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.
“These Hazaras go to Iran and bring viruses to Pakistan”, was the accusation made in a WhatsApp conversation which recently went viral across WhatsApp groups in Quetta, Pakistan. In it, two people can be heard cursing the Hazara Shias as potential transmitters of covid-19. One of the...
This working paper focuses on the relationship between women’s economic empowerment and forms of political engagement and accountability. It draws from the findings of a larger report, commissioned by Oxfam America, to study the potential impacts of their Saving for Change (SfC) microfinance...
As the world grapples with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, vulnerable workers in the informal sector in the global south have been hit hard. As vendors working in close quarters and or as frontline care-workers in households, many are particularly vulnerable to contracting the...
Even though I knew what could happen, it was still a shock. I’d spent time in Sierra Leone during the Ebola epidemic and had seen how a disease can ravage a society. I was prepared for fixations on the daily case updates, changing guidance, grounded flights, ever-tightening movement...
This brief reports on attitudes and practices relating to physical distancing measures in Eastern and Southern Africa in the context of the current global Covid-19 outbreak. Where relevant, it also includes insight and learning from the Ebola outbreaks in West Africa and the Democratic Republic...
COVID-19 has overnight destroyed the old divide between the fragile, mostly developing countries of the global South and the supposedly stable, mostly rich countries of the global North. No government has been able to protect their citizens from a viral threat, and now a third of the world’s...
Frequent and proper handwashing with soap is one of the most important measures that can be used to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus, along with physical distancing, avoiding touching one’s face (eyes, nose and mouth) and practising good respiratory hygiene. However, like physical...
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).