Our interdisciplinary research explores how pathways to sustainability, green transformations and equitable access to resources such as land, water and food can be achieved and help us meet the environmental as well as human development-related goals of the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.
Our work builds on a long tradition of critical social science engagement with environmental issues and resource politics in collaboration with partners globally. It explores how pathways to sustainability are shaped by political-economic and social processes, and understands how they are driven by technology, markets, states and citizens. Our research sheds new light on how we can achieve green transformations that move us from fossil fuel to renewable energy, from throw-away to circular economies. It addresses the politics of sustainability, and understands how transformations occur at local levels as well as global, in both rural and urban settings, and be led by citizens as well as national governments. In doing so, it shines a light on how sustainable resource use, consumption and production is shaped by issues such as gender, livelihoods and politics.
The ESRC STEPS Centre (Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability) is an interdisciplinary global research and policy engagement centre.
This seminar discusses gender Mainstreaming in Trade Agreements. Even though we are yet to see concrete evidence of benefits that gender mainstreaming in trade agreements can have, more and more countries are embracing this approach. The seminar is fifth in the IDS seminar series on inclusive...
The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) has published its 2021-22 Annual Review, highlighting the Institute’s response to a year marked by conflict, climate change, and Covid-19.
The Review presents our progress over the past year and illustrates how, despite ongoing effects of the...
How can development organisations think differently about knowledge and learning in times of complexity, crisis and conflict?
Crisis and complexity define the current political, social, and economic landscape. What role does evidence play in helping us navigate these turbulent times? In this...
The question of how agricultural commercialisation affects livelihoods has been central to the recently completed APRA programme (Agricultural Policy Research in Africa), which, along with Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania, had work going on in Zimbabwe. A core part of the Zimbabwe work was...
Ghana’s introduction of a 1.5% tax on mobile money transactions in May 2022 has been watched closely by policymakers across Africa. The proponents of the electronic transaction levy (e-levy) argue that taxes on mobile money — commonly referred to in Ghana as MoMo — present an opportunity...
The Knowledge, Evidence and Learning for Development (K4D) Programme, which started in 2016, comes to an end in September 2022. K4D is a programme funded by and for the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (initially with the Department for International Development,...
It has been a year marked by conflict, climate change, and Covid-19 – intersecting crises that intensify and entrench longer-term vulnerabilities.
As we highlight in the IDS 2021–22 Annual Review, these uncertain times demand that development research be done differently, with new...
How does nutrition improve? We need to understand better what drives both positive and negative change in different contexts, and what more can be done to reduce malnutrition.
Since 2015, the Stories of Change in Nutrition studies have analysed and documented experiences in many different...
How struggles in the agrarian space connect with the huge challenge of climate change is a vital focus for both thinking and action. Climate change is inextricably entwined with capitalism, but how the relationship between capitalism and climate change plays out in the rural world requires...
Antimicrobial drugs, including antibiotics, are the backbone of modern medicine. They are a primary treatment for a spectrum of ailments, from infected wounds to chest infections, sexually transmitted infections to pneumonia. They underpin treatments for people with compromised immune systems,...
There’s an atmosphere of excited anticipation at IDS, as we prepare to welcome an intake of over 200 new students from around the world to study our master’s degrees in international development.
Throughout the pandemic IDS has sought to deliver excellent teaching whilst also putting in...
Watch the session recording here
https://youtu.be/eX6-noNW-Xc
Join the Rejuvenate project for their next dialogue for academics and practitioners working in the field of child and youth rights and participation.
Young people do not necessarily view uncertainty in their lives as negative,...
15 September 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).