One afternoon in my office, my children sat quietly for a few minutes. Then, without prompting, they began building airplanes out of scrap paper and necklaces from paper clips. With no toys, no screens, and no instructions, they created their own world. That moment reinforced a belief I have come to hold strongly: Creativity cannot simply be taught; it emerges when children are given space, not when everything is provided to them. As the world marks the World Creativity and Innovation Day on April 21, we often look to classrooms, incubators, or innovation hubs for the next breakthrough. But if we want to build truly innovative societies, we must start much earlier and much closer to home. Creativity is not a switch we turn on in adulthood; it is a muscle we either exercise early or allow to fade. Today, many children are given fewer opportunities, encouragement, and support to engage with their physical environment, as increasing emphasis is placed on digital spaces. Entertainment has become more passive, and imagination is increasingly outsourced to algorithms. A 2023 systematic review of 15 studies found that high levels of screen exposure are consistently linked to attention difficulties in preschool children. Beyond attention, excessive screen time displaces real-world interaction and imaginative play, both essential for creative development. When every gap in a child’s day is filled with a digital stream, the ability to sit with boredom and transform it into a project quietly disappears. I say this with humility. I grew up surrounded by television myself. However, when my wife was pregnant with our first child, we made a deliberate choice to give ours away, not as a rejection of technology, but to create more space for active play, creativity, and exploration. In that apparent “nothingness,” something remarkable happens. Instead of passively consuming content, our children began creating it, using simple materials, puzzles and, most importantly, their own ideas. We also introduced a simple rule at home: whenever our children come to us with a problem, they must also bring a proposed solution. At first, this led to frustration. Complaints came without answers. But over time, something shifted. They began anticipating solutions before even raising the issue. They became more resourceful, more proactive. This is where innovation truly begins, not as a technical skill, but as a mindset. In Rwanda, where we are investing heavily in youth entrepreneurship, we often focus on funding and infrastructure. These are essential but not sufficient. Innovation is not only about what we build. It is about how we think. And the home is where that mindset begins. Creativity does not come from abundance alone. It often grows strongest under constraint. In Kenya, limited access to traditional banking services gave rise to M-Pesa, a simple mobile money solution that transformed financial inclusion across the continent. In Rwanda, the inefficiencies of cash-based transport such as long queues, delays from handling money, and limited system oversight created the conditions for the Tap&Go smart card. What began as a response to everyday friction evolved into a streamlined, cashless system that improved both commuter experience and transport management. These innovations mirror the paper-clip necklaces in my office. They remind us that the most impactful ideas emerge not when everything is available, but when we are challenged to imagine new ways forward. The same principle applies to the tools we give our children today: creativity develops strongest when children are first given the space to think, explore, and even struggle on their own. Technology is not the enemy, but what matters is that children first learn to think and imagine on their own before using it as a support. As artificial intelligence reshapes our world, it offers extraordinary possibilities to help children explore ideas. Used intentionally, it can enhance creativity by supporting brainstorming, expanding perspectives, and helping refine original ideas. However, there is a risk. Used passively, AI can turn children into consumers of ready-made answers. If children rely on AI to think for them, rather than with them, we risk raising a generation that consumes intelligence instead of creating it. As we focus on building national innovation ecosystems, we must not overlook the smallest and perhaps most influential ecosystem of all: the home. In the everyday choices we make such as allowing boredom, limiting passive consumption and valuing imagination over convenience, we shape future innovators. They are not formed only in classrooms or incubators, but in ordinary moments when they are given the freedom to explore, fail, and build. If we are serious about building innovative societies, we must start by creating the conditions for creativity at home. The author is a father of two and a development practitioner and advocate for youth empowerment and creative innovation.
