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.