by Adrian Ely, Erik Millstone, Dominic Glover, Alice Livingston Ortolani, Andy Stirling, Sung Kyu Kim, Michael Hopkins, David Eggleton, Ruth Segal, Katerina Psikaridou and Divya Sharma Response to the Defra…

This knowledge brief was published by the International Science Council’s Transformations to Sustainability programme. Download this briefing The enormity, complexity and urgency of the global targets enshrined in the 2030…

This policy briefing was published by the GEAP3 Policy Hub Download this briefing  Genome editing belongs to a category of cutting-edge modern technologies that have assumed a totemic importance for some…

This policy briefing was published by the GEAP3 Policy Hub Download this briefing Genome editing, also known as gene editing, is a technique of genetic engineering that involves the alteration of…

This policy briefing was published by the GEAP3 Policy Hub Download this briefing Genome editing, also known as gene editing, is a technique of genetic engineering that involves the alteration of…

This policy briefing was published by the GEAP3 Policy Hub Download this briefing Genome editing, also known as gene editing, is a technique of genetic engineering that involves the alteration…

Policy Brief, Relational Pathways project Smallholder farming in Kenya is key to the country’s food security and economy. Small farms account for 75% of the total agricultural output. Yet smallholder…

Transformative innovations start with the social and political, not  technology hardware and finance: lessons from Lighting Africa and MECS MECS Briefing paper, September 2019 The international community has signed up…

Often there is a wide gap between how uncertainty is understood and experienced from ‘below’ by the lived experiences of local people, how it is conceptualised and represented from ‘above’…

Download (PDF) The City of Brighton & Hove has made impressive progress toward improving access to healthy and sustainable food for its residents. Recent research and consultations have indicated a…

Discussion paper July 2018 Produced for the Pathways Network, this paper explores how to link agroecological producers with food markets and consumers in the City of Brighton & Hove, UK….

Strategies for supporting market linkages among stakeholders in food systems can be a win-win-win for primary food producers, retailers and wholesalers, and consumers or caterers. By linking producers to consumers…

IDS Policy Briefing 148 Despite unprecedented wealth accumulation, coastal Mumbai suffers from a myriad of socioeconomic and ecological challenges as well as connected uncertainties. These include endemic flooding, shrinking of…

IDS Policy Briefing 147 The semi-arid district of Kachchh in Gujarat, India is known for its erratic rainfall, water scarcity, and droughts. Climate change has intensified extreme temperature and rainfall…

Ecosystem services are vital for peri-urban and urbanising areas, and the people who live within them. In contexts of rapid urbanisation, these services are under threat from redevelopment, pollution and…

IDS Policy Briefing 149 The majority of the five million people that live in the deltaic Indian Sundarbans face continuous uncertainties in relation to their shelter, livelihoods, and health. Climate…

This policy briefing draws on insights from the Risks and Responses to Urban Futures project. This briefing draws on recent research to show how people benefit from ecoystems in and…

A briefing for the Friends of the Earth project Big Ideas Change The World In this thinkpiece we introduce an area of activity that has flourished for decades in all…

Climate Resilient Economies Programme Policy Brief 006/2016 African Centre for Technology Studies / STEPS Global Consortium Innovation systems are critical to technology transfer and implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)….

There are significant overlooked opportunities regarding low-carbon transition in China, with potential global impact. This leaflet summarises research which has looked at three areas of low carbon innovation in the…

Download the briefing (PDF 533kb) New thinking, practice and policy recommendations for sustainable urban waste management informed by robust research, addressing both environmental and social justice concerns. Patterns of urban…

Download this briefing (PDF) The costs of responding to outbreaks of transmissible and infectious diseases, especially zoonotic infections that can infect both animals and people, can be far greater than…

by Ishmael Hashmiu Researcher, Political Ecologies of Carbon project Download this briefing (PDF) Carbon offset projects are an increasingly important approach to carbon mitigation under the REDD+ (Reducing Emissions by…

STEPS Briefing (to accompany Working Paper 76) by David Ockwell and Rob Byrne Download this briefing One of the most powerful boosts to addressing climate technology transfer and development under…

Diseases that affect people and have their origins in animals (zoonoses) have the potential to cause social, political and economic upheaval, often with little warning. Witness 2014’s Ebola outbreak in…

