Busisiwe Ntuli
Director: Innovation for Local Economic Development National Department of Science, Technology and Innovation – South Africa
Ms Busisiwe Ntuli is a South African development strategist, policymaker and public administrator with a focus on Innovation for Development. She started her higher education with a junior degree from the University of Cape Town and proceeded to obtain an honour’s degree in Development Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). She also holds a master’s degree in Public Policy Management from Wits. She is currently reading for her PhD in Public Management and Governance with specialisation in innovation at the University of Johannesburg, where she also completed a diploma in Advanced Business Management. As a scholar of corporate governance, she trained at the Institute of Directors of South Africa. Her research interests include innovation and local economic development; participatory local economic governance; intersectionality of innovation, poverty and inequalities. Her career spans private, public and non-governmental organisations. Currently, in the National Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI), she is the Director responsible for policy, strategy and programmes in Innovation for Local Economic Development. Some of her notable achievements in national government include pioneering and advancing the Innovation for Local Economic Development agenda of South Africa (SA) and crafting programmes to democratise innovation and support innovation-driven local economies. She in one of the co-authors of South Africa’s Framework for Local Economic Development of 2018-2028, which foregrounds science, technology and innovation as enablers of inclusive development for the first time in the history of LED policy in SA.