Our research on governance, power relations, participation and citizen engagement, informs change processes in pursuit of social justice and social change. With power and politics central to our analysis, we support the generation of new evidence that contributes to improved processes for good governance, citizen engagement, empowerment and accountability.
We pioneer new ways of working with governments, communities, activists and academics, to understand the complex relationships and processes that exist across states, markets, and citizens, and between formal and informal institutions, to tackle issues such as digital inequalities, women’s participation and empowerment, decentralisation and local governance, rapid urbanisation, migration, taxation and domestic resource mobilisation, food security and hunger and nutrition. These draw on our extensive expertise in complex approaches to how change happens. Through our research and policy partnerships we are also bringing new insights on the role that rising powers and emerging economies such as China and Brazil have in relation to global governance and tackling development challenges such as sustainability and poverty. Our world-renown participatory research has a particular emphasis on systematic social exclusion facing women, people living in extreme poverty, people with disabilities, slaves bonded labourers, indigenous peoples and others. We advance cutting edge methodological development in action research, participatory visual methods, participatory mapping, participatory statistics, participatory Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) amongst others.
In alignment with the ‘leave no one behind’ framing of the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development, the PMA programme is working with groups of people living in poverty and marginalisation to strengthen processes of citizen-led accountability.
The International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) provides research evidence that supports developing countries in raising domestic revenues equitably and sustainably, in a manner that is conducive to pro-poor economic growth and good governance.
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...
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...
Join us for the first event in our new Sussex Development Lecture series on politics, power and hope, with guest lecturer Dr Danny Sriskandarajah speaking about the themes from his new book Power to the People: Use your voice, change the world.
Danny Sriskandarajah learned the value of...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
Mega-Infrastructure Projects (MIPs) represent a central element of globalized development. MIPs like the Chinese driven ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI) include large-scale agrarian, road, rail, port and energy networks. They are complex ventures involving international capital and multiple...
Early in September, two summits of continental importance were held to reflect and consider Africa’s future. The first was the 2024 African Food Systems Forum (AFSForum2024) held in Kigali and the other was the inaugural Africa Urban Forum on “Sustainable Urbanization for Africa’s...
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).