University of Botswana DESIS Lab, Gaborone, Botswana

Submitted by admin on Thu, 07/07/2011 - 9:47pm

University of Botswana DESIS Lab, Gaborone, Botswana

Private Bag UB 0061, Gaborone, Botswana
Tel: +267 355 4353

Hosting Institution
: University of Botswana, Private Bag 0022, Gaborone Botswana,
Tel: +267 355 4224
Website: http://www.ub.bw

Coordinator
: Dr Richie Moalosi
Private Bag UB 0061, Gaborone, Botswana
Tel: +267 355 4353, Email: moalosi@mopipi.ub.bw

Operations Manager
: Shorn Molokwane
Private Bag UB 0061, Gaborone, Botswana
Tel: +267 355 4368, Email: molokwaneb@mopipi.ub.bw

Background information: The University of Botswana become a DESIS member after contributing to theCreative Communities for Sustainable Life Styles (CCSL) project, a Task Force on Sustainable Consumption and Production, sponsored by the Swedish Ministry of Environment and United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). It was through this initiative that the concept of social innovation was taken on board into the design programme.

Objectives: The objectives of the University of Botswana DESIS Lab are to:

Promote the concept of social innovation in design programmes of new emerging economies.
Develop a favorable social, cultural, political, economic environment through designfor the present and future generations.
Promote promising social innovation initiatives and communicate their significance to a large audience.
Facilitate the transferability of effective social innovation solutions to other socio-cultural contexts.
Propose new visions and solutions as initiatives to be developed in open, collaborative interactions with local communities and other stakeholders.

Activities (past and present): The University of Botswana was involved in the unearthing local promising social innovation scenarios for the Creative Communities for Sustainable Life Styles (CCSL) project. Some of the areas include neighbourhood care, cultural food festival, money saving schemes and greening the city. In 2010, the University of Botswana and other African Universities are in partnership with Rio de Janeiro Federal Universityon a research project called ‘Africa-Brasil Dialogs: a collaborative platform for mutual learning on social innovation’.This project is on-going and it used the CCSL project as starting point and it involves identifying social innovation initiatives in the African and Brazilian contexts.Social innovation in this context is viewed as the main driver towards sustainability and design schools could help insupporting and accelerating the process through developing the necessary knowledge base, information management and dissemination.

Primary research area: Identifying, communicating and giving visibility to promising social innovation initiatives within Botswana’s context.

Future programmes: To integrate social innovation within the University of Botswana Industrial Design programme together with other contemporary initiatives which promote sustainability through design.

Main partners: Cape Peninsula University of Technology, University of Nairobi, Makerere University, Rio de Janeiro Federal University and Politecnico di Milano.

List of projects and research: Neighbourhood care, cultural food festival, money saving schemes and greening the city, design with the marginalised and disadvantaged communities.

Project Example