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Inclusive Economies

Our work explores what characterises inclusive economies and how these can be achieved, particularly in a world where new technologies, rural to urban migration, and growing youth populations are disrupting and putting new pressures on people’s lives and livelihoods.

Our research looks at the impacts of business and markets on development and inequality and explores the potential for novel market-based solutions to work for the poorest and most marginalised based on gender, ethnicity and disability.  It explores alternatives that enable workers, consumers and communities to have a real voice.

It continues to revitalise debates on agriculture as a key pathway out of poverty and towards inclusion, particularly for young people. Our work is focused on identifying what opportunities exist in a period of agricultural commercialisation and rural transformation and how far different groups are able to access them.  It also understands how new technologies such as drones or blockchains pose risks, but can also be harnessed to improve the lives of the poorest and most marginalised people.  In a rapidly urbanising world where cities have become focal points for economic growth, jobs and innovation but also for poverty, inequality, vulnerability and conflict, our work explores what this means for both urban and rural people, and the opportunities and challenges they face in living safe and fulfilling lives.

People

Jodie Thorpe

Research Fellow

Philip Mader

Research Fellow

Richard Jolly

Emeritus Fellow and Research Associate

Ana Pueyo

Research Fellow

Carlos Fortin

Emeritus Fellow and Research Associate

Rachel Sabates-Wheeler

Research Fellow

Keetie Roelen

IDS Honorary Associate

Giel Ton

Research Fellow

Programmes and centres

Projects

Recent work

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Showing 469–480 of 15397 results

News

Renowned IDS academic commemorated with street name

Sir Hans Singer, who is famed for his work on development economics and a former professor at the Institute of Development Studies, has been commemorated by his hometown in Germany. Commemorative sign The city of Wuppertal in Germany honoured the renowned economist at a ceremony last...

23 September 2024

Publication

Grievance Redress Mechanisms in the Health Sector

Report

In recent years, many governments in the Global South have integrated Grievance Redress Mechanisms (GRMs) into their governance structures to monitor and improve the provision of services. However, the implementation on the ground of these GRMs has yet to be fully explored. This study sought to...

Kátia Taela & 5 others

20 September 2024

News

Widespread and harmful child labour uncovered in Bangladesh leather sector

A five-year study with child workers in Bangladesh’s growing leather industry has uncovered children working in dangerous and harmful conditions at every stage of leather processing and production, driven by the need to support their families financially. Children as young as eight,...

20 September 2024

Student Opinion

A master’s student’s reflections of diversity at IDS

MA Development Studies student Deep Mehta shares his honest reflections about his year with us – including the challenges and frictions caused when your values, beliefs and opinions and not always aligned with those who you are studying with. Much of what I say here overlaps with what...

Deep Mehta, IDS student, MA Development Studies

19 September 2024

Report

Worst Forms of Child Labour in the Bangladesh Leather Industry: A Synthesis of Five Years of Research by Children, Small Business Owners, NGOs, and Academics

CLARISSA Research and Evidence Paper 11

The CLARISSA programme has produced multiple research reports, and the Hard Labour website, which reproduces some of the stories about children’s lives, their days, the businesses they work in, and the neighbourhoods they live in. This paper synthesises this detailed evidence landscape to draw...

Jody Aked
Jody Aked & 2 others

19 September 2024

Past Event

Realising safely managed urban sanitation: the potential of ‘brown gold’

Sanitation is one of the most off-track Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the WHO and UNICEF reporting that 3.8 billion people still lacking access to safely managed sanitation. In many low- and middle-income countries, centralised and capital-intensive sanitation and waste...

19 September 2024

Opinion

Is the world prepared for a brown gold rush?

Human waste is rich in water, nutrients and organic compounds, most of which nowadays are just going down the drain. The concept of “brown gold” highlights the sheer scale of the economic benefits if we were able to recover all these hidden resources by reusing the treated...

17 September 2024

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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