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.
The Land Deal Politics Initiative (LDPI) is hosting an International Conference on Global Land Grabbing in Bogota, Colombia with partners including the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Cornell University, City University of New York, International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), The...
The political debates about the rights and wrongs of Zimbabwe’s land reform continue to occupy many. The tired, old obsession about how the land was taken and the associated focus on so-called ‘cronies’ persists, despite much evidence to suggest that the process was highly varied and...
For women in working-class poor settlements in Colombo, since Covid-19, it seems that crises have kept on coming with no respite. At the height of Sri Lanka’s economic crisis in 2022 when food inflation reached 90% the shocks were far from over. Electricity tariff rates were revised and...
This Policy Briefing asks whether cash-plus programming is fit-for-purpose in protracted crises settings, and offers recommendations for enhancing its effectiveness.
For over 10 months, Sudan has been going through a horrific conflict, causing more than eight million people to be forcibly displaced. New research from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) explores how aid actors can improve their food and cash support, with a focus on how it can be...
Sanitation remains one of the most off-track Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with 3.4 billion people, about 46% of the world’s population, still without access to safe sanitation facilities.
Approaches such as Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) have helped shift countries towards...
In 2011, the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) hosted a major conference on land grabbing to take stock of the impacts across the world. The event was convened by the recently formed Land Deal Politics Initiative (LDPI), which involved IDS through the Future Agricultures Consortium and the...
Amid the relentless brutality unleashed upon the Palestinian collective in Israel’s ongoing genocide, Omar al-Khatib, a dear friend and IDS research partner, has been arrested by Israeli forces, and is now being held in ‘administrative detention’ – incarceration without charge or...
Within the context of International Women’s Day and the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) 68 event, the IDS MA in Gender and Development (MAGAD) 2023 – 2024 cohort has curated a list of informative and inspiring feminist resources.
The MAGAD students recognise the transformative...
This brief explores the relationship between social protection and resilience, aiming to clarify conceptual linkages and contribute to WFP’s effective positioning and contribution within this space.
This brief explores the complementary and interconnected roles that social protection and...
Join us for the final Sussex Development Lecture this term, with guest lecturer Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Professor at the Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University and author of the highly acclaimed book Against Decolonisation: Taking African Agency Seriously.
Watch...
This is the fourth blog in a series summarising new research on Zimbabwe’s land reform. In this blog, I look at newly published material on agricultural commercialisation and the shifting political economy of command politics and capitalist expansion.
The land reform from 2000 overturned the...
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).