Our impact on our regions
Research from the Department of Development Studies has long been in demand by UN organizations and southern governments seeking alternatives to mainstream approaches to development. In the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, SOAS research has increasingly influenced the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Our research has eight focal points: (1) Globalization, Governance and Neo-Liberalism; (2) Labour, Social Movements and Development; (3) Agrarian Change, Rural Labour and Institutions; (4) Violence, Peace and Development; (5) Migration, Mobility and Development; (6) Agriculture and Health
Who we work with
Through our research clusters we work with:
• international organizations (including UN agencies, the World Bank, NATO, ILO)
• the governments of poor countries (including Ethiopia, Malawi, Argentina, Vietnam)
• European governments (including UK, France, Norway)
• African public sector officials, trade unionists, NGO members and young researchers
• the wider public, trade unionists and NGOs
Working with international organizations
Dr Jeff Waage, Director of the London International Development Centre, has contributed significantly to The Lancet Commission on the Millennium Development Goals. Carlos Oya, Reader in the Political Economy of Development, worked alongside the Gambian Bureau of Statistics, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank to design a nationally-representative Rural Labour force survey. Guy Standing, Professor of Development Studies, is involved in a four year project on Basic Income Schemes and the Indian Poor in collaboration with India's Self-employed Association and financed by UNICEF. Jonathan Goodhand, Professor in Conflict and Development Studies, gave policy advice and prepared a background paper for the World Bank on how to incorporate a borderland perspective into the development programming.
Working with the governments of developing countries
Christopher Cramer, Professor of the Political Economy of Development, together with Mushtaq Khan, Professor of Economics, addressed the entire Ethiopian cabinet in June 2013 on agricultural policy and on industrial policy respectively. The meeting was arranged by French development agency AND.