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.
To increase the effectiveness of social assistance on child nutrition, programmes are increasingly combined with behaviour change communication for improved infant and young child feeding (BCC for IYCF).
Unfortunately, there is limited knowledge about which BCC strategies are most effective...
We are thrilled to officially launch the 'Routledge Handbook of Smuggling' with an introduction by its editors, some of its authors, and a discussion of key issues in the contemporary study of smuggling.
Watch the video now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6rYAlNAGnk
Listen to the audio...
The unprecedented threat posed by the Covid-19 pandemic has presented a crisis for the international humanitarian system. At a time when the number of people in need of assistance has drastically expanded, humanitarian funding has been cut as countries focus on their domestic economies....
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an increasingly important global health threat, but the pipeline of new antimicrobials under development is inadequate. Developing new antimicrobials is risky, with little financial reward, prompting calls for governments to adopt novel industrial and innovation...
It is with great sadness that former IDS Fellow Professor Jude Howell died peacefully on Friday the 29 April, at the Martlets Hospice in Brighton.
IDS Research Associate, Richard Crook, who worked with her closely wrote:
'Jude Howell was one of the UK’s leading authorities on the politics...
Motivation:
There are three puzzling features of sub-Saharan African tax systems: tax administrations maintain records on vast numbers of small enterprises that actually provide no revenue; they continually invest resources into registering even more of these “unproductive taxpayers”; and...
A limited but growing number of studies point to mixed effects of social protection on social cohesion. Relatively little is known about the role of social cohesion on access to and impact of social protection. Based on in-depth qualitative research in Burundi and Haiti, this paper explores the...
The unprecedented threat posed by the Covid-19 pandemic has presented a crisis for the international humanitarian system. At a time when the number of people in need of assistance has drastically expanded, humanitarian funding has been cut as countries focus on their domestic economies....
The effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on global value chains has been topical of late, yet little work has been done to explore how interactions between value chain businesses and state actors, which we refer to as the state-business relations and global value chain nexus (SBR-GVC nexus), have...
In Myanmar, almost one in ten children are engaged in child labour and more than half of the working children are doing hazardous work. The Covid-19 pandemic and responses to it have far-reaching social and economic consequences for vulnerable populations, including children in the worst forms...
In this episode of the IDS podcast Between the Lines, Ian Scoones and Andrea Cornwall, editors of the book Revolutionizing Development: Reflections on the work of Robert Chambers interview Robert Chambers about his work and legacy.
Listen now
The book which has just been made open access...
Join us for a two-hour Robert Chambers-inspired taster workshop to explore the potential of participatory methods for decolonising development practice.
Using methods from Robert Chambers workshops, we will work together to uncover and reflect on how participation can challenge entrenched...
28 April 2022
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).