9 January 2008
Following the successful outcomes of the three sub-regional workshops held in 2007, members of the African Incubator Network (AIN) have ratified a detailed plan of action for 2008. Key areas of focus, identified during the workshops, will be capacity building; increased advocacy and stakeholder relationship building and the broad promotion of incubation activities across the continent.
Capacity building, especially training for incubator professionals and the sharing of expertise between peers and other experts, will be a major area of activity and will make extensive use of information and communication technologies to increase reach and access. Members are increasingly making use of iDISC, a dedicated web portal and tools such as web conferencing (Alice Street Conferencing Centre software)
Increased advocacy and stakeholder linkage development are seen as important for increased incubation reach and effectiveness, and to more concretely position incubation as a facilitator of government support policies for enterprise development. Better linkages between academics and the private sector are also needed to entrench incubation as a tool for enterprise development.
This will be supported by the broad promotion and marketing of incubation initiatives and their impact through case studies, brochures, media participation and the further development of knowledge repositories. Not only are these actions seen as facilitating greater stakeholder involvement, but they would increase the sustainability of incubation initiatives and allow better understanding in incubation circles.
Implentation of the plan has already seen AIN members lobbying their country governments and discussing the formation of country and sub-regional associations. In Southern Africa, for example, the South Africa Business and Technology Incubator Association (SABTIA) has broadened its mandate to become the Southern African Business and Technology Incubator Association with membership open to all incubators in the region.
With the firm foundation created in 2007, the AIN is set to achieve its targets in 2008.