The 4th AfricaLics International Conference took place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from the 22^nd to the 25^th of October 2019. This year the conference focused on “Innovation and transformative capacities for growth and sustainable development in Africa”. The conference brings together leading scholars working on innovation and development in Africa as well as policy makers and business community interested in this field.

The IREK research team organized and presented a thematic session during the conference titled “Innovation in renewable electrification: the case of capability building through renewable electrification projects in Kenya”. The panelists were Rasmus Lema, Rebecca Hanlin, Charles Nzila, Michael Korir, Ann Kingiri and Faith Odongo.

The speakers presented their research around the questions of: Can renewable electrification projects create opportunities for new job creation, new skills or new product development leading to enhanced local manufacturing or industrialization efforts in a sustainable way? What is the role of learning, innovation policies including local content requirement in the path to sustainable industrialization? After the presentations, interesting discussions took place concerning these issues.