Climate Compatible Development in Kenya Is it possible for Kenya to simultaneously tackle energy poverty, contribute to climate change mitigation and reduce exposure to climate vulnerability? There is growing international…

This briefing summarises insights from the Low Carbon Development project. Sustainable energy technologies could contribute significantly to human development and economic growth in low-income countries. Public policy has an important…

The Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium is bringing together natural and social scientists to understand four neglected zoonotic (passed from animal to human) diseases in five African countries:…

In India, as part of the Uncertainty from Below and Above project, the STEPS Centre is working with leading research institutes – the Institute of Health Management Research, Kolkata; Sarai…

This report presents proceedings of an innovation histories workshop on the Solar Home System (SHS) Market in Kenya. The workshop was held on 3 June 2013 at Silver Springs Hotel…

Available in English and Kiswahili, this short, non-technical briefing outlines the aims, rationale and approach of the Low Carbon Development project. The project is a partnership between the University of Sussex (including the…

This Rapid Response briefing from the Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium sets out recommendations for a new, integrated ‘One Health’ approach to zoonoses that moves away from top-down disease-focused…

Although the H1N1 ‘swine flu’ pandemic of 2009-10 was less severe than anticipated, the event revealed weaknesses in the world’s current configuration of planning for and responding to pandemic influenza,…

The beef industry in southern Africa has been a stalwart of economic development, but new conditions of trade, market access and disease dynamics, particularly of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), mean a…

(French version / en français) Cooperation, innovation and diversification are the keys to a bright future for the red meat industry in southern Africa. This was the message emerging from…

(English version / en Anglais) Coopération, innovation et diversification sont les clés du succès futur du secteur de la viande rouge en Afrique australe. Tel est le message ayant émergé…

From food prices and hunger to GM crops and biosafety, debates about agricultural innovation involve many competing narratives about key science and technology problems and their potential solutions. With each…

Rapid environmental and social changes – such as climate change, population explosion, urbanisation and globalised economics – are posing urgent practical, moral and political challenges across the globe. Consequently the…

Energy and development go hand-in-hand: lighting, cooking, mobility, heating, cooling and communications are all essential to development processes. Moreover, the manner in which energy services are realised has both positive…

Update on progress on the STEPS Centre’s Rethinking Regulation project.

La incorporación de nuevas tecnologías en el agro comporta beneficios, riesgos e inequidades diferentes para distintos tipos de usuarios. Las regulaciones (leyes, normas, resoluciones, acuerdos, etc.) pueden contribuir a controlar…

Sorghum, millet, cowpea, pigeon pea and green grams: these resilient plants once dominated smallholder farms in the drought-prone regions of Eastern Kenya. But in the last 50 years these ‘orphan…

Maize is central to household food security for most Kenyans. As a result, policies that affect maize directly influence most Kenyan families’ access to food. Moreover, ‘maize politics’ is played…

The term ‘pathways’, in the STEPS project, is used to refer to the particular directions in which interacting social, technological and environmental systems co-evolve over time. A ‘pathways’ approach recognises…

Technology assessment (TA) is a term for processes that collect, interpret and evaluate information and perspectives about different technological options, in order to inform investments, strategies or policies (see Figure…

The increasing recognition of water as a vital substance for which demand is spiralling has resulted in scarcity scenarios and tales of a ‘looming water crisis’ becoming staple fare for…

Some vaccines are developed at lightning speed. Other, potentially useful, vaccines do not see the light of day. Understanding why this happens may help identify new policies aimed at a…

Many policy makers, journalists and politicians are keen to celebrate the ‘pro-poor success’ of genetically modified (GM, transgenic) crops in developing countries. However, a detailed look at the evidence reveals…

In a world where threats – linked to climate change, epidemic disease, or fluctuating financial markets – loom ever larger, resilience thinking highlights the complex dynamics of social-economic- environmental systems,…

In 1997, 18 people were infected with the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, H5N1. Six died, and since then a further 245 deaths have been reported. The virus has spread…

How do we deal with the spread of HIV/ AIDS or avian ‘flu? How can farmers in dryland Africa cope with the challenges of climate change? How do we address…

Over the last five years, the ESRC STEPS Centre has explored the management of resources in peri-urban areas, and how sustainability can be defined and sought in this context. We…

Technologies are finding their way to more remote and diverse corners of the globe, bringing with them significant opportunities for human development, but also risks – to individuals, the environment,…

