Health

Through multidisciplinary research and policy engagement we bring new understanding and action on critical issues around health and health systems, and how they overlap with other systems such as food, as well as nutrition, sanitation, epidemics and zoonotic diseases.  Enhancing understanding of how to ensure healthy lives for all is a vital part of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Agenda 2030) and has been an integral focus of IDS’ work since its inception.

Our research and analysis on innovations in health services and systems – including work on identifying effective strategies to address the challenges of antimicrobial resistance – is accelerating progress towards achieving universal health coverage in Asia and Africa. Our work on nutrition spans the spectrum from dietary transition and globalisation of food systems, through to responding to the ways that marginalisation and inequity drive high child malnutrition rates.  We bring vital social knowledge to aid effective preparedness and response on pandemics. We show how direct impacts on the spread of diseases such as Ebola can be achieved by bringing learning from research on social issues and contexts to the right people in the right organisations at the right time.  Together with our global partners, we are generating and sharing new knowledge and evidence to identify the underlying causes of poor health and social inequalities, and the progressive policies and practices that can help bring about transformative change.

People

Gerald Bloom

Research Fellow

Hayley MacGregor

Research Fellow

Nicholas Nisbett

Research Fellow

Tom Barker

Senior Health & Nutrition Convenor

Melissa Leach

Emeritus Fellow

Annie Wilkinson

Health and Nutrition Cluster Lead

Linda Waldman

Director of Teaching and Learning

Inka Barnett

Health and Nutrition Cluster Lead

Programmes and centres

Recent work

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Showing 1–12 of 15281 results

Upcoming Event

Food Equity

Power relationships and aquaculture livelihoods in Vietnam

Join us for this seminar that explores different kinds of power relationships that influence people’s access to resources, livelihood options and sustainability outcomes. This seminar looks at a case study of aquaculture production systems in northern Vietnam and the power relationships...

15 July 2025

Upcoming Event

The Lancet Commission on Gender and Global Health: IDS launch event

We are delighted to invite you to attend the IDS launch of The Lancet Commission on Gender and Global Health (LCGGH) report. The rollback in gender rights and challenges to global health organisations around the world threatens to reverse decades of progress on global health. This...

14 May 2025

Upcoming Event

Folk seed banks to build resistance to seed capitalism

Join us for this talk by Indian seed sovereignty scholar and activist Dr. Debal Deb. Neolithic farmers created all the cultivated crop species from their wild progenitors. Generations of pre-industrial farmers since the Neolithic era have subsequently developed a legion of crop landraces,...

7 May 2025

Past Event

Development Studies Week 2025

The Institute of Development Studies (IDS), in partnership with the University of Sussex, has been ranked first in the world for Development Studies in the QS World University Rankings for the ninth consecutive year. Together with the University of Sussex, we provide 29 postgraduate degrees...

1 May 2025

Opinion

What does solidarity mean in practice?

I was coming out of a lecture that I was giving to IDS masters’ students on struggles against anti-gender backlash by women’s groups when I saw the news: 15 Palestinian medical workers brutally killed and buried in a mass grave by Israel. My blood boiled, and I wished that I could do...

30 April 2025

News

Podcast – The empathy fix: Why poverty persists and how to change it

A poverty line of $6.85 a day, as used by the World Bank, indicates a substantial level of deprivation, impacting the lives of billions globally. Indeed, nearly half of the World’s population falls into this category. So, if poverty is something we all want to see less of, why does it prove so...

30 April 2025

Past Event

We power our own change: The future of community-led development

Can principles of Community-led Development define the future of our sector? By introducing their recent publication, We Power our Own Change, authors in this seminar will reflect on the practices, insights, and the potential principles of Community-led Development and what it holds for the...

30 April 2025

Why learn with us.

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).

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