Author Biography

Olugbenga Adesida is a Development Policy and Scenarios Planning specialist and co-founder of the Africa Innovation Summit and the technology enterprise Bonako based in Cabo Verde. He is Associate Editor of the African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, Director of the Africa Leadership Institute, and a board member of the Pedro Pires Leadership Institute. He holds a doctorate from the London School of Economics, UK, with a thesis on the role of intermediary institutions in the diffusion of complex technological innovations.

Geci Karuri-Sebina is an Associate Professor with the University of Witwatersrand’s School of Governance, Adjunct Professor at University of Cape Town (African Centre for Cities), Associate of the South African Cities Network, and a founding Director of the Southern African Node of the Millennium Project. She is active across a number of sectors including as board member and Vice President of AfricaLics, organizer of the Civic Tech Innovation Network, and Africa Regional Editor for the journal foresight.

João Resende-Santos is Associate Professor of Global Studies at Bentley University in Massachusetts, USA. He is author of Neorealism, States, and the Modern Mass Army (Cambridge University Press, 2007), and is active as a policy practitioner and international consultant in the areas of economic development policy, entrepreneurship, and trade policy. He has been a consultant for a number of international organizations and for the Government of Cabo Verde.

Mammo Muchie is a South Africa National Research Foundation Research (SARChI) Chair-holder and Professor of Innovation Studies at Tshwane University of Technology, and currently Adjunct Professor at Bahir Dar University and the University of Gondar both in Ethiopia and the Africa Centre of Excellence in Data Science in Rwanda. He is a scientific board member of Globelics and the Globelics Academy; founder and Chief Editor of the African Journal on Science, Technology, Innovation and Development; and co-editor along with Bengt-Åke Lundvall and Peter Gammeltoft of the seminal book Putting Africa First: The Making of African Innovation Systems (Aalborg University Press, 2003), and author of numerous articles and academic papers. He holds a DPhil in Science, Technology, and Innovation for Development (STI4D) from the University of Sussex, UK.