Vulnerability and Poverty Reduction
The Vulnerability and Poverty Reduction (VPR) Team aims to construct dynamic and multi-dimensional perspectives on vulnerability and poverty in order to transform thinking, policy and practice.
Vulnerability is a major obstacle to social and economic development. Poor people are especially vulnerable, as they have few buffers or resources to cope with hazards or shocks. They are also significantly more likely to be affected by ill-health, unemployment, trade shocks, famine or conflict. If we are to achieve sustainable poverty reduction, we must improve our understanding of vulnerability.
The team aims to develop responses to vulnerability that give greater agency and voice to vulnerable and poor people, and that engage policymakers and practitioners.
About the team
The members of the Vulnerability and Poverty Reduction Team seek to bring human beings to the centre of their analysis and their engagement. We work to understand women’s, men’s, and children’s experiences of vulnerability, poverty and justice. We believe both empirical evidence and innovative conceptual thinking are needed to better understand poverty and vulnerability and to support engagement with policy and practice. Learning from multifaceted perspectives ultimately leads to more effective efforts to reduce poverty, improve wellbeing and enhance social justice.
The team works to understand poverty and vulnerability from the perspective of individual people and households. We also engage with other levels of social, economic and political processes, including households, communities, regions, states and global systems), as well as to an understanding of changing natural environments.
The team has six core agendas for research and policy engagement:
- To build a better understanding of the relationships between vulnerability and the dynamics of poverty in specific country and community contexts. We look at why poverty persists and how people move into and out of poverty.
- To engage with policymakers and practitioners to promote development policies that address the relationship between vulnerability and poverty. Addressing this relationship will help people to strengthen their resilience and lead to more socially just outcomes.
- To understand how peoples’ lives and livelihoods are affected by changes in the social, economic and political contexts where they live.
- To understand how people’s identity and social and physical location affects the way they experience change. We look at important factors including gender, age and ethnic or linguistic identity, along with social status, wealth, and location in rural, peri-urban or urban areas.
- To understand which types of policy – including social policy, social protection, regulation and microfinance – are effective in addressing vulnerability and poverty.
- To explore how new information and communication technologies (ICTs) help us understanding and address vulnerability and poverty.
We tackle these research agendas in four main areas:
Poverty, Inequality and Wellbeing
VPR is the go-to place for new thinking and ideas on poverty, inequality and wellbeing. Our research challenges orthodox views on how poverty is understood and how policy can accelerate poverty reduction.
The Centre for Social Protection is a global hub for research, policy analysis, and capacity building on social protection.
Conflict, Violence and Development
VPR leads work on violent conflict and the individual and group processes that lead to or result from conflict. We also analyse how violence is linked to institutional and social norms. We co-ordinate the Households in Conflict Network (HICN) and MICROCON: A Micro Level Analysis of Violent Conflict.
Vulnerability, Hunger and Nutrition
VPR researches how to tackle the crisis of hunger and undernutrition. While undernutrition is increasingly a priority on the international development agenda, the knowledge base on how to accelerate undernutrition reductions has stalled. VPR’s work, including the Transform Nutrition Programme and the LANSA programme aims to address this knowledge gap and promote better nutrition outcomes.
In addition to these core areas, VPR also undertakes work on a number of other themes:
Team members are undertaking research work on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and beyond.
Members of VPR worked with the Imp-Act programme to improve the quality of microfinance services and enhance their impact on poverty. The programme supports microfinance institutions in developing social performance management systems.
Dramatic changes brought about by information and communication technologies (ICTs) have created new economic and social opportunities the world over. Access to and the strategic use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) have been shown to have the potential to help bring about economic development, poverty reduction, and democratisation and as such form a key part of VPR's research.
The Vulnerability and Poverty Reduction (VPR) team's research and advisory work on agriculture and food security covers a number of issues. These include land rights, livelihoods and food insecurity and linkages between fair trade producers and the mainstream supermarkets.
