global graduates selected to present their ideas at the Think Tank, handpicked together with the heads of over 40 design institutes and colleges around the world.

Each young innovator works at the nexus of academia and the green economy, and the selection crite-ria centred on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Each is involved in highly innovative research that tackles global challenges and has social or environmental impact. And it’s translatable in the real world.

“Vukheta was chosen as one of only 12 candidates from around the world to speak at this event, so it’s quite an achievement. It is also fantastic that the organisers specifically contacted us to learn more about our urine bio-brick process,” said his supervisor, Dr Dyllon Randall.

On stage on the first day, Mukhari had just 10 minutes to describe how pee and pathogens had created a gamechanger in sustainable construc-

U


Mind blowing

Presenting on the Design Indaba platform is an experience Mukhari won’t forget. “It was mind blowing hearing some of the best design ideas and solutions from all over the world which have a tangible impact for the communities they’re designed for. Being in that space feels like elec-tricity running through the body – and in a good way!

“Creating networks is the best part; the indaba facilitates this so well. We get to mingle with the likes of the creative directors of Google and researchers using seaweed to green the construction industry. It’s amaz-ing. There are already a few potential avenues of collaboration, which is exciting.”

The world’s first bio-brick made using human urine. In picture are (from left) the Department of Civil Engineering’s Dr Dyllon Randall and his students, Vukheta Mukhari and Suzanne Lambert.

Photo: Robyn Walker

And that’s not all...

In tandem with the project is a call for waterless urinals to collect urine and produce a no-energy phosphate fertiliser as a by-product.

This is facilitated by a chemical addi-tive which also prevents the ammonia smell, kills pathogens and helps degrade pharmaceuticals present in human urine.

“Urine accounts for only 1% of munici-pal wastewater but contains 60 to 80% of all the nutrients contained in that waste,” said Mukhari. “By removing urine from the sewerage line, we’re effectively saving the treatment plant 60 to 80% money and energy. It’s actually groundbreaking … it’s liquid gold, a pee revolution.”

“This is an example of how we make use and reuse instead of making and then disposing. Nature knows no waste; what we call waste become a valuable resource.”

The real star, he said, is the collective Steve: the bacteria. And they can do so much more.“They’ve cemented loose sand parti-cles together, and we can apply that concept to other material, such as plastic waste, crushed glass and even concrete rubble to form sustainable construction material.

“The possibilities are legion: the pro-cess can cement material together to make clothing, furniture and food packaging.”


he CPSI announced the winners of the 17th Public Sector Innovation Awards, as selected by an independent adjudica-tion panel, on Friday, 29 November 2019, at a gala dinner in Ekurhuleni.

The Awards were conferred by the Deputy Minister for the Public Service and

Administration, Ms Sindisiwe Chikunga.

These Awards recognise successful and effective service delivery improvement projects and initiatives in the public sector that have been achieved through the application of innovative approaches, methodologies and tools.

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BY MMABATHO MASHABA


The North-West Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation, and Tourism developed the National Integrated Permit Administration System, an online platform for the application for permits to transport wildlife. The issuance of fauna and flora permits was previously done manually. This was tedious and time-con-suming, leading to numerous customer complaints. To deal with this challenge, a province-wide, web-based biodiversity permit system was introduced to offer hassle-free and cost-effective permit applications.

This innovation has improved the turnaround time for the issuing of permits, leading to improved customer satisfac-tion and increased revenue collection by almost 70%.

INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONSREDUCING THE COST OF DELIVERING SERVICESA

The eThekwini Metro Engineering Department introduced a WhatsApp fault reporting line that provides a 24/7/365-day direct line of communication between citizens and the department. Despite other channels of reporting faults, a number of challenges were still being experienced in terms of turnaround times to respond to water leaks, burst pipes, and water supply cuts. It is for these reasons that the Engineering Department decided to use WhatsApp Messenger.

The use of WhatsApp provides citizens with an alternative channel at a significantly reduced cost of communication. This application also has a facility for consumers to send GPS coordinates of where the problems are. This is more useful for rural and informal areas. The city now receives and responds to over 5 000 WhatsApp messages on a monthly basis.

CITIZEN-FOCUSED INNOVATIONSB

This project was also recognised as the 2019 Public Sector Innovator of the Year.


data portal. Through Vulekamali, the National Treasury continues to entrench its commitment to transparency and budget participatory reforms. Vulekamali was created to make national and provincial government budgets accessible to everyone in South Africa. Vukelamali allows visitors to the portal to engage and provide feedback to government on an ongoing basis, as it is structured around the budget process.

North West Provincial Treasury, through the Infrastructure Co-ordination Directorate, is responsible for reporting on infrastructure projects from different government departments, municipalities, and public entities. The directorate previously inspected projects the old-fashioned way through site visits.

Arial photography was never used before for monitor-ing of infrastructure projects. The Treasury now uses drones to track and inspect sites faster and more comprehensively.

Vulekamali, National Treasury and Usage of Drones for Photography of Infrastructure sites, North-West were both recognised in this category.

The National Treasury worked in partnership with Imali Yethu to develop an easily accessible, online budget

INNOVATIONS HARNESSING 4IR SOLUTIONS

PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION TRAILBLAZERS

C

D

These two in-house coders are developing a variety of in-house solutions to improve service delivery and reduce the need to procure expensive off-the-shelf solutions.

