IDDS Tairawhiti wraps up in New Zealand with six projects completed

MIT D-Lab Founding Director Amy Smith (fourth from right) introduces sketch modeling to attendees of IDDS Tairawhiti. Photo: Courtesy These Hands

Tolaga Bay Inn Charitable Trust was awarded the rights to organize and host the first International Development Design Summit (IDDS) Summit in New Zealand and Oceania by the International Development Innovation Network (IDIN) Global Steering Committee. The summit, IDDS Tairawhiti 2024, was a two-and-a-half week hands-on summit that ran from October 26 to November 12, 2024, with participants from 10 countries. Working in three communities — Tolaga Bay, Ruatoria, and Wairoa — the summit theme was “Resilient Indigenous Communities.”

The summit aimed to build local design capacity and connect local Māori community innovators with other Indigenous change-makers, innovators, designers, sector specialists, faculty, and students of Indigenous innovation, to tap into Indigenous knowledge systems and skills, and to use the IDDS philosophy of co-creating with others to develop solutions to improve the lives and livelihoods of people in the Tairawhiti and Wairoa regions.

Two women sit at a table outside, under a roof covering; a man stands to the right. — UNESCO New Zealand Commission Education Commissioner Carol Mutch addresses attendees of the final community showcase and exhibition in Gisborne on November 9th. Seated at the table are representatives of EIT the University of Auckland. Thabiso Mashaba of These Hands stands at right. Photo: Courtesy These Hands

Participants

Twenty-two participants and seven facilitators from 10 countries attended the summit. Countries represented included Botswana, Canada, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Switzerland, Uganda, and the US. A little under two-thirds of participants identified as male and a little more than a third as female. Eleven participants were members of the three communities where the projects took place.

A group of ~30 people standing and sitting for a group photo. — IDDS Tairawhiti attendees. Photo: Couresty These Hands

The summit projects

Through a series of workshops, participants were introduced to the phases of the design process from information gathering and problem framing through idea generation, sketch modeling, and prototyping. Working closely with three communities, participants worked on two projects in each location.

Tolaga Bay

Water quality testing and monitoring technology with Taniwha Connections, a local environmental conservation organization
Multiple charcoal briquette pressing technology with Slash for Cash, a local biochar organization

Ruatoria

Hemp waste processing technology with Rua Biosciences, a Maori-born biotech business
Brick making technology with Ruatoria Earth Builders,

Wairoa

Traditional medicine (Rongoa) processing technology with traditional medicine makers
Biochar fertilizer mixing technology with Slash for Cash

Full summit report

IDDS Tairawhiti 2024 Summit Final Report

A group of people around a large horizontal barrel. — Biochar fertilizer mixing technology team presenting their project to dignitaries and members of the community. Photo: Courtesy These Hands

About IDDS

International Development Design Summit (IDDS) was co-founded by MIT D-Lab Founding Director Amy Smith and Olin College of Engineering Professor Benjamin Linder. The first IDDS took place in 2007 at MIT D-Lab. IDDS summits are two- to four-week hands-on immersive experiences of designing with communities and supporting them with the necessary skills to design for and by themselves. It is a more powerful approach to empowering communities than designing solutions for them.