Integrated sustainable development foundation
Integrated Sustainable Development is an operational Swiss NGO that builds resilient neighborhoods in under-resourced areas across the Global South, enabling them to thrive in balance with nature and community needs.
In each project, we work closely with a local community and a multidisciplinary team of regional and international partners. Together, we design and implement strategies that align local needs with sustainable development objectives.
Collaborating across disciplinary boundaries to drive sustainable change
Transformative projects through integrated and inclusive community infrastructure
Challenge ISD is addressing
By 2050, two-thirds of the world's population will reside in urban areas. Already today, 1 billion people live in inadequate housing and 2 billion lack access to basic sanitation, the majority in urban areas.
Against this backdrop, many rapidly developing cities lack the necessary infrastructure and resources to adapt to the escalating impacts of climate change, leading to service disruptions, food insecurity, public health impacts, and increased pressure on already stretched resources.
UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 aims to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable by 2030. Despite good intentions, progress towards this goal has been slow due to a lack of political will, insufficient investment, ineffective policies, and an absence of scalable models for inclusive and sustainable urban growth.
Our story
Our story began with a simple observation: when community development went wrong, it tended to do so in predictable ways. We learned that the failure to create a holistic and inclusive system for conceiving, designing, and delivering projects often resulted in superficial solutions rather than truly integrated and sustainable outcomes grounded in the lived experience and latent strengths of local communities.
ISD has its roots in the Lukhanyo Hub project in Khayelitsha, initiated by the Resilient Civic Design Collective (RCDC), a values-aligned collective of built environment companies, NGOs, and academic researchers. In 2021, RCDC co-founder Ben Mansfield and Prof. Stefan Allesch-Taylor joined forces with a view to scaling and replicating the project’s core ‘Resilient Neighborhood Model’ in other locations grappling with the interlinked challenges of rapid urbanization, inequality, and climate adaptation.
Recognizing Switzerland’s unique position as a hub of technical expertise, research, philanthropy, and market-led impact investment, ISD aims to operate as a new kind of sustainable development actor. One that more effectively brings together local and international stakeholders united by a shared vision to effect systemic change, whether through partnership facilitation, design, and involvement in on-the-ground project delivery or research, knowledge sharing, and capacity building.
ETH Zürich and founder of atelier masōmī
Sustainability is not just about the environment. It is about supporting people, their lives, economies, and cultures.
Our partners