In a region where droughts and other extreme weather events are common, maize is central to food security for most households across East and Southern Africa. From national policy to…

In Kenya, STEPS Centre research partners from the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), the Centre for African Bio-entrepreneurship (CABE), Tegemeo Institute at Egerton University, in association with the Institute…

Both Kenya and the Philippines have been regarded as ‘test cases’ for biotechnology and biosafety regulatory development in their respective regions. Biosafety and its regulation has become the lightning rod…

This research report is intended to inform and encourage debate on the management of resources in the peri-urban fringe. In particular it demonstrates how the dominant, mainstream, strategies for water…

Biochar is a carbon-rich product that results when biomass is burned under oxygen-deprived conditions. There is both technological optimism and debate about its potential. The addition of biochar to soils…

Access to sanitation is vital to people’s health and well-being, particularly women. In the past, sanitation has been provided through top-down, supply-oriented approaches. Now, Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) offers another…

Ill health is still a major human problem and a high burden for many countries, despite the availability of effective interventions. Growing impatience with this situation, at both national and…

Markets for healthcare and pharmaceuticals are spreading rapidly in many countries. Meanwhile, new information communications technology (ICT) is changing the way people access advice and medicines. And as recent events…

The spectre of a devastating global pandemic has been raised more than once in recent years. Recent disease events such as SARS, H1N1, avian influenza and haemorrhagic fevers (Ebola, dengue,…

In semi-arid areas of Eastern Kenya many small-scale farmers plant local maize seed, saved from the previous year, or obtained from within the community, rather than purchase commercial seed from…

In the course of the STEPS maize project, the research team, which included both Kenyan and UK-based researchers, met and talked at length with a diverse range of farmers in…

One of the success stories in Kenya’s agricultural  sector has been the rise of the horticultural industry,  which has shown remarkable growth both in the  domestic and export markets Despite…

Alongside climate change and terrorism, epidemics capture the contemporary imagination of a vulnerable, interconnected earth. Bursting from a confined area onto the world stage, epidemics demonstrate precisely the kind of…

Alongside climate change and terrorism, epidemics capture the contemporary imagination of a vulnerable, interconnected earth. Bursting from a confined area onto the world stage, epidemics demonstrate precisely the kind of…

often hear that genetically modified (GM, transgenic) crops are urgently needed to kick-start agricultural development and overcome poverty, hunger and malnutrition in the global South. But the experiences of the…

The beef industry in southern Africa has been a stalwart of economic development, but new conditions of trade, market access and disease dynamics, particularly of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), mean a…

The beef industry in southern Africa has been a stalwart of economic development, but new conditions of trade, market access and disease dynamics, particularly of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), mean a…

The beef industry in southern Africa has been a stalwart of economic development, but new conditions of trade, market access and disease dynamics, particularly of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), mean a…

(English version / en anglais) L’industrie bovine sud-africaine a été l’un des fers de lance du développement économique du pays, mais les nouvelles conditions du commerce et de l’accès aux…

(French version / en français) The beef industry in southern Africa has been a stalwart of economic development, but new conditions of trade, market access and disease dynamics, particularly of…

The Liquid Dynamics Symposium in November 2009, hosted by the STEPS Centre, brought together people from disciplines including water resources, sanitation, health, and climate change, to address issues of sustainability…

The effects of recurring floods and droughts, the deaths of 6,000 babies daily from waterborne diseases and growing sanitation problems in booming peri-urban and urban centres. No act of terrorism…

Health has risen up the agenda in rich and poor countries with governments and charitable foundations increasingly willing to support initiatives for addressing health-related needs. This political concern is creating…

In an era of rapid change, growing risk and uncertainty, there are many challenges to the sustainability of agricultural policy and practice in the developing world. Concerns about chronic hunger,…

In today’s highly dynamic world, development challenges involve addressing complex interactions between people and their social processes, and rapidly changing technologies and ecologies. Which directions or pathways such systems move…

Globally, billions lack access to safe water and sanitation. Despite widespread recognition that the situation is unacceptable, the tragedy of this failure persists. Increasingly, the development world is realising that…

Today’s world is experiencing accelerated rates of change in social, technological and environmental processes, therefore taking the dynamics of systems seriously in policy and practice is essential. Dynamic systems are…