Publications

Big Data for Development Studies? An Innovative Methodology

IDS Working Paper 596

This paper makes a foundational methodological contribution to the analysis of big data for development studies. Big data has revolutionised the natural and applied sciences (and commerce). However, its use within development studies has been comparatively limited.

Rajith Lakshman & 4 others

Trust and Compliance with Covid-19 Measures among Nigerian Households

IDS Working Paper 595

This paper probes the relationship between sources of Covid-19 information and adherence to preventive measures in Nigeria, a context characterised by fake news, hate speech, and other forms of disinformation. While this relationship in Nigeria is relatively well studied, little discrete...

Oyewole Oladapo & 3 others

Is Transparency Enough? An Examination of the Effect of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) on Accountability, Corruption and Trust in Zambia

ICTD Working Paper 175

The Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) is the leading global transparency standard for the extractive industry. It aims to improve governance standards in the extractive industry by providing a public platform for information sharing and multi-stakeholder dialogue. However, the...

A Literature Review on Social Assistance and Capacity in Yemen

BASIC Research Working Paper 20

Yemen is experiencing one of the worst crises in the world in terms of levels of suffering and humanitarian need. Intense civil war since 2014 has devastated the national economy, and approximately two-thirds of the population (21.6 million people) were assessed as being in need of humanitarian...

Becky Carter

Paul Harvey

Economics for an Uncertain World

Uncertainty, where we do not know the likelihood of future events, dominates our world. This article examines how economics as a profession and discipline can address uncertainty. From Frank Knight to John Maynard Keynes to Friedrich von Hayek to George Shackle, economics has highlighted the...

Ian Scoones

Knowledge in Times of Crisis: Transforming Research-to-Policy Approaches

IDS Bulletin 54.2

The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in unprecedented challenges for researchers and policy analysts, and accentuated the need for access to civil society and advocacy movements within politically closed spaces. The impact of locally led Covid-19 response research in the global South has subsequently...

Bringing Together Urban Systems and Food Systems Theory and Research is Overdue

Urban dwellers’ food and nutritional wellbeing are both dependent on infrastructure and can be indicative of wider wellbeing in urban contexts and societal health. This paper focuses on the multiple relationships that exist between food and infrastructure to provide a thorough theoretical and...

Jane Battersby & 13 others

Meeting the challenges of multiple crises: Lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic

This guide draws out the key messages and learning from three online events hosted International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) which explored and showcased learning and impact from the Covid-19 Responses for Equity (CORE) programme.

Jessica Meeker

Out of Sight, Out of Mind? Making Unpaid WASH Work Visible

SLH Learning Paper;18

Target 5.4 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) involves the recognition and valuing of unpaid care and domestic work (UCDW). Much UCDW is related to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and daily workloads increase when household and community WASH services are weak, in disrepair or...

Breastfeeding and Infant Care as ‘Sexed’ Care Work: Reconsideration of the Three Rs to Enable Women’s Rights, Economic Empowerment, Nutrition and Health

Women’s lifelong health and nutrition status is intricately related to their reproductive history, including the number and spacing of their pregnancies and births, and for how long and how intensively they breastfeed their children. In turn, women’s reproductive biology is closely linked...

Deepta Chopra

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Pastoralist Researchers on the Uganda/Kenya Border

This document, produced as part of the 'Promoting Peaceful Pastoralism' project, is a history of events affecting peace and security month by month between October 2022 and May 2023 on the Ugandan-Kenya border, and a diary of community research. Read the report PDF. View the interactive...

Introduction: Enacting Peace Amid Violence: Nonviolent Civilian Agency in Violent Conflict

Worldwide, civilians experiencing violence make agential choices about how they interact with conflict landscapes. This special issue assembles contributions that specifically deepen our understanding of nonviolent civilian agency amid violence.

Jeremy Allouche & 2 others