The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) has been awarded four pioneering research projects funded through the British Academy. The funding is part of a programme that aims to enhance the use of evidence in policymaking for addressing critical global development challenges.
Each of the four projects are rooted in international partnerships reflecting IDS’ strengths in working across disciplinary and institutional boundaries to support more equitable, participatory, and knowledge-driven policymaking.
Supporting the right to food through inclusive evidence
The project ‘Equity-informed evidence for policymaking: bridging policy, expertise and experience in the context of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty’ by Dr Lídia Cabral, research fellow at IDS, will strengthen the knowledge systems behind the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty. The Global Alliance launched during Brazil’s Presidency of the G20, aims to provide continuous political drive and foster collective action, building synergies with pre-existing initiatives to combat hunger and poverty through international learning and evidence exchange. The research will support evidence-informed policymaking in global spaces, such as the Global Alliance, as well as in Brazil and South Africa, where hunger and malnutrition remain persistent despite the right to food being constitutionally recognised.
Working through the Food Equity Centre—a partnership between IDS, the University of Brasília, the Federal Fluminense University, the Reference Center on Food and Nutrition Sovereignty and Security (CERESAN), the University of the Western Cape and others—the project will convene inclusive dialogues with civil society, researchers and policymakers at national and international levels. These conversations will focus on integrating lived experience and tacit knowledge into policy, bridging gaps between technical expertise and grassroots knowledge.
Elisabetta Recine, University of Brasília, a co-investigator in the project said:
‘The pursuit of the Human Right to Adequate Food, encompassing the eradication of hunger and the guarantee of healthy food, is a historic struggle shaped by diverse forms of social participation.
“Brazil has achieved important results in this area not only through programmes that link sectors, but through systemic governance where civil society and government engage in legitimate dialogue. This allows a diversity of realities, knowledge, and priorities to influence national public policy. The agenda for food and nutritional sovereignty and security is complex and gains new layers as disputes deepen over what needs to be done to transform food systems towards climate, food and social justice. In this context, representative spaces that we will be working with that act in the name of the common good are of paramount importance.
Strengthening municipal climate action in Türkiye
IDS researcher Dr Dolf te Lintelo was awarded a grant for the project ‘Co-designing Learning for Evidence-based Climate Policy in Marmara’s Municipalities (CLEMM)’ to focus on strengthening knowledge systems that support socially just climate adaptation and mitigation in urban areas of the Marmara region, Türkiye. CLEMM involves a partnership with Istinye University, the Marmara Municipalities Union (MMU) and Şişli Municipality in Istanbul.
Türkiye has recently adopted ambitious national climate goals. Yet, when it comes to turning these into local practice, many municipalities face capability challenges interpreting diverse forms and types of evidence to inform policy action. Moreover, they must navigate structural challenges, such as how to fund intended activities.
CLEMM addresses these challenges by co-designing diagnostics, workshops and training with local officials and stakeholders and capabilities to address these challenges. The initiative will foster new connections involving a community of practice from amongst 195 municipalities. It enables peer learning and collective problem-solving around evidence-informed urban climate action. The project also aims to deliver concrete recommendations and build institutional capabilities to ensure sustained, systemic learning, through existing learning platforms.
Reframing Impact Assessments in the Mekong Basin
In Southeast Asia’s Mekong River Basin, large dam projects have long been a flashpoint for environmental, gender, and social tensions. A new project led by IDS professor Jeremy Allouche is awarded a grant to investigate the politics of impact assessments (IAs) and how anticipatory evidence influences decision-making from project planning through to operation.
Titled ‘Anticipatory evidence and large dam impact assessment in transboundary policy settings: Political ecologies of the future in the Mekong Basin’, the research brings together partners from Chulalongkorn University, Ubon Ratchathani University, and the National University of Laos. It will focus on the Xayaburi and Pak Mun dams—two high-profile and contested sites.
A transdisciplinary approach to co-constructing knowledge with civil society, practitioners, and policymakers will be central to addressing how evidence is generated, interpreted, and used in IA processes. Through life histories, visual storytelling, and deep-dive interviews, the project seeks to amplify community perspectives, promote inclusive governance, and strengthen the accountability of IA systems across the region.
Evidence informing policymaking in polarised societies
IDS researcher Dr. Miguel Loureiro is leading a joint research project to explore how political polarisation influences the types of evidence informing different Brazilian policymakers responsible for the country’s national climate change policy. The project brings together researchers collaborators from the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA) – Brazil’s main governmental policy think tank – the Policy Evaluation & Evidence Unit of Brazil’s National School of Public Administration (ENAP), and the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO), a key facilitator of social participation in Brazil’s national conferences.
Building on six years of joint research on sources of information informing policymaking in Brazil, the project ‘The ‘Good’ Evidence: evidence use during narrative wars within Brazilian bureaucracy’ will investigate what kinds of information different policy actors consider as evidence while deliberating what should be the country’s national climate change policy. The project will also analyse how this evidence is interpreted and deployed within a politically contested policymaking environment, focusing specifically on the Brazilian bureaucracy shaping climate change policy.
Together, these four projects highlight IDS’ global reach and commitment to transforming knowledge into action through collaboration, participation and policy engagement. The British Academy’s Evidence-Informed Policymaking programme plays a key role in enabling such work by funding research that directly supports more effective, equitable, and sustainable policy decisions around the world.
