; The Economics of African 0 Indigenous Knowledge 7 ~~~~E 4- ~ X A frican Indigenous Knowledge edge and apportions little reward for l _ (IK) 'is labeled variously and individual innovations. The impact of misconceived at mternational this communal owvnership of knowl- discussions and in modern literature. edge had produced different reactions 0 The most commonly used phrases are from innovators and ingenuous knowl- static," "low-value-added" and "prior edge bearers, in various sectors. In the art," primarily in the context of the high-income sectors like the medicine, Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual innovators use "secrecy" to protect Property Rights (TRIPS), of the WVorld their knowledge. In the low-income Trade Organization. Frequently one sectors such as agriculture, innovators finds expressions like mystery, charla- are "indifferent," in the absence of tan, irrational, or miracle in relation public incentive and protection to to traditional medicine, for instance. making their knowledge public. WNThen Achievements of traditional medicine the knowledge bearers die, the knowl- are considered anecdotal or beyond edge disappears wvith them. The result scientific validation The misconcep- is what wve call a "continuous but non- tion is further aggravated by the little additive innovation" as against "con- No. 53 or no growth in the sector and a lack tinuous and additive innovation." In February 2003 of understanding of the context in which practitioners apply traditional IK Notes reports periodically on medicine. Yet, the literature pro- Indigenous Knowsiedge (IK) initiatives duced on this sector has not given in Sub-Saharan Africa and occasionally I on such initiatives outside the Region much attention to the factors that un- It is published by the Afnca Region's derpin these misconceptions. !Knowledge and Learning Center as part of an evolving 1K partnership This article therefore provides a ba- | between the WIorld Bank, comnruiii- j%oNAL a sic explanation to the apparent lack of ties, NGOs, development institutions understanding and growth from Afri- and multilateral organizations. The vi ews expressed in this article are can indigenous knowledge. The argu- those of the authors and should not he ment is anchored on the African cus- attributed to the XVlorld Bank Group or its partners in this initiative. 'ONf AND Dtomary law system that only recog- A Nvebpage on IK is available at nizes communal ownership of knowl- t\w-wNv\orldbank.org/afr/ik/default.htm FiL F np 1.s.;_,_ 2 the absence of additivity in innovations, the knowledge re- behaviours - in what the author call the "the Secrecy-Moti- mains basic and cannot produce much macro-economic vation Model." growth. The questions expected to be answered, using African tra- In line with the above, the study argues that the "static ditional medicine as an example are: why are African tradi- semblance" labels and stigma are the product of the lack of tional medical practitioners secretive? Are the motivations incentive for individual IK innovators, in the customary law for the secretive behaviours economic? *Vhat specific healing systems. In particular, it argues that traditional medicine is powers do the practitioners have, requiring secrecy? What not a profession of charlatans, but rather a part of Africa's are the economic impacts of such secretive behaviors? development resource not well-studied, not adequately ap- To answer the above questions, the study posits that three propriated and developed. African traditional healers (and factors determine the secret behaviours of African tradi- other practitioners of IK) are equally capable of research, in- tional healers. These are: the inadequacy of rents from inno- novation and healing as their "allopathic" counterparts. vation; absence of public protection of intellectual property Bone-setting, anti-snake venom production, active immuni- rights in the African customary law system; and the threat of zation practices or treatment of post-traumatic stress disor- business-stealing and obsolescence by the arrival of new in- ders are good examples of highly-appreciated products of Af- novations. Innovation, has very little predictability. This is rican traditional medicine. As such, the study makes a case particularly so in medicine and agriculture, where research that it is the secretive applications that have beclouded the can be costly and long-term, and where the results are uncer- true value of the activities. This secrecy, however, has some tain. In this situation, the innovators and bearers of the economic rationale. The aim of this article, therefore, is to unique knowvledge consistently work to regulate against any explain the economic rationale behind such secret threat of knowledge stealing or obsolescence. The Explanation 0 K N )tea The author named the explanation the Motivation Model wvould be of intercst to: because of the motivational effects that explain the secrecy (search for innovation, investment in the research process Namie and expected income effects). Initially, the study supposes llnsstitnon that under normal economic circumstances, any new product is created not by a single innovation/imitation but by a AdAkeas__ whole sequence of innovations. The existence of the last in- novation leads to further developments and innovations. Some of what will result from it will be more fundamental (horizontal), some will be more secondary, hence vertical. That said, the study explains wvhy an innovative traditional healer would choose to remain indefinitely secretivc. I4~kM1~m ~Wvog3 &~JIM ffJW09 g' 0 0 In this explanation, the principal input/resource a tradi- tional healer invests in the production and innovation pro- [ARW K cesses, is himself/herself, defined as his/her physical pdwer ~)d LWRN (XoitRw and knowledge. Having done so, innovation arrives randomly RL1, G{l X;Q9 EQX @lat a rate expressible as a fraction of the invested knowvledge, .