IDIN is delighted to announce the International Development Design Summits (IDDS) planned to take place in 2017. In the coming months, we'll share more information on sponsorship opportunities, organizer applications, and participant applications.

In January 2016, IDIN launched an application process for individuals or institutions who wanted to host an IDDS in 2017. After a four-month long proposal and review process, three summits were selected to receive IDIN seed funding and support to run a design summit in 2017.

Beyond just supporting design summits as special experiences, we aim to catalyze and fuel sustainable, innovative ecosystems in local communities. Summits support IDIN’s overall mission to spread a hands-on, co-creative design approach to communities around the globe to improve the lives of people living in poverty.

IDDS Sustainable Homes - Sololá, Guatemala

June 11- June 26, 2017

The communities around Lake Atitlán are culturally rich, but rapidly losing natural resources. IDDS Sustainable Homes will be a two-week summit that will explore a long-standing challenge of turning a conventional house into a sustainable home. The summit will feature six community-based projects as vehicles for learning about the co-creative design process and about the complementary systems within a home – cooking, heating, lighting, ventilation, food preservation, sustainable architecture, and waste management. IDDS Sustainable Homes will gather 30 people across Guatemala and from other countries in order to co-create appropriate technologies, services and implementation strategies that can be used to build sustainable homes systems worldwide. 

Partners:  Link 4 - Association for Innovation and Sustainable Development and Universidad de Valle de Guatemala (UVG)
Contact: Omar Crespo

IDDS Climate Change  - Bogotá, Colombia

June 19-July 2, 2017

In the midst of global discourse on how to address an ever-warming planet, this two-week themed IDDS will partner with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Colombia and local NGOs to focus on designing climate change education, mitigation, and adaptation solutions.  Within Colombia, the Cundinamarca Department is one of the main agricultural regions where climate fluctuations have a major impact on agricultural productions. IDDS Climate Change will be a unique opportunity to bring together nearly 50 participants from rural communities of the Cundinamarca Department as well as across the region. Participants, which will include community leaders, farmers, ecologists, conservationists, environmental engineers, and practitioners, will learn about the hands-on design process and climate change effects, and begin ideating new solutions to the increasing problem. 

Partners: C-Innova Innovation Center and UNDP Colombia
Contact: Pedro Reynolds-Cuellar

IDDS Sisaket - Sisaket, Thailand

July 21 – August 9, 2017

IDDS Sisaket will be a two-week summit that explores the intersection of migration, rural-urban farming divide, and decentralized innovation economies. It will bring together 30 participants from across the Mekong Region and around the globe to work on six projects with the local organic farming organization and community members. In a country like Thailand, where the economy of the country is greatly tilted toward Bangkok, there is an opportunity to critically learn, examine, and design with social innovators and communities that are working toward sustainable livelihoods and economies for places beyond the capital.

Partners:  Designing for Social Innovation Leadership Global, Raitong Organics, and Center for Social Development Studies 
Contact: Hermes Huang