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.
The 4th International Financing for Development Conference concluded last week in Seville, with the focus now moving from the final outcome document, the Compromiso de Sevilla, to implementation and the Seville Platform for Action (SPA), which brings together more than 130 initiatives aiming to...
This report presents the findings of a rapid scoping review of queer and feminist organisations and social movements countering roll back in 14 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, and Türkiye)
This report presents the findings of a rapid scoping review of queer and feminist organisations and social movements countering roll back in 14 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, and Türkiye)
This K4DD Rapid Evidence Review is the second of two literature reviews scoping issues of state fragility, climate change, peacebuilding and security. The review draws on a mix of academic and grey literature.
Where the first review (Rapid Evidence Review 229) explored definitions of fragility,...
A central question for our new research exploring changes in livelihoods 25 years after land reform is what are the trajectories of accumulation – or indeed the opposite? In other words, how well have those who got land following the land reform of 2000 fared? The farmers occupying the small-...
This paper examines the structural causes of the financial collapse, the subsequent impact on Lebanon’s social protection systems, and the limitations of shock-responsive social protection (SRSP) frameworks in such a context.
Hitomi Fujimoto, MA Poverty & Development, Class of 2014-15, currently works at the Global Survivors Fund as an Advocacy and Policy Officer for Asia. In this blog post, Hitomi talks about why she decided to study at IDS, how it has impacted on her career path, and advice for prospective students...
Hitomi Fujimoto, MA Poverty & Development, Class of 2014-15
A growing concern today is that the acceleration of the so-called ‘twin transition’ — green and digital — is dramatically increasing global demand for critical minerals (CMs). In response to this increasingly recognised challenge, several research agendas have emerged.
A central...
In May 2025, Keir Starmer held a press conference to launch an Immigration White Paper, stating that without stricter immigration rules, the UK risks becoming an ‘island of strangers’. This White Paper – aspects of which are already being implemented – proposes, among other things,...
Green transitions are not only technological but deeply political. They rely on resources – land, minerals, water – mostly located in low- and middle-income countries, where extraction is increasingly contested. Drawing on evidence from Argentina and Chile, this paper examines how...
The UK government’s 2025 Immigration White Paper titled ‘Restoring Control over the Immigration System’ proposes sweeping changes to the Skilled Worker (SW) visa route, raising salary thresholds (currently £38,700), removing discounts for shortage occupations, closing the social care visa...
Antea Gomes, MA Gender and Development, Class of 2022/23
Community engagement is a crucial part of preparedness and response to health emergencies. It can enable more effective and equitable approaches by listening and responding to people’s needs, aspirations and priorities as much as communicating information to people and seeking to guide their...
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).