https://www.ids.ac.uk/news/sparks-igniting-new-ideas-on-scarcity-ai-crit...
As the world faces more complex challenges around climate change, the use of artificial intelligence, growing defence industries, and public health, we need fresh perspectives to help us make progress towards a more equitable and sustainable world.
In this IDS Sparks event, we have selected four bold ideas which offer possibilities for tackling some of the biggest issues of 2026, based on research conducted at IDS over many years.
Rethinking scarcity: From fear to enough
From natural resources to housing and finance: have we become too obsessed with scarcity?
As populations grow and ecological pressures intensify, powerful people continue to mobilise the narratives of scarcity – an assumption that needs and wants are unlimited and the means to achieve them are scarce. But scarcity is not just biophysical; it is shaped by social and political choices about allocation, entitlement and whose consumption is protected. These narratives of scarcity are used to justify decisions that concentrate wealth, restrict access, and normalise inequality and burden of adjustment and compromise on those with the least access and power.
But what would happen if we flipped this lens and begin from abundance – from the recognition that there is more than enough for everyone? In this event, IDS Research Fellow Lyla Mehta asks if scarcity is manufactured, politicised and unevenly distributed, what kinds of policies and ways of living become possible when we start from abundance instead?
Artificial intelligence and the future of civil society
To design better AI for social good, what does civil society need to do differently?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is often framed as just another technological tool that organisations can simply ‘add on’ to existing ways of working. But AI represents a far deeper shift in how decisions are made, knowledge is produced and power is exercised. In the social sector, many AI applications risk reinforcing and reproducing harm – from biased datasets and flawed analyses to serious epistemic gaps about whose knowledge counts and who is left out.
In conjunction to these risks, AI also holds the potential to transform how civil society organisations understand needs and serve communities more effectively. IDS Research Fellow Moinul Zaber explores that if AI requires a fundamentally different way of working, how will civil society will innovate and discover new ways of working without reproducing existing inequalities.
Resisting the militarisation of critical minerals
As demand soars, how can we resist growing use of critical minerals by the military?
Transition to green energy has been used as the primary justification for the accelerating extraction of critical minerals. However, this dominant narrative overlooks another powerful driver of extraction – military mobilisation and war related technological change. For decades, military demand has shaped which minerals are prioritised, how they are classified, and where and how they are extracted. With rising defence spending, these demands often intensify environmental harm and developmental inequalities.
As critical minerals increasingly serve dual uses across clean energy and defence, existing accountability frameworks need to be reimagined, explores IDS Research Fellow Anabel Marin. The current systems to trace critical minerals focus on reassuring consumers about where minerals come from, rather than tracing where they go and who ultimately benefits from their use. As the world becomes more militarised and more money is redirected to defence, the critical mineral supply chains disrupts and risks undermining sustainable development goals.
Antimicrobial resistance – Global issues need global partnerships
What partnerships are needed to ramp up the development of low-cost antimicrobial drugs?
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a critical global public health threat and developmental threat of our times. In 2019, WHO estimates that bacterial AMR was directly responsible for 1.27 million global deaths and contributed to 4.95 million deaths, with the burden falling hardest on low- and middle-income countries. Yet progress in developing new anti-microbials has been dangerously slow as there is a lack of incentives for pharmaceuticals due to lack of profit. There is currently an alarmingly small and insufficient portfolio of promising drugs for antimicrobial resistance and WHO describes the situation as a “dual crisis” of scarcity and lack of innovation in the R&D pipeline.
As resistance continues to outpace innovation, AMR exposes a fundamental market failure with global consequences. IDS Research Fellow Gerry Bloom highlights that addressing it will require not just scientific breakthroughs, but it demands new forms of collaboration across governments, industry, funders and civil society. This is a global issue, and it needs global collaboration.
