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Transforming economies, states, and societies
At its core, development is about the well-being of people. But it is also about creating societies which provide fundamental rights and just social political outcomes. Sustainable and inclusive development requires transformative changes across three fundamental areas: in the structures of economies, in the state, and institutions that govern social and market interactions and broader developmental processes, and in society itself. These transformations are central to the achievement of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The 2019–23 UNU-WIDER work programme focuses on the interlinked development challenges of transforming economies, states, and societies and maps them against SDGs 5, 8, 10, 16, 17. By mobilizing research evidence for action through the ongoing processes in the UN and its member states, the institute continues to work with stakeholders to strengthen capacities for research, technical, and policy analysis, and facilitate exchange of experiences and knowledge towards bold and collaborative development solutions for countries and regions around the world.
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18 active and previous projects
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2012-13
Conference on inclusive growth in Africa - measurement, causes, and consequencesapid and sustained poverty reduction requires ‘inclusive growth’ that allows people to contribute to and benefit from the development process. Africa’s economic performance has improved considerably since the 1980s and early 1990s. Nevertheless, many...
2012-13
Experimental and non-experimental methods to study government performance: contributions and limitsIn recent years, field experiments using randomized trials have gained increasing popularity in the field of development economics. In particular, scholars have argued strongly for their use as the best means of identifying ‘what works’ in foreign...
2012-13
Africa's emerging middle-classSub-Saharan Africa currently is facing a range of demographic and socioeconomic shifts that hold important implications for both the region’s economic and political development. One of these shifts has been the emergence of a sizeable and dynamic...
2012-13
Reconciling Africa’s growth, poverty and inequality trends: growth and poverty project (GAPP)Despite decades of research and advances in data and methods, measuring poverty and reconciling this with patterns of economic growth remains a complex and contentious issue. UNU-WIDER’s Growth and Poverty Project (GAPP) re-examines Africa’s growth...
2012-13
Building state capability through Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA)As a sub-component of the Research and Communication on Foreign Aid (ReCom) programme, the PDIA project feeds into the themes: governance and fragility & social sectors. An integral part of development is the expansion of capability of the state to...
2004-05
Jubilee conference - WIDER thinking aheadAbout 200 participants attended the conference, more than 150 of them coming from outside Finland. The conference was open to younger researchers as well as established scholars. A list of participants is available on WIDER’s website. Conferences...
2004-05
Personal assets from a global perspectiveThe project aims to assemble data about the distribution and composition of personal assets in developing, transition, and developed countries and to study the implications of personal asset-holding for economic development. The most important asset...
2004-05
Unlocking human potential conferenceConferences: 17 September 2004 EGDI-WIDER Conference on Unlocking Human Potential: Linking the Informal and Formal Sectors
2004-05
Inequality and poverty in ChinaGetting an accurate picture of poverty and inequality trends and patterns in the world’s most populous country is central to understanding changes in global inequality and poverty – these alter significantly when China is included or excluded. China...
2004-05
International mobility of talentInternational development in the era of globalization needs an effective transfer of knowledge and human capital from the main centres of knowledge creation to developing countries for supporting their growth and development process. Most of the new...
2004-05
Millennium development goals - assessing and forecasting progressAchievement of the MDG goals by 2015 is an ambitious undertaking. The donor community is now mobilizing resources behind the goals, and efforts to implement the goals are now underway at national and international levels. It is inevitable that...
2004-05
Development aid - a fresh lookDevelopment aid has become an increasingly hot topic in international research and policy circles, especially following the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals. Donors are paying increased attention to how they allocate aid across countries...
2004-05
Financial sector development for growth and poverty reductionThe mobilization of domestic savings for private investment plays a crucial role in achieving growth and poverty reduction; this is demonstrated by the historical experience of the now developed countries as well as East Asia. However two problems...
2004-05
Hunger and food security - new challenges and new opportunitiesMillions of people remain desperately food insecure, and over a decade of agricultural-sector reform appears to have achieved little in the way of improving entitlement to food in many countries. This project will investigate why progress in...
2004-05
Tax policy reform in developing countriesSee publications for work connected to this project.