Knowledge Sharing for Cluster
Competitiveness
TCI Annual Meeting
October 29, 2008
David Fischer
USAID African Global Competitiveness Initiative
USAID’s experience
• USAID’s first cluster project was in Lebanon in 1998
• Expanded to 26 countries, $60 million in 2003
• Renewed understanding  Increase in projects
Shortcomings:
• Few project evaluations performed
• Lack of baseline data
• Difficult to quantify impact and identify best practices
Business case for supporting “Knowledge for
Competitiveness
• Competitiveness initiatives are about building connections and
relationships among firms and institutions that have traditionally
acted in isolation
• Building these connections requires major shifts in thinking and
behavior … shifts that are not easily achieved
• Improving understanding and support for competitiveness
• Changing the interaction between business and government;
and business and education
• integrated into the institutional architecture of successful
clusters
• Sharing information requires TRUST
Best practices &
cluster advocacy
Outcome and
impact results
Knowledge
sharing
Market
information
& trends
Networking
Outcome and
impact results
• Indicator-based
• Provides quantitative business
case data
• Allows baselining and
benchmarking
• Cluster facilitator needs to tell the
story and the results
• Supports value of collective action
of firms
• Can be overwhelming
• Often lack of short-term results
• May prompt impartiality from
“neutral” facilitator
Best practices &
cluster advocacy
•
•
•
•
•
•
Global knowledge and perspective
Cluster-specific expertise
Sector-based or function-based
Main avenue for innovation
Reduces implementation risk
Provides context to indicators
• Broadening knowledge of clusters
and competitiveness
• Mainstreams issues
• Promotes larger dialogue
Networking
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The HEART of the cluster
Requires trust among stakeholders
Value chain
Supply chain
Business advisors
Investors
Interventions to share experiences
Market
information
& trends
• International marketplace
knowledge
• Facilitators act as neutral, highquality resource
• Heavily dependent on the role of
the facilitator
Country example – Sri Lanka benchmarking
USAID cluster facilitators worked with the World Economic Forum
to include the country in its Global Competitiveness Report –
• Global rankings involve country leadership and prompts
dialogue
• Rankings provide private sector with objective neutral data
• Rankings confirm private sector priorities on competitiveness
challenges
• Media coverage of rankings build general public’s knowledge
Challenges for knowledge management in clusters
Limited information
• The body of knowledge on developing cluster
initiatives is still evolving
• Best practices from industrial countries do not always
translate to a developing country context
• Information on how to implement cluster initiatives in
developing countries is just starting
• As a result, developing country practitioners suffer
from a lack of suitable information
Managerial myopia
• Cluster initiatives cannot present information to
managers in a form that is easy for them to use
• Inability to link other examples to own initiatives’
context
• Local champions rarely relay on outside information –
too busy creating local partnerships
Coordination failures
• Low capacity of cluster initiative to implement best
practices
• Lack of sufficient public-private dialogue
• Absence of local champion to implement change
Under-provision of public goods
• Education, training, benchmarking, research lacking
• Infrastructure lacking
• Uneven application of Triple Helix
Lessons learned
• “Sweat-equity” investment of cluster participants
• Private sector must own and drive process
• Donors need clearly-defined performance indicators
and regular tracking
• Leadership matters
• Cluster development is hardest in traditional
industries
Thoughts going forward to make knowledge sharing
sustainable
• Make it demand-driven
• Make it relevant
• Make it fresh
• Make it easy
• Make it fun
Selected resources
• Mitchell Group. “Promoting Competitiveness in Practice: An
Assessment of Cluster-Based Approaches.” November 2003.
http://www.bdsknowledge.org/dyn/bds/docs/254/USAID-MitchellClusters.pdf
• Brookings Institution. “Making Sense of Clusters: Regional
Competitiveness and Economic Development.” March 2006.
http://www.brookings.edu/metro/mei/20060727_clusters.htm
• Ketels, Christian, Göran Lindqvist and Örjan Sölvell. “Cluster
Initiatives in Developing and Transition Economies.” 2005.
http://www.cluster-research.org/devtra.htm
• Sölvell, Örjan, Göran Lindqvist and Christian Ketels. The Cluster
Initiative Greenbook.
http://www.cluster-research.org/greenbook.htm
Thank you!
For more information, please contact:
David Fischer
[email protected]
www.usaid.gov/locations/sub-saharan_africa/initiatives/agci.html