Inequalities and Poverty

IDS works with global partners to generate new knowledge and evidence to identify the underlying causes of inequalities and poverty in all their dimensions and the progressive policies and practices that can help bring about transformative change.

Eradicating extreme poverty remains one of the world’s most pressing challenges, and addressing it requires the rising economic, social and political inequalities that harm people in rich and poor countries alike to be tackled.

IDS has also played a prominent part in promoting an approach that puts power at the heart of development analysis and contributed to strengthening understanding of the relationship between power, gender, sexual rights and poverty.

We continue to provide new analysis on inequalities and poverty trends, particularly in relation to the expansion of digital technologies and their impact on the lives of the poorest and most marginalised, and the growth of global cities and what this means for both urban and rural livelihoods, social relations and sustainability. Moreover, we work with governments, civil society, businesses and many others to help ensure this analysis shapes policies and programmes such as social protection and cash transfers to reduce poverty and vulnerability and strengthen livelihoods including agriculture.

People

Deepta Chopra

Professorial Research Fellow

Keetie Roelen

IDS Honorary Associate

Jerker Edström

Research Fellow

Melissa Leach

Emeritus Fellow

John Gaventa

Research Fellow and Director, Action for Empowerment and Accountability (A4EA) programme

Danny Burns

Professorial Research Fellow

Sohela Nazneen

Research Fellow

Patricia Justino

Professorial Fellow

Programmes and centres

Projects

Recent work

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Showing 1–12 of 14894 results

Upcoming Event

HIV, gender and the politics of medicine: Embodied democracy in the global south

A book launch and panel discussion on the lives and work of artists, activists and academics engaged in the struggle for life-saving HIV treatment in and beyond South Africa. Join us for this event with Elizabeth Mills, author of the new book HIV, Gender and the Politics of Medicine and former...

16 October 2024

Upcoming Event

Navigating uncertainty: Radical rethinking for a turbulent World

In this talk, Ian Scoones will introduce his new book, Navigating Uncertainty: Radical Rethinking for a Turbulent World (Polity Books, 2024). Uncertainties are everywhere. Whether it’s climate change, financial volatility, pandemic outbreaks or new technologies, we don’t know what the...

3 October 2024

Upcoming Event

Realising safely managed urban sanitation: the potential of ‘brown gold’

Sanitation is one of the most off-track Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the WHO and UNICEF reporting that 3.8 billion people still lacking access to safely managed sanitation. In many low- and middle-income countries, centralised and capital-intensive sanitation and waste...

19 September 2024

Publication

The Domestic Market and its Relationship to the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Bangladesh’s Leather Industry

CLARISSA Research and Evidence Paper 15

This survey was limited in focus. It was designed simply to establish the extent to which small enterprises in the leather sector that employed children were primarily supplying the domestic market. In a purposive sample of 158 small leather enterprises – mostly in the informal economy –...

A.K.M. Maksud & 2 others

11 September 2024

Publication

Journey to Work

Bangladesh Action Research Group 9

The Child Labour: Action-Research-Innovation in South and South-Eastern Asia (CLARISSA) programme uses Action Research (AR) to understand the dynamics which drive the worst forms of child labour (WFCL), and to generate participatory innovations which help to shift these underlying dynamics and...

10 September 2024

Brief

Equitable Pathways to Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems

T20 Policy Brief

Ensuring pathways to sustainable food systems are equitable is a moral and existential imperative. Food systems are sustainable when they promote responsible use of natural resources, protect biodiversity, and mitigate the environmental impact of production, distribution, and consumption.

Lídia Cabral
Lídia Cabral & 7 others

10 September 2024

Publication

Creating Opportunities for Education

Bangladesh Action Research Group 8

The Child Labour: Action-Research-Innovation in South and South-Eastern Asia (CLARISSA) programme uses Action Research (AR) to understand the dynamics which drive the worst forms of child labour (WFCL), and to generate participatory innovations which help to shift these underlying dynamics and...

10 September 2024

Working Paper

Assessing Displaced People’s Design Choices Around Social Assistance

BASIC Research Working Paper 30

This paper sets out to partially address the exclusion of displaced people from the design and planning of social assistance programming by consulting them in a range of design choices about how they engage with social assistance and what a good social assistance programme would look like. The...

10 September 2024

Opinion

The financial crash: lessons from pastoralists?

This blog continues the short series on the new book, Navigating Uncertainty: Radical Rethinking for a Turbulent World. In the chapter on Finance and banking, I look at the 2007-08 financial crash and how particular models and regulatory practices created a false sense of security through the...

9 September 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).