Publications

Frugal business model innovation in the Base of the Pyramid: The case of Philips Community Life Centres in Africa

This paper by Dr Elsie K. Onsongo, Prof. dr. Peter Knorringa and Prof. dr. Cees van Beers investigates how a multinational enterprise (MNE) engages in frugal business model innovation to find the ...
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Community vitality and frugal practices in informal settlements in Nairobi: Towards a typology

While community vitality is of increasing importance, it remains understudied. This study by Jan Fransen, Beatrice Hati, Rosebella Nyumba, Erwin van Tuijl explores community vitality in informal settlements by turning ...
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Of Monopolies and Mini-Grids: Case Studies from Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and Senegal

Working Paper No. 1: UKRI-GCRF SIGMA Project Recent advances in decentralised renewable electricity systems have undermined long-held assumptions that electricity access and rural electrification can only be achieved via the ...
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Electric cooking in Tanzania: an actor-network map and analysis of a nascent sociotechnical innovation system

MECS Programme Working Paper This paper provides a first attempt to map several characteristics of Tanzania’s e-cooking socio-technical innovation system. The ‘map’ consists of visualisations of the actor-networks and actor-relations in ...
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Comparing frugality and inclusion in innovation for development: logic, process and outcome

Authors: Onsongo, E., and Knorringa, P. Article in Journal: Innovation and Development; https://doi.org/10.1080/2157930X.2020.1811931 Publication Date: 22 Sep 2020 Abstract This paper sheds light on two main concepts applied to innovation ...
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Blogs & Perspectives

Understanding Knowledge, Perceptions and Beliefs of eCooking

By Dr Abigael Okoko Globally, there are calls and efforts to achieve sustainability in all sectors. Energy has not been left behind either in these efforts. Energy, a key pillar for ...
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Unearthing the digital divide among the urban poor in Kenya’s informal settlements

By Harrison Kioko and Beatrice Hati This document draws attention to a digital divide among the urban poor as traced in an exploratory study on digital platforms and household resilience ...
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Reaching the Hard-to-Reach Areas: A Case of Electrification of Remote Areas in Kenya

By Abigael Okoko Off-grid rural communities in Kenya experience a multitude of challenges; one of them being lack of access to electricity which limits the productive capacity of the people. ...
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Resilience – A channel of hope or just a fashionable jargon? An African Community Lens: Grounded Perspectives

Interpreting resilience in a (more) complex century ​A conceptual exploration. By Beatrice Hati – ​MSc, PhD (ongoing) ​Beatrice is an urban planner, development specialist and scholar-activist working as the Coordinator of ...
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Digital Platforms and Household Water Resilience for the Urban Poor

By Harrison Kioko Access to clean water for domestic use is one of the major challenges that residents of Mathare Valley have to deal with. This notwithstanding, residents are exposed ...
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