Mr Eddie Lerobane, Office of the Premier, Limpopo

Mr Bonolo Monye, Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism, North West


Mokwakwaila SAPS services 36 villages in the Tzaneen cluster. A substantial number of people, especially women, are unemployed and resort to using child grant payouts to gamble, sacrificing the needs of children in the process. Furthermore, learners were also gambling to such an extent that they were turning into loan sharks. Through this initiative, safety campaigns were conducted to create awareness about this scourge. In addition, a number of illegal gambling machines were confiscated and handed over to the Limpopo Gambling Board.

The Y-CAP, as it is commonly known, was borne out of a youth dialogue to empower and motivate youth to be active citizens while at school. This initiative is learner-led and has reached over 32 000 learners in over 4 000 schools since 2010. They identify health, welfare, education, and environmental issues to discuss and address.

The Special Ministerial Awards are given to individuals who have demonstrated exceptional service to citizens through their innovations and who reflect the spirit and ethos of a solution-focused public sector.

SPECIAL MINISTERIAL AWARDS

THE MOKWAKWAILA GAMING AWARENESS, LIMPOPO

YOUTH-CITIZENS ACTION PROGRAMME, GAUTENG

E


Manager: Mr Letsholo Mojanaga Tel: 083 289 0492 Email: [email protected]

Manager: Ms. Janice Golding Tel: 076 539 3479 Email: [email protected]

Manager: Mr Bongani Matomela Tel: 082 688 8096 Email: [email protected]

Manager: Ms. Nelly Mwaka Tel: 071 600 6385 Email: [email protected]


THE CENTRE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE INNOVATION (CPSI)The CPSI is mandated to develop innovative, sustainable and responsive models for improved service delivery. The work of the CPSI is guided by an understanding of innovation in a publicsector context as “the creation and implementation of new service delivery solutions (systems, processes, methods, models, products and services) resulting in significant improvements in outcomes, efficiency, effectiveness and quality”.

The CPSI facilitates the unearthing, development and implementation of innovative ideas within and throughout the public sector. It achieves this by facilitating pilot projects aimed at demonstrating the value of innovative solutions, and through activities that create an enabling environment within the public sector to support and sustain innovation. The CPSI’s cross-sector reach makes it a resource for the whole of government, thus bridging institutional boundaries.

Through active research and knowledge sharing platforms and products, the CPSI identifies and shares lessons and information on innovation trends nationally, across Africa and internationally. The CPSI partners with a range of individuals and institutions in government, business and communities in exciting and mutually beneficial ways. This partnership model allows us to leverage financial and/or intellectual capital in support of government priorities.

VISION: A solution-focused, effective and efficient Public Sector through innovation.

MISSION: To act as facilitator for the unearthing, development and practical implementation of innovative solutions within and throughout the public service.

MANDATE: • Provide the Minister for the Public Service and Administration with independent, diverse and forward-looking research findings and advice on innovative service delivery with a specific focus on government’s priorities.

• Enhance public service transformation through innovation partnerships for incubating, testing and piloting innovative solutions.

• Support the creation of an enabling environment for innovation within the structures and agencies of the South African government.

market, with huge consequences for organisations’ bottom lines.

The New Science of Radical Innovation provides profound insights and actiona-ble tools to help you accelerate the speed of execution, balance between team cohesion and self-organisation, and tap into the power of collective wisdom. Inside, discover how to develop the six leadership competencies you need to catalyse radical innovation in your organisation:

Self-Management Providing Safety Creating Differentiation Strengthening Connection Facilitating Learning Stimulating Radical Innovation

This book will help you redefine how value is created in your industry.

oday’s business environment is undergoing a revolutionary transfor-mation, defined by extraordinary levels of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complex-ity and ambiguity). Most traditional companies are, however, still built for the old-world economy, where the new mandate from VUCA requires a fresh leadership approach.

Dr. Sunnie Giles is a new-generation expert on radical innovation, who takes the mystery out of what radical innovation is and transforms organisa-tions into ones fit to deliver radical innovation. Her in-depth research reveals that applying concepts from neurosci-ence, complex-systems approach, and quantum mechanics can help leaders catalyse radical innovation rapidly. Giles’s breakthrough leadership development programme, called Quantum Leadership, is the key to survival in today’s VUCA

DISCOVER A GROUND-BREAKING, SCIENCE-BASED APPROACH TO LEADERSHIP THAT CATALYSES RADICAL INNOVATION FOR DRAMATIC AND PERMANENT RESULTS.

T

Reviewed by Mr Welcome Sekwati, CPSI

THE NEW SCIENCE OF RADICAL INNOVATIONTHE SIX COMPETENCIES LEADERS NEED TO WIN BY SUNNIE GILES


ISSUE 01 SSUE 1 2020...SOUTH AFRICA - HOW WE ARE DOING THE ROLE OF FORESIGHT CPSI IDEAS THAT WOR 11...

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Transcript of ISSUE 01 SSUE 1 2020...SOUTH AFRICA - HOW WE ARE DOING THE ROLE OF FORESIGHT CPSI IDEAS THAT WOR 11...