Developing Local Innovation Capacity to Drive Global Health Improvements

Abstract

In global health, innovation often comes from “outside-in”: industrialized countries develop new drugs, devices, or services, and export them to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) (Syed et al. in Global Health 9:36, 2013). Yet there is a growing recognition that there is real potential for “bi-directional flow of knowledge, ideas, skills and innovation” (Syed et al. 2013). To generate sustainable impact at scale, high-income countries should further encourage this local innovation capacity. One way to do so is to export more than just finished products to LMICs, but also the knowledge, processes, and cultural mindset that support repeated success in new product and service development.