&) NMW indicating the productivity of the research. Randomness means that at the current time, the possibility and specificity of the innovation cannot be guaranteed. The innovator may 3 find another innovation in the process of solving a particular rival good from the "new" innovation, that the incumbent health problem at a time unknown to him/her. Even by allo- will create confusion regarding the value of goods and ser- cating a large amount of his timc and knowledge resources, vicCs that he/shc produces by keeping the technical informa- it is still uncertain, to the innovator, when the next innova- tion anonymous and secrct. tion may take place. The individual that succeeds in innovat- Also aware of the absencc of any public institutions to pro- ing prefers to monopolize thc production sector until re- tect his/her indigenous knowledge, the owner has to find a placed by the next innovator. creative way to shield his/her monopoly earnings from imita- WAAhen researching, the healer has to balance opportunity tors and the process of business/knowledge-stealing. In costs of marketable goods or services against the uncertain terms of application, other disguises follow in the form of results of research Costs are likelv to be high given the un- incantation, masquerading, diversionary sacrifices and scare certainty of results of the research. Sharing the results of the tactics. In this Nvay, even the patients or customers who are innovation in the community would deprive him/her of the alloNwed to come in close contact with the products may not income deriving from the innovation, since it could easily be easily and freely understand which among the array of acts copied not only by other healers but also by his/her fellow contributed the actual solution that they required. It thus community members in a do-it-yourself application of the appears ngical. new treatment. In the absence of guises and disguises, the probability in- It is the possibility of a 'business-stealing effect as a result creascs that consumers of the medical products may imitate of openness that is of serious interest to the study and of con- the innovation and increment the frequeney of do-it-yourself cern to the knowledge bearer Through this effect, it is en- (DIY) self-treatments, thus depriNing the practitioner of mo- tirely possible for a newv entrant in the innovation field to nopoly income. This self-protective approach thus helps the successfully destroy the monopoly rent attributable to the innovator or bearer of the newv knowledge to continue col- previous generation of innovators, by making their products lecting monopoly rents as wvell as to protect against "intrud- obsolete. ers" who may steal and improve on the intermediate input Also relating this to cost of innovation, one assumes that and render the original idea obsolete. research costs/expenditures are financed at the proportional The main argument once again is that those working in rate that is equal to the resources and labour force commit- African traditional medical sector have finite resources, just ted to research. Only a portion of the resources and finance like anyone else, and interest invested in their work. In the Nvill produce any, research objectives. If the costs and benefits absence of public protection of their innovations and uncer- are also measured in units of final outputs, the marginal cost tainty associated wvith discovering a new solution, they hedge is the amount over and above initial investment. against getting these innovations into the public domain. \Nhen the expected net income from the use of the innova- The objective they achieve through this is that the public tion is included, one gets a different effect, where profit is cannot engage in imitation and do-it-yourself, thus depriving the exponentiated at the time. In the case of business steal- them of their monopoly rent. The process of hedging induces ing, therefore, the loss will be expressed as a loss of both the the distortions and magical performances associated writh the invested resources as well as the expected profit. The double activities. The above explanations have been tested using loss of both, investments and expected income is thus a driv- empirical data. The results strongly support the main argu- ing force to hide the new idea or innovation in the absence of ment of the model. institutional and other legal support or protection. In the other low-income sector such as agriculture, what Within the above framewvork, any "new" innovation poses a one found was that the innovators/indigenous knowledge serious challenge to the livelihood and means of existence of bearers do not pro-actively hide their knowledge. Com- the previous incumbent of the previous innovation. It is in monly, they tend to be indifferentt to whether their discover- anticipation of the loss of income and the threat of obsoles- ics are made public or not (partly, because most of their ac- cence, to be associated with the introduction of the superior tivities can easily be studied on their fields). When asked, 4 they reveal what they know but most of the time, nobody What are the other conclusions that one can draw? The in- asks. Also, since there are usually no forums to share their centive structure to promote indigenous knowledge innova- knowledge, the owners keep it to themselves.. tion and development has to be put in place. Doing this, may In the end, however, the impact of both "secrecy" and "in- neither be inherently good nor bad, but holds the potential difference" are unambiguously negative on the macro- for great benefits. More research might also bring about a growth of the economies and the original knowledge itself. change of heart about African indigenous knowledge, in par- When the knowledge-bearers cease to operate, they disap- ticular, medicine, natural resource management, and agricul- pear with their knowledge. This means that the next genera- ture and livestock keeping. The abandonment of the associ- tion has to start afresh on the same process. The result is ated stigma and lack of policy attention could be overcome what the author calls "continuous but non-additive innova- by enabling the creation of constituencies; traditional healer tion" as against "continuous and additive innovation," In the associations are a first step. absence of additivity of innovations, the knowledge cannot The potential for growth and poverty reduction and the produce much growth. The conclusion from this is simple. expected contributions to the stock of knowledge for resolv- African countries have not put in place the incentive policy ing several intractable global problems, that could come that can help achieve a "continuous and additive innovation" from this locked potential, are an incentivefor action. in the indigenous knowledge system. The customary law sys- tem has also not self-corrected for this. Therefore, the growth-enhancing effects of indigenous knowledge system will remain minimal, thus falsely supporting the misconcep- tion of the whole knowledge as static. Jeannette marie Smith 86540 1 MC C3-301 Hilary Nwokeabia is an economist in the Economic and Social Policy Division (ESPD), United Nations Economic Com- mission for Africa (UNECA), PO. Box 3001, Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia. Tel: (251-1) 445333/51 7200. Ext. 35333.E-mail: hnwokeabia@yahoo.com or Nwokeabia@UN.ORG. This IK Note is a condensed version of a new UNECA publication by the author, titled "Why Industrial Revolution Missed Africa: A Traditional Knowledge Perspective. "