Can you help shape our future priorities? Take a five minute survey now. Survey closes on 8 July.

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

Filter results by

Showing 481–492 of 15400 results

Brief

Promoting Sustainable Waste Management in Mekelle, Ethiopia

IDS Policy Briefing 216

Mekelle, the capital of the Tigray region in Ethiopia, is plagued by water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) challenges. Rapid population growth, unplanned urbanisation, limitations in WASH services, climate change, and the impacts of war and conflicts are affecting the sanitation conditions of the...

12 September 2024

Opinion

Meeting the need for speed

In this blog written from a meeting of thousands of knowledge brokers and scientists at the Global Evidence Summit, I ask how are we going to put the rapid into rapid evidence reviews? I was excited to attend a session at the Global Evidence Summit in Prague this week on “Meeting the Need for...

12 September 2024

Publication

The Domestic Market and its Relationship to the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Bangladesh’s Leather Industry

CLARISSA Research and Evidence Paper 15

This survey was limited in focus. It was designed simply to establish the extent to which small enterprises in the leather sector that employed children were primarily supplying the domestic market. In a purposive sample of 158 small leather enterprises – mostly in the informal economy –...

A.K.M. Maksud & 2 others

11 September 2024

Publication

Journey to Work

Bangladesh Action Research Group 9

The Child Labour: Action-Research-Innovation in South and South-Eastern Asia (CLARISSA) programme uses Action Research (AR) to understand the dynamics which drive the worst forms of child labour (WFCL), and to generate participatory innovations which help to shift these underlying dynamics and...

10 September 2024

Brief

Equitable Pathways to Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems

T20 Policy Brief

Ensuring pathways to sustainable food systems are equitable is a moral and existential imperative. Food systems are sustainable when they promote responsible use of natural resources, protect biodiversity, and mitigate the environmental impact of production, distribution, and consumption.

Lídia Cabral
Lídia Cabral & 7 others

10 September 2024

Publication

Creating Opportunities for Education

Bangladesh Action Research Group 8

The Child Labour: Action-Research-Innovation in South and South-Eastern Asia (CLARISSA) programme uses Action Research (AR) to understand the dynamics which drive the worst forms of child labour (WFCL), and to generate participatory innovations which help to shift these underlying dynamics and...

10 September 2024

Working Paper

Assessing Displaced People’s Design Choices Around Social Assistance

BASIC Research Working Paper 30

This paper sets out to partially address the exclusion of displaced people from the design and planning of social assistance programming by consulting them in a range of design choices about how they engage with social assistance and what a good social assistance programme would look like. The...

10 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).

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.