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.
Adaptive management is generally considered a ‘good thing’ in aid programming. But do we understand enough about how adaptively managed aid programmes interact with other aid programmes working on similar issues in overlapping locations?
We’ve been working on an UK FCDO-funded programme...
Join researchers and academics to celebrate the work of renowned development scholar Professor Robert Chambers in a series of events and workshops running from 26 to 28 April. Now a research associate at IDS, Robert is well-known for his pioneering participatory research methods, and his...
New research reveals how Covid-19 has deepened gender inequalities and gender poverty in countries including India, South Africa, Mexico, Peru, Benin and Burkina Faso. Three studies commissioned by the Covid-19 Responses for Equity (CORE) initiative found that women working in the informal...
Today, IDS and three of our partners in Zimbabwe launch a Handbook that will help to integrate youth active citizenship strategies in employment interventions.
It is not just the magnitude of youth unemployment that is a global challenge, but the creation of enough decent, good-quality jobs for...
'Trade and poverty’ has absorbed huge amounts of research over the last two decades but it has failed to provide a definitive general answer to the question ‘does increased trade reduce poverty?'
Watch now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7AwgTCYf6g
This seminar provided an overview...
The Covid-19 pandemic has upended health and living standards around the world. This talk provides an overview of these effects, with a particular focus on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Economists have explained how the pandemic is likely to have different consequences for LMICs,...
Government leadership at both the national and sub-national levels is an essential step towards ensuring safely managed sanitation services for all.
Though the importance of sub-national government leadership for water, sanitation and hygiene is widely acknowledged, to date much of the focus...
The theme for World Water Day 2022 is ‘Groundwater – Making the Invisible Visible’. Groundwater is water found underground in aquifers – geological formations of rocks, sands and gravels, that hold substantial quantities of water.
Groundwater feeds springs, rivers, lakes and wetlands,...
The world has been reeling in shock at the devastation being caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Beyond the grave and urgent humanitarian needs for the people of Ukraine, and the millions now displaced, the impacts of the war will potentially be wide reaching and have long-term...
Multiple development actors are interested in stimulating more inclusive fiscal governance. Efforts to generate greater budget transparency, citizen participation in resource allocation, and public oversight of government spending are commonplace. How can development donors and lenders support...
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).