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.
This brief provides key considerations related to Covid-19 in the context of prisons, jails and similar detention facilities (referred to collectively in this brief as “prisons”).
It summarises the particular risks associated with an outbreak of Covid-19 in prisons in low-and middle-income...
In recent weeks, countries across South and South-Eastern Asia, including Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal have implemented a raft of containment measures in an attempt to limit the spread of the Covid pandemic. Borders have been closed, businesses shut, and people’s movement restricted during...
At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has raised issues of welfare regimes higher up the global agenda, author Ferdinand Eibl discusses his book, Social Dictatorships: The Political Economy of the Welfare State in the Middle East and North Africa. Using mixed methods of study, the book presents...
The world is faced with an unprecedented challenge and many argue that every resource we have should be deployed as fast and as fully as possible in order to save lives. Equally, governments are urged to minimise the economic disruption which may cost lives due to poverty and hunger long after...
Fifty years of focus on short-term financial performance and maximising shareholder value has contributed to soaring inequality, unsustainable development, and global instability. The time is ripe to build a new type of economy, in which people have a meaningful voice.
The Rural Urban Distribution Initiative (RUDI) was set up in India in 2004 by the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA). It is a branded local network for the procurement, marketing, and distribution of agricultural products by rural women and is owned by the small-scale farmers and rural...
Jubilee 2000 was a highly successful global campaign to bring about debt relief for developing countries, which galvanised activists into a shared global project and brought them into negotiations with creditors. The Jubilee campaign lodged the concept of odious debt in the public consciousness....
Institut Bisnis dan Ekonomi Kerakyatan (IBEKA), or People Centred Economic and Business Institute, supports rural electrification by installing small-scale hydro or wind mini grids and setting up village-based organisations to own, maintain and operate the systems. Elements that support...
Support to energy, particularly hydropower, has formed an important element of many donor programmes. How have such interventions shaped the emergence of particular energy imaginaries in the countries engaged with?
‘Energy imaginaries’ can be understood as the set of institutions, logics,...
This report critically examines the modalities of development cooperation and experiences of China and United Kingdom‘s (UK) engagements in Kenya and Sri Lanka. Given the increasing importance of China and the UK in development cooperation and assistance, and the new approaches that they bring...
This paper highlights the major challenges and considerations for addressing Covid-19 in informal settlements. It discusses what is known about vulnerabilities and how to support local protective action.
There is heightened concern about informal urban settlements because of the combination of...
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).