By 2030, 60 per cent of the global population will live in towns and cities. In Africa and Asia the urban population is set to double in the next two decades, while the urban share of global poverty is increasing. VPR are building on years of research to examine the role of cities in relation to poverty and vulnerability.
PhD applications
VPR considers DPhil applications twice yearly in October and March, for students to
begin their research the following September in line with the academic
year.
Given our aim of integrating PhD research with ongoing IDS work, prospective applicants are strongly advised to make contact with a VPR fellow specialising in their chosen field before submitting a formal application. All candidates are required to submit a research proposal (3,500 words max) (link to guidelines below) together with a CV. For further information, please contact d.shenton@ids.ac.uk.
VPR guidelines for developing a DPhil research proposal
All candidates are required to submit a research proposal (3,500 words max) detailing what you wish to investigate, how you intend to conduct the research and how you think your research will fit within the team's research strategy.
The proposal should be structured around the following areas:
1.Working title
2.Problem statement (approx 750 words)
A detailed statement of the topic you intend to research. You need to show your
understanding of the general subject area and explain how your chosen research fits into this. Include a rationale for why you think the work you wish to undertake is of importance.
3.Key objectives (approx 500 words)
Outline the main objectives of your research.
4.Three key research questions (approx 500 words)
Clearly formulate your research questions. Explain what problems or issues you wish to explore and why you wish to explore them.
5.Methodology and data (approx 1000 words)
What are the methods and approaches that you plan to use to address your research questions? Explain why this is the most appropriate methodology, and include evidence that you have determined the accessibility of data and any potential difficulties that might be faced during data collection.
6. Fit with VPR research agenda (approx 750 words)
Demonstrate how your proposed research is relevant to the interest and expertise available in the VPR team, and how it fits within the team's research agenda.
Identify a possible supervisor from the team to oversee your research.
Key contact
Team Members
AFSPAN (Aquaculture for Food Security, Poverty Alleviation and Nutrition)
Aquaculture is widely considered as important for enhancing food security, alleviating poverty and improving nutrition. However, little information is available concerning the direct and indirect impacts of aquaculture on food security and poverty alleviation in most developing countries and LIFDCs. More details
Higher Level Panel of Eexperts Report on Social Protection and Food Security
The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) requested the HLPE to produce a report, to be presented at the 39th Session of the CFS, a study on social protection and food security. More details
Impact Evaluation of the PSNP and HAPB 2012
Since 2003, the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) has been implementing a new Food Security Programme (FSP). In 2009, this programme was reviewed and reformulated. More details
Resilience, Adaptability, and Transformability of Fishing Communities in the Face of the World Fisheries Crisis
This project is a response to the initial DFID-ESRC 'Resource scarcity, growth, and poverty reduction' call and it is titled "Tangled in their (own) safety-nets?: Resilience, adaptability, and transformability of fishing communities in the face of the World fisheries crisis. More details
WFP-Ethiopia Meret Impact Evaluation
The World Food Programme (WFP) Ethiopia has requested TANGO and IDS to assess the evaluability of conducting an impact evaluation of the long-standing WFP programme in Ethiopia More details
Baseline Social Performance Survey Afghanistan
CGAP has contracted the IDS to develop several simple indicators based on the Afghan context, that will report on what degree MFIs serve poor people and access to basic health care services. More details
Imp-Act
Imp-Act is a global Consortium of organisations committed to making microfinance work for the poor and excluded. More details
Agency and Governance in Contexts of Civil Conflict
analysing how the relationship between populations living in contexts of violence and armed non-state actors controlling or contesting those areas results in forms of local governance and order, and how this affects people's livelihoods. More details
Changing Livelihoods in Darfur Since 2005
Assessing current livelihood strategies and options available to vulnerable communities living in Darfur. More details
Community Cooperation in Post-Conflict Bosnia
This project will investigate what determines the level of community cooperation in the post-conflict period. More details
Households in Conflict Network
Undertaking collaborative research into the causes and effects of violent conflict at the household level. More details
