Institute of Development Studies

Research Themes

Our research focuses on three core and three inter-institutional research themes carried out in collaboration with research partners: 

Climate Change and Development
The IDS Climate Change and Development Centre pioneering research and knowledge partnerships for development in a changing climate.

Social Protection
The Centre for Social Protection (based at IDS) aims to provide a global focus for research, policy analysis, and capacity building on social protection.

Work and Vulnerability
Labour is often the only asset available to the poor. Our research focuses on understanding the transformation of paid work in a global context, and strategies to address the rights of the working poor.

Inter-Institutional Research Themes

Conflict
This cross-institute work looks at individual and group processes resulting from and leading to violent conflict and their links with surrounding institutional and social norms. We co-ordinate the Households in Conflict Network (HICN) and the EU-funded project MICROCON: A Micro Level Analysis of Violent Conflict.

Food and Agriculture
Our work examines many dimensions of food and agriculture. These include food security, land, fair trade and supermarkets, rural livelihoods, pastoralism and famine. We are engaged in the Future Agricultures Consortium.

Microfinance
The team's work on microfinance is centred on the Imp-Act programme which is designed to improve the quality of microfinance services and their impact on poverty by supporting microfinance institutions (MFIs) in developing their own social performance management (SPM) systems.