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.
Join us for the launch of ‘Food Fight’ – a book by food and nutrition expert Stuart Gillespie that shines a light on the evolution of our global food system from its origins in colonial plunder through the last fifty years of neoliberalism, before concluding with a set of actions to put...
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...
What constitutes ‘success’ if you have land in the A1 land reform areas in Zimbabwe? This is the question we have been asking of local residents across our study sites in Mazowe, Gutu, Masvingo and Matobo districts. We have held 11 workshops in different sites, involving around 208 people...
As we navigate a deeply uncertain global environment, in which the rules-based order is being abandoned, the stakes have never been higher for taking an evidence-informed approach to policy and implementation.
All those who seek to inform policy and interventions with evidence are under...
I recently took part in the third high-level symposium of the UNDP’s Finance, Integrity and Governance Initiative with experts and negotiators involved in the Financing for Development (FfD4) process. The symposium focused on domestic resource mobilisation (DRM), the primary source of...
Stuart Gillespie - a veteran of four decades at the frontline of global food policy - exposes how malnutrition is enmeshed with other crises and what we can all do to turn things around.
Food is life but our food system is killing us. Designed in a different century for a different purpose...
One woman dies in Afghanistan every two hours while trying to give birth and 167 children die in Afghanistan from preventable causes every day. In this bleak context, IDS alumna Tanjila Mazumder Drishti shares more about the dire state of care for pregnant women in Afghanistan and why it is...
Tanjila Mazumder Drishti, Regional Lead - Asia at Global Resource Mobilization and Partnerships, BRAC International
To conclude this series and give a flavour of some of the themes explored across the previous nine blogs, this post presents a series of five cases offering in-depth reflections on how livelihoods are composed across a range of activities and in response to a variety of challenges.
The cases...
Anti-feminist discourse has long been present among groups across the political spectrum in Türkiye. Erdoğan has explicitly stated that he is against gender equality, that abortion is murder, and that using contraception undermines the nation. This rhetoric influenced the official stance on...
South Africa’s Constitution offers protection, and formal recognition as equal citizens, to women and to LGBTQI+ people. It also positions South Africa as an important regional place of refuge for LGBTQI+ Africans, despite the country’s high rates of gender-based violence and xenophobia.
Feminist and LGBT+ movements in the Philippines face mounting challenges that are deeply rooted in cultural, religious, and political dynamics. Machismo culture continues to reinforce strict gender roles and perpetuate male dominance, leaving little room for gender equality.
Ongoing political and economic turmoil has deepened existing gendered inequities and compounded rollback in Pakistan. Increasing political polarisation has led to greater restrictions on civil and political rights and a crackdown on dissent.
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).