Improving security for the poor in Nairobi through the provision of services and economic opportunities
This case study aims to critically assess existing evidence on aid, state and community efforts to strengthen access to work, economic opportunities and basic services to improve security in poor areas of Nairobi. More details
MICROCON
A five-year research programme, taking an innovative micro level, multidisciplinary approach to studying the conflict cycle. More details
Quantifying the Impact of Women’s Participation in Peace Building
Review existing evidence on the importance of women’s activities in local peace-building processes, and on the impact of policy interventions aimed at supporting the social, economic and political roles that women play in peace-building processes. More details
TAMNEAC
Training and Mobility Network for the Economic Analysis of Conflict (TAMNEAC) is a Marie Curie Initial Training Network, funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme. More details
UN MONUSCO/World Bank DRC Consultancy
The primary objective of the consultancy is to support the development of a coordinated approach to monitoring and evaluation for the Peace Consolidation programme (PCP) in DRC. More details
Women in Local Peacebuilding Research
Documenting the role of women in local peacebuilding, conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Sierra Leone and Liberia. More details
Agency and Governance in Contexts of Civil Conflict
analysing how the relationship between populations living in contexts of violence and armed non-state actors controlling or contesting those areas results in forms of local governance and order, and how this affects people's livelihoods. More details
Changing Livelihoods in Darfur Since 2005
Assessing current livelihood strategies and options available to vulnerable communities living in Darfur. More details
Community Cooperation in Post-Conflict Bosnia
This project will investigate what determines the level of community cooperation in the post-conflict period. More details
Households in Conflict Network
Undertaking collaborative research into the causes and effects of violent conflict at the household level. More details
MICROCON
A five-year research programme, taking an innovative micro level, multidisciplinary approach to studying the conflict cycle. More details
Quantifying the Impact of Women’s Participation in Peace Building
Review existing evidence on the importance of women’s activities in local peace-building processes, and on the impact of policy interventions aimed at supporting the social, economic and political roles that women play in peace-building processes. More details
TAMNEAC
Training and Mobility Network for the Economic Analysis of Conflict (TAMNEAC) is a Marie Curie Initial Training Network, funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme. More details
UN MONUSCO/World Bank DRC Consultancy
The primary objective of the consultancy is to support the development of a coordinated approach to monitoring and evaluation for the Peace Consolidation programme (PCP) in DRC. More details
Women in Local Peacebuilding Research
Documenting the role of women in local peacebuilding, conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Sierra Leone and Liberia. More details
Changing Livelihoods in Darfur Since 2005
Assessing current livelihood strategies and options available to vulnerable communities living in Darfur. More details
Ending Famine in the 21st Century
IDS is coordinating a programme of work based on the belief that global eradication of famine is achievable in the foreseeable future. The ultimate objective of this policy-oriented research is to contribute to a new policy agenda for famine prevention. More details
Higher Level Panel of Eexperts Report on Social Protection and Food Security
The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) requested the HLPE to produce a report, to be presented at the 39th Session of the CFS, a study on social protection and food security. More details
Hunger And Nutrition Commitment Index - HANCI
HANCI measures and ranks governments’ political commitment to reduce hunger and undernutrition on an annual basis. More details
Impact Evaluation of the PSNP and HAPB 2012
Since 2003, the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) has been implementing a new Food Security Programme (FSP). In 2009, this programme was reviewed and reformulated. More details
Political Commitment to Hunger Reduction Index
The HRCI aims to make the extent of political commitment to hunger reduction, among both developing and developed countries, more transparent to all. More details
Productive Safety Net Programme, Ethiopia
Since 2003, the Government of Ethiopia has been implementing a new Food Security Programme (FSP). In 2009, this programme was reviewed and reformulated. More details
Resilience, Adaptability, and Transformability of Fishing Communities in the Face of the World Fisheries Crisis
This project is a response to the initial DFID-ESRC 'Resource scarcity, growth, and poverty reduction' call and it is titled "Tangled in their (own) safety-nets?: Resilience, adaptability, and transformability of fishing communities in the face of the World fisheries crisis. More details
