Joseph Schumpeter, one of the 20th century greatest intellectuals, an economist and author of one of the famous book Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, stated in the theory of Innovation about breakthrough innovations – smaller and incremental innovation steps, such as electrical locomotives replacing steam locomotives, or mobile phones replacing landline phones (in developed countries or in urban cities of developing, economies in transition). This particularly happens once the current technology-saturated and become obsolete.
Leapfrogging though comes in even before the current technology has reached market saturation or has even been introduced at all. It refers to “skipping inferior, less efficient, more expensive or more polluting technologies and industries and move directly to more advanced ones”. A typical example is the adoption of mobile phones instead of landline phones in emerging countries, such as Vietnam. Because there is an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the so-called “brown economy”, the green economy is a “chance for emerging and developing economies to leapfrog unsustainable and wasteful production and consumption patterns” (source: OECD report on ‘Green Growth and Developing Countries’).
When in the US, EU or other developed economies, one may notice the evidence of centuries of technological progress, getting to this point has taken decades of innovation, iteration, and trial and error. But in developing countries, particularly African ones, millions of people are skipping the technological evolution process, leapfrogging over now-obsolete technologies and going straight to modern fixes. As a bonus, these often happen to be green, sustainable, and relatively cheap.
Whether it’s installing solar panels on homes or by creating off-grid wind and biofuel farms in developing countries of the African continent, India, Vietnam and other economies in transition wherein rural areas didn’t receive electricity from the grid even in 21st century. Pay to go, models, scratch card recharge facility bring the hope of light to these areas who haven’t seen a lit bulb or a rotating fan throughout their lives. This also boosts up smartphone usage as people can now charge their phone batteries using off-grid solar panels, thus, it refers to an as multidimensional interlinked model which is a result of stakeholder involvement from telecom, energy, government, social enterprises, and self-help groups.
One of the biggest examples of leapfrogging in sustainable development is mobile phones replacing landline phones in developing countries and rural areas of economies in transition, which eventually help these countries in boosting their GDP by connectivity, opening up their bank accounts, etc. Reliance Jio in India is an example of the biggest Digital revolution which eventually helped poor use and become familiar with using the Internet in day to day lives, couple with schemes such as Jan Dhan Yojana, UPI Payments, etc. helped the nation to eradicate corruption at intermediaries level and thus helping poor getting their money directly in their bank accounts.
The education sector is no more deprived of facilities as digital and IT tools are helping beneficiaries (students) and service providers (schools, teachers, startups, social enterprises) to digitally collaborate even in the poorest of the areas and communities. Education on wheels in India, flagship programs of CSR activities such as Nanhikali by Mahindra & Mahindra, providing livelihood and employability training using digital and customizable curriculum modules is yet another example of leapfrogging.
It has been believed that the world might face a shortage of food and drinking water in the future, evidence of which is visible in the 21st century. Almost 50% of India’s workforce falls under the Agriculture sector accounting for approximately 18% of nations’ GDP. Farmers face challenges such as price discovery, dissemination, assaying, and grading, transparency, intermediaries, etc. alongside the usual problems of lack of nutrients, pest, and diseases, moisture, poor productivity, etc. which today has been addressed by smart farming, smallholder farmers financial inclusion, capacity building, etc. and there are generation of young farmers who are seeing these new technologies in the very first day of their sowing and harvesting cycles and thus, are considered as modern farmers.
Robotic pharmacy system in Africa, Ayushmaan healthcare scheme in India and modernization of healthcare, etc. are changing the way healthcare has been witnessed in these countries years back, in fact, increasing the average age of the country, India for instance, whose average age has increased by 4 years in the recent years.
So, will leapfrogging clear the biggest hurdles in developing countries? Well, definitely yes, as technology plays a significant role in bringing services, information, and capabilities at a much faster rate than previously possible. It indeed has to be more scalable addressing fundamental challenges such as access to water, sanitation, food, infrastructure, etc. and government policies in eradicating poverty and promoting sustainable development are in fact crucial at any stage of the implementation process, people’s participation is equally important. Thus, any intervention in a developing nation has to be a movement.
