Research clusters
Civil Society and Market
Limited access to markets is a major obstacle in efforts to reduce poverty. The poor need to sell their products and build up businesses. And existing companies should be encouraged to act more responsibly. Markets can be part of the solution to... » read further
Civil Society and Social Action
Civil society plays a crucial role in the fight against poverty. NGOs, trade unions, community-based groups and other civil society organizations in the North and the South have a long tradition of supporting the poor and the weak. The Civil So... » read further
Conflict
The poor are the worst affected by war and violent conflict. Development suffers and, in some... » read further
Education and Development
There is general agreement about the value of education for development. And primary education for all is the second Millennium Development Goal. Yet many of the assumptions about the positive impact of education on income and poverty need furth... » read further
Integrated Approaches to Water Resources Management
More than a billion people have no access to clean drinking water. Half the population of developing countries live without basic sanitation. Drastic action is required if we are to achieve the Millennium Development Goal targets for 2015. Yet m... » read further
International Migration and Human Security
For many of the world’s poor, migration is an essential part of survival. Families move from place to place in search of work and income. Households save to send members abroad so that they can... » read further
Macro-Micro Dynamics of Poverty (MMDP)
Poverty affects individuals, families and hou... » read further
Middle East and North Africa
Many regimes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are neither democratic nor inclusive. Yet they have achieved improvements in areas such as infant and child mortality, life expectancy and literacy. In countries like Iran and Saudi A... » read further
Migration Research Portal
Migration Research Portal
This research portal... » read further
Political Parties, Governance and Interfaces
Political parties, parliaments and other political institutions are crucial to democracy. They ensure stable change through elections, and that government serves the interests of the many and not the few. In the past two decades, most developin... » read further
Research
ISS research is at the cutting edge of a range of development-related areas. The academic staff focus their research on various aspects and causes of the striking differences in access to power and wellbeing.
Key questions that are a... » read further
Research Themes
The Research Clusters provide thematic categories through which ISS and partnering academic staff work collaboratively on research and projects. While development studies includes a variety of focal specializations, lateral research across these... » read further
Resources, Environment and Livelihoods
The poor depend on natural resources fo... » read further
The Financial Crisis and the non-OECD
ISS research project 2009–2010.
» read further
Unlocking potential of informal entrepreneurship
A New International Research ProjectUnlocking potential: Tackling economic, institutional and social constraints of informal entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa
In the past two decades, research on the informal sector has emphasized the heterog... » read further
Value Chains, Local Economic Development and Social Inclusion
Globalization has led to greater coordination of production in different countries. Yet these global value chains often leave individuals, groups and whole regions in a disadvantaged position. This ISS cluster seeks ways in which disadvantaged... » read further
Page last updated: 28/07/2010
Research clusters
Cross-cutting themes