Strengthen Emergency Needs Assessment Capacity (SENAC)
The SENAC Advisory Group provides guidance on the research being undertaken in key areas related to emergency needs assessments, and advises on coordination with related efforts elsewhere. More details
Undernutrition and Public Policy in India
This research seeks to inform and influence the current state of debate in India on the issue of malnutrition and food security. More details
The Bellagio Initiative
The Bellagio Initiative is a series of global consultations that aims to explore trends and opportunities in philanthropy and development. More details
AFSPAN (Aquaculture for Food Security, Poverty Alleviation and Nutrition)
Aquaculture is widely considered as important for enhancing food security, alleviating poverty and improving nutrition. However, little information is available concerning the direct and indirect impacts of aquaculture on food security and poverty alleviation in most developing countries and LIFDCs. More details
Home Grown School Feeding programme
A new initiative that will support government action to deliver cost effective school feeding programmes sourced from local farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. More details
Hunger And Nutrition Commitment Index - HANCI
HANCI measures and ranks governments’ political commitment to reduce hunger and undernutrition on an annual basis. More details
Political Commitment to Hunger Reduction Index
The HRCI aims to make the extent of political commitment to hunger reduction, among both developing and developed countries, more transparent to all. More details
Programme Partnership between Irish Aid and IDS on Hunger Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation
Four years on from Irish Aid's landmark Hunger Task Force Report, hunger reduction remains an enormous challenge. This will become more difficult in the context of resource scarcity, climate change, and an increased demand for food in the emerging economies. More details
Undernutrition and Public Policy in India
This research seeks to inform and influence the current state of debate in India on the issue of malnutrition and food security. More details
Home Grown School Feeding programme
A new initiative that will support government action to deliver cost effective school feeding programmes sourced from local farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. More details
Hunger And Nutrition Commitment Index - HANCI
HANCI measures and ranks governments’ political commitment to reduce hunger and undernutrition on an annual basis. More details
Kenya Hunger Safety Net programme
IDS and partners have been commissioned by DFID on behalf of the Government of Kenya to carry out a Monitoring and Evaluation project, to assess the impact and efficiency of the Hunger Safety Net Programme (HSNP). More details
Programme Partnership between Irish Aid and IDS on Hunger Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation
Four years on from Irish Aid's landmark Hunger Task Force Report, hunger reduction remains an enormous challenge. This will become more difficult in the context of resource scarcity, climate change, and an increased demand for food in the emerging economies. More details
Undernutrition and Public Policy in India
This research seeks to inform and influence the current state of debate in India on the issue of malnutrition and food security. More details
AFSPAN (Aquaculture for Food Security, Poverty Alleviation and Nutrition)
Aquaculture is widely considered as important for enhancing food security, alleviating poverty and improving nutrition. However, little information is available concerning the direct and indirect impacts of aquaculture on food security and poverty alleviation in most developing countries and LIFDCs. More details
Agency and Governance in Contexts of Civil Conflict
analysing how the relationship between populations living in contexts of violence and armed non-state actors controlling or contesting those areas results in forms of local governance and order, and how this affects people's livelihoods. More details
Burundi Graduation Programme Evaluation
In December 2012, Concern Burundi launched its 'Graduation Model Programme' in two provinces in Burundi to work with extremely poor and marginalised communities. More details
Child Vulnerability Assessment, UNICEF Myanmar
IDS has been commissioned to analyse the most recent Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) data and write a report on child vulnerability, which can be utilized for evidence based programming and advocacy to improve children's status in Myanmar. More details
China as the new 'shaper' of global development
The pace and significance of China's rise has implications for both traditional and emerging powers, as well as for developing countries. This plays a role for energy and climate change and for many other development issues. Rising Powers Network is a new network that will place China as the new 'shaper' of global development under the ESRC's Rising Power's Programme. More details
DAC Development Debate
