STEPS centre manifesto

What is ‘Innovation, Sustainability, Development: A New Manifesto’?

In 1970 the publication of a radical and controversial document helped shape modern thinking on science and technology for development. It was called The Sussex Manifesto: Science and Technology to Developing Countries during the Second Development Decade.

Forty years on, the worlds of innovation and development have evolved beyond recognition. We live in a highly globalised, interconnected and yet privatised world. We have witnessed unprecedented advances in science and technology, the rise of Asia and ever-shifting patterns of inequality. Many of the old certainties of development and 'modernisation' no longer hold true. So what kind of Manifesto is needed for today’s world?

The Sussex-based STEPS Centre and its partners around the world are creating a new manifesto in association with one of the authors of the original, Professor Geoff Oldham. Seeking to bring cutting-edge ideas and some Southern perspectives to current policy, the New Manifesto will recommend new ways of linking science and innovation to development for a more sustainable, equitable and resilient future.

The Sussex Manifesto 1970

Manifesto flyer

Manifesto flyer front page Download the New Manifesto flyer (pdf 467kb)

Why is a New Manifesto needed now?

Standard policies link innovation, science and technology to development in ways that are not always the most sustainable and equitable solutions for the people they seek to help. As a result, they often fail to address the challenges of an uncertain, dynamic and rapidly changing world.

Take the food crisis: The use of technologies that focus on increased grain production are widely proposed as a solution. But at what cost? The intensification and expansion of modern agriculture comes at a cost of land and water degradation through erosion and pollution, dependence on fossil fuel and the production of fertilisers and agrochemicals, increasing concentration of intellectual property ownership, loss of biodiversity, displacement of peoples from the land, and increased poverty and hunger.

Are these high social and environmental costs avoidable? Single routes to progress often exclude and inhibit alternative pathways that could produce more sustainable and equitable outcomes for poor and marginalised people. The New Manifesto will focus on policies that enable these pathways to flourish.

A new ‘3D’ agenda

Innovation, Sustainability, Development: A New Manifesto aims to challenge the mainstream models of science and technology for development that have become integral to government and international agency policy.

The Manifesto will explore alternative approaches of linking innovation to development in ways that address the “3Ds” - Directionality (towards specific Sustainability objectives);
equitable Distribution (of costs, risks, benefits); and
Diversity (of socio-techno-ecological systems).

In doing so, the STEPS Centre hopes to help shape new policies and governance while helping to build a broader advocacy movement around these issues.

Elements of the New Manifesto

The New Manifesto will integrate lessons learned since the original with emerging perspectives to investigate current debates in science and technology for development. Through a series of background papers, various topics will be reviewed with a forward-looking slant, attaching recommendations for action. These will include: the global redistribution of innovative activity, growth, industrialisation and equality, as well as hi-tech grand challenges and the new philanthropy. Subsequent papers covering agriculture, health, water, environment and energy will translate these recommendations to sector-specific issues. These insights will be incorporated into the Manifesto.

New Manifesto events around the world

A series of events running from 2008 will help shape the New Manifesto to be published in 2010, 40 years after the original report. A series of seminars will help inform our research and roundtable events with partners across the globe will help shape the Manifesto’s agenda, while a high-level conference will mark the Manifesto’s launch in 2010.

If you would like to get involved with roundtable events, or host one at your institution, please get in touch.

A multimedia Manifesto

To help bring the issues and debates around the New Manifesto to life, we will use video, audio, wikis and blogs to help create a vibrant, interactive Manifesto that encourages participation and reflects how far science and technology for development research has come in the past 40 years.

Backstory

At the tail end of the 1960’s the United Nations asked for recommendations on science and technology for development from ‘The Sussex Group’ - a team from the Institute of Development Studies and SPRU Science and Technology Policy Research, at the UK’s University of Sussex. The report was intended as the introductory chapter to the UN World Plan of Action on Science and Technology for Development. It was also to be one of the contributions of the UN Advisory Committee on Science and Technology for Development to the preparations for the UN Second Development Decade during the 1970s.

In the event, the solutions presented in The Sussex Manifesto were so radical for the scientific establishment at the time – containing challenging targets, arguing that an increase in the scale of S&T activity was inadequate on its own and largely was ‘irrelevant’ in developing country contexts – that the chapter was almost axed. Discussions within the UN earned the draft the title of The Sussex Manifesto.

The Sussex Manifesto’s eventual publication in 1970 went on to raise awareness of science and technology in UN circles, influenced the design of development institutions and was used for teaching courses in both North and South universities.

Manifesto seminar series

We are running a series of seminars linked to our Manifesto topics. A variety of multimedia from the events will appear here. For a list of upcoming seminars see the events page.

30 October 2008 - Fred Steward

Fred Steward, Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Brunel University on Transformative Innovation for the Global Good:
A shared challenge-oriented mission for the 21st Century
Listen to the podcast
See photos (link to Flickr)

Keep up-to-date

For updates on the progress of the Manifesto, information about events, background materials, podcasts of seminars, videos and more, sign up for our quarterly newsletter

The Manifesto project is convened by Adrian Ely
T: +44 (0)1273 606261, ask for Harriet Le Bris
E: steps-centre@ids.ac.uk

Tell a friend about this site

Satellite dish in refugee camp, Chad / Sven Torfinn / Panos