Sussex Manifesto

In the late 1960s the United Nations asked for recommendations on science and technology for development ^[1] from a team of academics at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex, UK. This team became known as the Sussex Group and their report, Science and Technology to Developing Countries during the Second Development Decade, became known as the Sussex Manifesto.^[2]

The Sussex Manifesto was intended as the introductory chapter to the UN World Plan of Action on Science and Technology for Development. But the solutions presented in the Manifesto were deemed too radical to be used for that purpose. It was instead published in 1970 as an annex in Science and Technology for Development: Proposals for the Second United Nations Development Decade, a UN report by the Advisory Committee on the Application of Science and Technology to Development (ACAST).^[3]

The Sussex Manifesto helped raise awareness of science and technology for development ^[4] in UN circles ^[5] influenced the design of development institutions and was used for teaching courses in both North and South universities.

The Sussex Group were Hans Singer (Chairman), Charles Cooper (Secretary), R.C. Desai, Christopher Freeman, Oscar Gish, Stephen Hill and Geoffrey Oldham.

The Sussex Manifesto was originally published as the ‘Draft Introductory Statement for the World Plan of Action for the Application of Science and Technology to Development’, prepared by the ‘Sussex Group’, Annex II in 'Science and Technology for Development: Proposals for the Second Development Decade', United Nations, Dept of Economic and Social Affairs, New York, 1970, Document ST/ECA/133, and reprinted as 'The Sussex Manifesto: Science and Technology to Developing Countries during the Second Development Decade', IDS Reprints 101.