On 13 June 2012 the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) hosted its third DAC Development Debate (DDD). Centring on the theme New poverty patterns: Where will the poor live? More details
Ethnic Minority Development in Vietnam
ESRC -DFID funded project investigated why ethnic minority peoples have failed to share equally in the benefits of Vietnam's recent rapid economic growth, despite the plethora of government programmes designed to assist them. More details
Future Research Leaders ‘Reducing Poverty in the First 18 years of Life'
This proposed research responds to these concerns by using monetary and non-monetary measures to analyse child poverty dynamics, assessing overlaps and mismatches between those measures and investigating reasons for potential differences More details
Gender and Development in Vietnam
The main objective of this project was the production of a summary gender equity strategy relevant to the five-year planning for the next round of the World Bank's Poverty Reduction Strategy Credit (PRSC) and MDG reporting. More details
Researching the Links Between Social Protection and Children's Care
The EveryChild Coalition on Children Without Parental Care, and the Centre of Social Protection at IDS are planning joint research on the links between social protection and children's care. More details
Review of UN Country Teams Engagement
The purpose of this review is to assess how effective the involvement of United Nations agencies, collectively and individually, has been in the Poverty Reduction Strategy processes. More details
States Delivering for Poor People
This project entails an initial scoping study in Rajasthan and Western UP to firm up research questions that are relevant and useful for understanding the politics and implementation of the MGNREGA. More details
Study on Child Well-Being in Kazakhstan
In Kazakhstan UNICEF are embarking on new child well-being research to better understand the vulnerabilities that children experience in this country. UNICEF has partnered with the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan and with the Institute of Development Studies to undertake this research. More details
TAMNEAC
Training and Mobility Network for the Economic Analysis of Conflict (TAMNEAC) is a Marie Curie Initial Training Network, funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme. More details
The New Bottom Billion
New IDS research shows that the global poverty 'problem' is changing. There is a new 'bottom billion' of 960m poor people or 72 per cent of the world's poor who live not in poor countries but in middle-income countries (MICs). More details
Women in Local Peacebuilding Research
Documenting the role of women in local peacebuilding, conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Sierra Leone and Liberia. More details
Building Sustainable Governance
The purpose of the BSG is to bring together a range of scientific, policy and political actors involved in the fisheries sector in South Asia to explore the extent to which they are able, and interested, to participate in deliberative policy networks. More details
Crisis Watch
Crisis Watch is a global network of researchers and practitioners with a shared interest in monitoring the on-the-ground impacts of the financial crisis. More details
DAC Development Debate
On 13 June 2012 the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) hosted its third DAC Development Debate (DDD). Centring on the theme New poverty patterns: Where will the poor live? More details
Future Research Leaders ‘Reducing Poverty in the First 18 years of Life'
This proposed research responds to these concerns by using monetary and non-monetary measures to analyse child poverty dynamics, assessing overlaps and mismatches between those measures and investigating reasons for potential differences More details
Impact of the Economic Crisis on women and children in Zambia
The Government of Zambia has initiated a study to look at the affects of the financial crisis on women and children in Zambia. More details
States Delivering for Poor People
This project entails an initial scoping study in Rajasthan and Western UP to firm up research questions that are relevant and useful for understanding the politics and implementation of the MGNREGA. More details
The New Bottom Billion
New IDS research shows that the global poverty 'problem' is changing. There is a new 'bottom billion' of 960m poor people or 72 per cent of the world's poor who live not in poor countries but in middle-income countries (MICs). More details
Voices of the Vulnerable
IDS were commissioned by the UN to carry out background research to produce the UN Secretary-General's second report on the impacts of the ongoing economic crisis on vulnerable populations in developing countries. More details
A Study of Effective Referral Mechanisms to Strengthen Child and Social Protection in ESAR
It is now widely recognized that a response to vulnerable children, including children affected by HIV, needs to be coherent and inclusive. More details
Adaptive Social Protection
The Adaptive Social Protection in the Context of Agriculture and Food Security Programme (ASP Programme) explores and highlights the benefits of an interlinked approach to risk reduction and resilience building in rural areas of developing countries. More details
