Cofisa (formally the Cooperation Framework on Innovation Systems between Finland and South Africa) is an initiative between Finland and South Africa, aiming to improve local innovation systems.
The programme has been running for the past few years and intends to bring European expertise to the South African context, to help local people find ways to solve their problems and address their issues in a constructive manner.
The Cofisa book was a summary of the exercises embarked on and lessons learned from the process.
It was quite a challenge to come up with a concept that could visually illustrate what it was that Cofisa had been endeavouring to do for the past few years. Eventually we proposed a series of images that were a combination of South African and European innovations. The picture becomes complete when the images are put together.
This visual metaphor communicates what Cofisa stands for; coming up with a solution, whatever the challenge, by including local knowledge and international expertise to achieve optimum results. Using elements of hand-generated type throughout the book also conveyed the message that innovation needs to be a creative process.
Cofisa was very pleased with the results, as feedback from the editor, Tina James, reflects: “Nirvashee Seetal, South African national co-ordinator: COFISA was over the moon and mentioned in her book launch speech that she cannot even describe how pleased she was with the publication. There was also a very good response from the audience and some of the authors. So well done and thanks for all your efforts.”
We hope the book will achieve its goal, helping other developing countries to learn from the Cofisa experience, as it is distributed throughout Africa. Africa’s problems ideally need to be solved by Africans and a well-implemented innovation system can be an important step towards making this happen.
Images from the Cofisa report that reflect African ingenuity combined with First World sophistication