Inclusive Economies

Our work explores what characterises inclusive economies and how these can be achieved, particularly in a world where new technologies, rural to urban migration, and growing youth populations are disrupting and putting new pressures on people’s lives and livelihoods.

Our research looks at the impacts of business and markets on development and inequality and explores the potential for novel market-based solutions to work for the poorest and most marginalised based on gender, ethnicity and disability.  It explores alternatives that enable workers, consumers and communities to have a real voice.

It continues to revitalise debates on agriculture as a key pathway out of poverty and towards inclusion, particularly for young people. Our work is focused on identifying what opportunities exist in a period of agricultural commercialisation and rural transformation and how far different groups are able to access them.  It also understands how new technologies such as drones or blockchains pose risks, but can also be harnessed to improve the lives of the poorest and most marginalised people.  In a rapidly urbanising world where cities have become focal points for economic growth, jobs and innovation but also for poverty, inequality, vulnerability and conflict, our work explores what this means for both urban and rural people, and the opportunities and challenges they face in living safe and fulfilling lives.

People

Jodie Thorpe

Research Fellow

Philip Mader

Research Fellow

Richard Jolly

Research Associate

Ana Pueyo

Research Fellow

Carlos Fortin

Research Associate

Rachel Sabates-Wheeler

Research Fellow

Keetie Roelen

IDS Honorary Associate

Giel Ton

Research Fellow

Programmes and centres

Projects

Recent work

Filter results by

Showing 49–60 of 14829 results

News

Call for stories: A more equitable future of research

Southern Voice and IDS are thrilled to invite you to participate in sharing stories and strategies to rebalance power in the knowledge ecosystem. Your stories and strategies will be a source of inspiration, mutual learning, and the basis for strategizing a long-term action and research...

5 July 2024

Past Event

Finding hope amongst the gridlock

Join us for a special event to celebrate the 90th birthday of Richard Jolly and 100th birthday of Molly Beirne. As this year’s UNDP Human Development Report explores, the world is in dangerous gridlock resulting from “uneven development progress, intensifying inequality, and escalating...

3 July 2024

Opinion

Ghana forestry reforms supporting cocoa farmers and emissions reductions

For Ghanaian cocoa farmers’ livelihoods and for Ghana’s national income, maintaining access to higher value European cocoa markets is paramount. However, the European Deforestation Regulation (EDR), due to be implemented in December 2024, will reject cocoa linked to deforestation. Will...

Doreen Asumang-Yeboah, Rights & Advocacy Initiatives Network & 3 others

2 July 2024

Book

Reflecting Forewords

Reflecting Forewords is an unashamedly ambitious book. Full of lessons from the past that are relevant for the future, it is a compilation of inspiring forewords from books written by Robert Chambers; one of the most influential and prolific scholars to write about participation, poverty, and...

2 July 2024

Opinion

Reflecting Forewords with Robert Chambers

Reflecting Forewords is an unusual book, one that looks backwards to look forwards. It is a collection of forewords that Robert Chambers wrote between 1986 and 2020. Organised chronologically, in some ways it reads as a biography of Robert’s interests across this time. Robert insists...

2 July 2024

Opinion

International development priorities for a new UK government

The UK electorate will cast their vote on the 4 July and soon after a new government will be formed and a new parliament will begin. Inevitably, there will be a full in-tray of domestic issues to address, including the cost-of-living crisis and the green energy transition – many of which are...

28 June 2024

News

Podcast – Ebola: How a people’s science helped end an epidemic

What lessons can we learn from using local knowledge in countries like Sierra Leone to combat past epidemics like the Ebola outbreak and the recent Covid-19 pandemic. When an Ebola outbreak swept across West Africa in 2013, claiming thousands of lives in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the...

28 June 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).