A lot of innovation has been going on around the world. New ideas for dolls, tractors and short stories. We also touch on the Innovation Index and other business.
Barbie introduces disabled doll
In a bid to fight the stigma around physical disabilities, Barbie will this year introduce a doll with a prosthetic leg and one that comes with a wheelchair. This is also expected to offer kids a more diverse representation of beauty. The prosthetic limb will be removable and the Barbie house will have a ramp just like most modern-day buildings which are meant to be easily accessible to those on wheelchairs.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/12/us/barbie-doll-disabilities-trnd/index.html
Kenya tops Africa in flower exports
Kenya is now the top African flower exporter. They are 4th in the world after Columbia, Ecuador and Netherlands with 7% of the market share. Funny enough, Netherlands, who buys the most flowers from Kenya exports 35% of those flowers to the European Union. Kenya sells to more than 50 other countries directly. The numbers are impressive. The industry employs about 500 000 people and they export 360 tonnes of flowers daily. In 2017 flowers earned them the highest foreign currency amounting to US$595.6 million. Zimbabwe has been one of the top flower exporters before and the potential is there.
Short story dispenser
French Publisher Short Edition has come up with a dispenser which does not dispense drinks but short stories. And these are for free. The aim of these dispensers is to encourage reading and writing. Currently, 150 of these are installed at government offices, cafes, universities, shopping malls, train stations and airports. What a way to encourage reading.
South Africa only Sub-Saharan African country on the Innovation Index
The 7th Bloomberg Innovation Index ranked South Korea first out of 60 ranked economies. Germany are second. Sub-Saharan Africa continues to perform dismally with only South Africa making it on the rankings. They are a distant 51st position. The only other African country is Tunisia which is ranked 52nd. The index uses seven metrics to measure innovativeness. These include research and development spending, tertiary efficiency, manufacturing capability, productivity and researcher concentration among others.
