The Role of Transformative Innovation for SDGs Localisation. Insights from the South-African “Living Catchments Project”

Abstract

The 2030 Agenda positioned Science, Technology and Innovation as crucial means for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper explores how a localised South-African policy experiment named the 'Living Catchments Project' (LC Project) contributes towards the SDGs. This project is part of a portfolio of experiments to trigger innovation for transformative change in South Africa. The LCP team worked directly with the Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium (TIPC) researchers adding a transformative layer to the project's design and implementation. The project embraces uncertainty and complexity by promoting experimentation to inform and facilitate learning processes and changes in people, organisations and institutions. Additionally, we combine the TIP perspective with core concepts of the capability approach: capabilities, agency, democratic deliberation and conversion factors. With this integrated approach, we explore what the capability approach can offer to the LCP experiment. We conclude with policy recommendations on the potentialities and constraints of the combined TIP-capability approach for achieving the SDGs and conducting transformative innovation experiments. Word count: 3476 Introduction Global challenges represented by the SDGs are a unique opportunity for systems transformation, bringing together social, ecological, economic and technical innovation. The 2030 Agenda provides an urgent, inclusive and value-creating direction towards equity and sustainability that calls for new research and policy approaches (Schot et al., 2019).

Digital innovation in citizen science to enhance water quality monitoring in developing countries

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“…Transformative Innovation Policies are being explored and implemented by many agencies around the world, responding to different societal challenges. Examples are the recently launched EU missions (European Commission, 2022) in areas such as climate and health, the work of the Swedish innovation agency VINNOVA in food (VINNOVA, 2022), or the work of the Department of Science and Technology in South Africa in water and sanitation (Boni et al, 2021).…”