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

Research Associate

Ana Pueyo

Research Fellow

Carlos Fortin

Research Associate

Rachel Sabates-Wheeler

Rural Futures Cluster Lead

Keetie Roelen

IDS Honorary Associate

Giel Ton

Research Fellow

Programmes and centres

Projects

Recent work

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Showing 49–60 of 14672 results

Opinion

Five ways funding is crucial for organising and defeating gender backlash

Backlash from conservative, patriarchal, religious and political forces is often seen as ‘the cost of doing business’ by feminist or LGBTQ+ activists. Yet how do philanthropic institutions who support gender justice respond to the scaled-up, well-financed and globally coordinated anti-gender...

12 March 2024

Publication

Are Trade Rules Undermining Taxation of the Digital Economy in Africa?

ICTD Research in Brief 103

Countries have the potential to tax the digital economy through a combination of at least these four measures, which can be incorporated into their industrial policy and revenue collection strategies.

11 March 2024

Past Event

How is backlash weakening institutional contexts for gender justice globally?

Gender backlash is continually gaining momentum across the globe, and social and political institutions and policies are being dismantled. Gender justice activists and women’s rights organisations are having to mobilise quickly to counter these attacks. Organised by the Countering Backlash...

11 March 2024

Working Paper

Anti-Gender Backlash: Where is Philanthropy?

This working paper explores how philanthropic institutions with a history of supporting women’s and LGBTQ+ rights and democracy are seeing and responding to anti-gender backlash, and the background dynamics shaping the struggle. It is based on a scan commissioned by the IDS-led Countering...

10 March 2024

News

Understanding gender backlash through Southern perspectives

New research published today in the IDS Bulletin reveals the extent to which gender and sexual rights are being reversed in a global wave of gender backlash. The research, based on evidence from Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Uganda, and the United Kingdom, explores the...

7 March 2024

Journal

Understanding Gender Backlash: Southern Perspectives

IDS Bulletin 55.1

Far from seeing continued steady progress on gender equality, we are currently witnessing significant backlash against gender and sexual rights. Limited and hard-fought gains for some are being reversed, co-opted, and dismantled – all amplified through new social media and digital...

7 March 2024

Past Event

Understanding gender backlash: Southern perspectives

This event will launch the new IDS Bulletin ‘Understanding Gender Backlash: Southern Perspectives’. It will address the urgent question of how we can better understand the recent swell of anti-gender backlash across different regions, exploring different types of actors, interests,...

7 March 2024

News

Essential feminist reads for International Women’s Day 2024

To mark International Women’s Day 2024, colleagues from the Sustaining Power: Women’s struggles against contemporary backlash in South Asia (SuPWR) project, of which IDS is a partner, share their essential feminist reads. Ranging from meditations and essay collections to academic...

6 March 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).