Inequalities and Poverty

IDS works with global partners to generate new knowledge and evidence to identify the underlying causes of inequalities and poverty in all their dimensions and the progressive policies and practices that can help bring about transformative change.

Eradicating extreme poverty remains one of the world’s most pressing challenges, and addressing it requires the rising economic, social and political inequalities that harm people in rich and poor countries alike to be tackled.

IDS has also played a prominent part in promoting an approach that puts power at the heart of development analysis and contributed to strengthening understanding of the relationship between power, gender, sexual rights and poverty.

We continue to provide new analysis on inequalities and poverty trends, particularly in relation to the expansion of digital technologies and their impact on the lives of the poorest and most marginalised, and the growth of global cities and what this means for both urban and rural livelihoods, social relations and sustainability. Moreover, we work with governments, civil society, businesses and many others to help ensure this analysis shapes policies and programmes such as social protection and cash transfers to reduce poverty and vulnerability and strengthen livelihoods including agriculture.

People

Deepta Chopra

Professorial Research Fellow

Keetie Roelen

IDS Honorary Associate

Jerker Edström

Research Fellow

Melissa Leach

Emeritus Fellow

John Gaventa

Research Fellow and Director, Action for Empowerment and Accountability (A4EA) programme

Danny Burns

Professorial Research Fellow

Sohela Nazneen

Research Fellow

Patricia Justino

Professorial Fellow

Programmes and centres

Projects

Recent work

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Showing 1–12 of 14908 results

Upcoming Event

Was there a famine in Gaza in 2024?

Following Israel’s declaration on 8 October 2023 of a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip, a food crisis rapidly developed. But did the situation deteriorate into a full-blown famine? A series of food security assessments conducted by the international community in 2023-24 will be analysed...

14 November 2024

Upcoming Event

CEDCA Panel Discussion: Opposition and resistance to clean energy transition

While switching from fossil fuels to clean energy addresses the climate crisis and offers development opportunities, opposition to the transition is rife. The panel will discuss the pitfalls of clean energy transition, and the drivers thereof, and strategies to inform policy and...

24 October 2024

Upcoming Event

HIV, gender and the politics of medicine: Embodied democracy in the global south

A book launch and panel discussion on the lives and work of artists, activists and academics engaged in the struggle for life-saving HIV treatment in and beyond South Africa. Join us for this event with Elizabeth Mills, author of the new book HIV, Gender and the Politics of Medicine and former...

16 October 2024

Upcoming Event

Navigating uncertainty: Radical rethinking for a turbulent World

In this talk, Ian Scoones will introduce his new book, Navigating Uncertainty: Radical Rethinking for a Turbulent World (Polity Books, 2024). Uncertainties are everywhere. Whether it’s climate change, financial volatility, pandemic outbreaks or new technologies, we don’t know what the...

3 October 2024

Publication

Grievance Redress Mechanisms in the Health Sector

Report

In recent years, many governments in the Global South have integrated Grievance Redress Mechanisms (GRMs) into their governance structures to monitor and improve the provision of services. However, the implementation on the ground of these GRMs has yet to be fully explored. This study sought to...

Katia Taela & 5 others

20 September 2024

News

Widespread and harmful child labour uncovered in Bangladesh leather sector

A five-year study with child workers in Bangladesh’s growing leather industry has uncovered children working in dangerous and harmful conditions at every stage of leather processing and production, driven by the need to support their families financially. Children as young as eight,...

20 September 2024

Student Opinion

A master’s student’s reflections of diversity at IDS

MA Development Studies student Deep Mehta shares his honest reflections about his year with us – including the challenges and frictions caused when your values, beliefs and opinions and not always aligned with those who you are studying with. Much of what I say here overlaps with what...

Deep Mehta, IDS student, MA Development Studies

19 September 2024

Report

Worst Forms of Child Labour in the Bangladesh Leather Industry: A Synthesis of Five Years of Research by Children, Small Business Owners, NGOs, and Academics

CLARISSA Research and Evidence Paper 11

The CLARISSA programme has produced multiple research reports, and the Hard Labour website, which reproduces some of the stories about children’s lives, their days, the businesses they work in, and the neighbourhoods they live in. This paper synthesises this detailed evidence landscape to draw...

Jody Aked
Jody Aked & 2 others

19 September 2024

Past Event

Realising safely managed urban sanitation: the potential of ‘brown gold’

Sanitation is one of the most off-track Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the WHO and UNICEF reporting that 3.8 billion people still lacking access to safely managed sanitation. In many low- and middle-income countries, centralised and capital-intensive sanitation and waste...

19 September 2024

Why learn with us.

In an extraordinary time of challenge and change, we use more than 50 years of expertise to transform development approaches that create more equitable and sustainable futures. The work you do with us will help make progressive change towards universal development; to build and connect solidarities for collective action, locally and globally. The University of Sussex has been ranked 1st in the world for Development Studies for the past five years (QS World University Rankings by Subject).