Innovations for Sustainable Development

The need for an alternative pattern of development can no longer be ignored.

While national leaders and international agencies like the World Bank are propagating global markets and hi-technology, there are others, mainly non-governmental organisations, who advocate a different strategy. From them, small -scale, decentralised enterprises based on environmentally-sound and appropriate technologies hold the key to a sustainable future. The concept is neither new nor outlandish. Mahatma Gandhi and more recently, Fritz Schumaker, Julius Nyerere are among the many highly respected philosophers who saw the need for an alternative pattern of development.

The debate continues. The consequences of mindless development, however, are beginning to show the need for change.

It is becoming increasingly clear that technology change is a fundamental pre-requisite for sustainable development. The meeting on Appropriate Technologies at the ‘92 Global Forum in Rio was held with the specific purpose of exchanging experiences among the participants. Different groups from all over the world got together in this meeting to share information, identify areas of collaboration for mutual benefit and design a global network for this purpose.

Over the past two years, considerable preparatory work had been undertaken for this meeting. A National Summit on Technologies for Environmentally Sustainable Development had been organised with the sponsorship of UNDP and the Indian Institute of Technology n New Delhi (March 1991). The meeting had brought together leading appropriate technology practitioners from India and led to a number of solid recommendations on the technological and institutional factors standing in the way of widespread dissemination of appropriate technologies.

Subsequently, in March 1992, a meeting for AT practitioners from Asia, Africa and Latin America was convened also at New Delhi, in collaboration with Approtech Asia, ENDA and Development Alternatives.

The Global Conference at Rio was a continuation of the process started in 1991 in New Delhi. The idea behind the meeting was to look at ways to establish communication links amongst the various NGOs from all over the world, who are into developing and disseminating appropriate technologies. It was unanimously agreed that technology design must take into account local traditions, learning and customs. It must be of human scale and have a net positive impact on people’s lives, besides being affordable, accessible and commercially viable.

Modern industrial development has, no doubt improved the life styles of a small segment of society, but the condition of large numbers remains more or less the same. In most developing countries, the problems of unemployment, illiteracy, infant mortality, basic sanitation have only gotten worse.

"Appropriate Technology must focus on areas of technology transfer and corporate R&D, which has thus far been the domain of the private sector. Innovation, production and marketing are integral parts of the formula needed to make ATs work" , said a participant from India. Contrary tot he classic economic model, it has been proved that economic returns are much higher for many AT goods, when the scale is small.

The whole movement on appropriate technologies is stagnating today because hi-tech seems to provide the solution to the problems and also seems infinitely more attractive. Participants felt that improving the lot of the poor or trying to save the environment are not attractive enough propositions for the governments to fund. And it is clear that the 2 billion poor people in the world are not going to get the fruits of science and technology, unless we change the way we do things, unless there is a drastic change in our knowledge structures, our value systems.

by Renu Jain

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