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.
After finishing my ten year term as Director of IDS, I will be stepping down at the end of April. In my first blog post I reflected on the wonderful, extraordinary Institute which has been my base for more than a third of a century. Here, in part two, I reflect on IDS research and strategies...
Somalia is consistently among one of the most challenging environments for aid agencies and government entities to provide social assistance due to the ongoing conflict and limited government control. Aid providers struggle to reach people in areas not under government control, which exacerbates...
Social assistance in Somalia has become deeply embedded in the country’s political economy and struggles with systemic diversion and corruption, which negatively affects how programmes on accountability of aid function in practice.
This paper examines systems for accountability of social...
In this special episode of the IDS Between the Lines podcast Andy Sumner, President of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) and Professor of International Development at Kings College London interviews Professor Melissa Leach who leaves IDS after 33...
Are optimistic tax targets helpful or hurtful? How can we make them better? Join us on April 17 as a panel of researchers and practitioners discuss the role that targets can play in building tax capacity.
In this special episode of the IDS Between the Lines podcast produced with the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI). Andy Sumner, President of EADI and Professor of International Development at Kings College London interviews Professor Melissa Leach who...
At the end of April I finish my ten year term as Director of the Institute of Development Studies, the wonderful, extraordinary Institute which has been my base for more than a third of a century. Here, in part one of two blogs, I reflect on my time at IDS.
I joined as a Fellow in 1990 to...
Two of ICTD’s PhD students, Adrienne Lees and Sripriya Srivatsa, recently spent three days at Gladstone’s Library in North Wales on a writing retreat. The library was built in 1902, following a bequest from William Gladstone, and has hosted a long list of distinguished writers and...
This paper gives preliminary insights into the challenges surrounding the taxation of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) in Nigeria – first in general terms, and then with a specific focus on Borno State.
This policy brief speaks to the broader challenges of translating investments in DPI into improved development outcomes – and the potential for investments in strengthening digitalisation of tax systems to be a catalyst for digitalisation of the public sector more broadly.
In common with many other African countries, the Republic of South Sudan is increasingly experiencing devastating floods linked to climate change. The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and El Niño regulate the climate of Equatorial Eastern Africa. In 2019, a dipole warming in the western Indian Ocean,...
The Institute of Development Studies (IDS), in partnership with the University of Sussex, has today (10 April) been ranked first in the world for Development Studies in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024. It is the eighth consecutive year that Sussex has taken the top spot for...
10 April 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).