International Development Design Summit - Tairawhiti 2024.

The summit’s goal was to retool, upskill and connect local indigenous Māori community innovators with other indigenous innovators from around the world.

Tapping into various indigenous knowledge systems and skills as well as using the IDDS philosophy of co-creating with others, were at the heart of the summit.

A co-creative design process and basic business thinking approaches were applied to build prototypes, connections and networks to help participants grow their existing confidence, pro-activity, skills, co-creation capacity, innovations and resilience as local community members or innovators.

The summit, which was supported by a grant from the National Commission, was held from October 29th – November 9th, 2024. It was attended by 22 delegates, half from the local community, a further six from other parts of New Zealand and five international delegates (from the USA, South Africa, Canada and Malaysia). The Summit also included 16 organisers, of which six came from overseas (USA, Kenya, Uganda, Pakistan and Switzerland).

Participants worked across six project teams within three local communities, creating technology prototypes for sustainable livelihoods.

New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO Education Commissioner, Professor Carol Mutch; Gisborne Mayor, Rehette Stoltz; Eastern Institute of Technology’s Tracey Tangihaere; and University of Auckland’s Tori McNoe were among the dignitaries in attendance at the Summit.

Carol, Tracey and Tori also provided keynote addresses.