Burundi Graduation Programme Evaluation
In December 2012, Concern Burundi launched its 'Graduation Model Programme' in two provinces in Burundi to work with extremely poor and marginalised communities. More details
CSP Conference April 2011: Social Protection for Social Justice
The Centre for Social Protection hosted a conference titled ‘Social Protection for Social Justice’ at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in Brighton, 13-15 April 2011. More details
Child Vulnerability Assessment, UNICEF Myanmar
IDS has been commissioned to analyse the most recent Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) data and write a report on child vulnerability, which can be utilized for evidence based programming and advocacy to improve children's status in Myanmar. More details
Developing a Social Protection Index for Asia
This project is part of the Asian Development Bank's efforts to address a research gap by quantifying social protection activities throughout Asia by creating a social protection index (SPI) using four summary indicators. More details
Development of a Social Protection Strategy for Pakistan
The objective of this work was to assist the GoP with developing a national social protection strategy, involving public and private initiatives that can contribute, both directly and indirectly, to growth, poverty reduction and human security in Pakistan. More details
Dowa Emergency Cash Transfers (DECT)
IDS were commissioned to carry out an external evaluation of the DECT programme. More details
Employment, Informality and Poverty
Joint project led by Sarah Cook, together with Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), to develop collaborative research on informal employment More details
Ethiopia Productive Safety Net Programme
Two years after IDS led an assessment of the PSNP after its first year of operation, IDS and its partners have been commissioned to undertake a new study, to provide an update and analysis of key aspects of the PSNP programme. More details
Evaluation of Social Cash Transfer Pilot Programme (SCTPP) in Tigray, Ethiopia
IFPRI and IDS have been commissioned by UNICEF Ethiopia to undertake an evaluation of the SCTPP. The evaluation will use both quantitative and qualitative methods and will be undertaken across two rounds in 2012 and 2014. More details
FACT Malawi
Concern commissioned IDS to carry out an external evaluation of the FACT programme in Malawi More details
Food Supply Crisis and Food Security in Malawi
Following the food crisis in Malawi in 2002, Action Aid commissioned IDS to try to unravel what went wrong and identify appropriate policies and responses to prevent similar crises in the future. More details
Gender Equality and Extension of Social Protection
IDS was commissioned to study the nature and causes of women's exclusion from social protections coverage More details
Gender and Social Protection in the Informal Economy
This commissioned study brought together the existing literature on gender and social protection in the informal economy with a view to drawing out lessons on good practice to inform ongoing policy discussions. More details
Higher Level Panel of Eexperts Report on Social Protection and Food Security
The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) requested the HLPE to produce a report, to be presented at the 39th Session of the CFS, a study on social protection and food security. More details
Home Grown School Feeding programme
A new initiative that will support government action to deliver cost effective school feeding programmes sourced from local farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. More details
Imp-Act
Imp-Act is a global Consortium of organisations committed to making microfinance work for the poor and excluded. More details
Changing Livelihoods in Darfur Since 2005
Assessing current livelihood strategies and options available to vulnerable communities living in Darfur. More details
Improving security for the poor in Nairobi through the provision of services and economic opportunities
This case study aims to critically assess existing evidence on aid, state and community efforts to strengthen access to work, economic opportunities and basic services to improve security in poor areas of Nairobi. More details
Malawi Safety Nets programme
IDS was commissioned in by the Department of International Development Malawi, to provide advice on the design phase of the Malawi National Safety Nets Programme. More details
Study on Child Well-Being in Kazakhstan
In Kazakhstan UNICEF are embarking on new child well-being research to better understand the vulnerabilities that children experience in this country. UNICEF has partnered with the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan and with the Institute of Development Studies to undertake this research. More details
construct dynamic and multi-dimensional perspectives on vulnerability and poverty
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BLOG: Al Jazeera’s report on the new Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index
Dolf te Lintelo on Al Jazeera
