Research Impact
The work of ODID – both teaching and research – is explicitly designed to have an impact on the real world. Our teaching trains new generations of young people who become development practitioners, policy makers and even academics in their turn. Our research analyses evidence that can lead to improved policy design by governments and international organisations on the one hand, and their critique by civil society on the other.
Below are five examples (among many) of the impact of ODID research. In each case, our research has been initiated by the intellectual curiosity of scholars, supported by a wide range of strategic funding sources, and its policy impact is a consequence rather than a cause.
A New Measure of Multidimensional Poverty
Researchers at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) have created a new methodology for measuring poverty that has been adopted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s flagship Human Development Report and national governments.
Examining the Links between Inequality and Conflict
Understanding what causes ethnic and religious conflict is a key international policy concern. Work by the Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity (CRISE) has shown that group inequalities are a significant factor.
The Educational Consequences of Poverty in Childhood
Research from the Young Lives study of childhood poverty has contributed to a major report on the UN’s aim to achieve Education for All by 2015.
Protecting Environmentally Displaced People
Research by the Refugee Studies Centre is being used to inform policy towards a new category of involuntary migrants: environmentally displaced people.
Imagining Migration in the Future
In June 2010 the International Migration Institute organised an unconventional and imaginative workshop in The Hague on the future of world migration. The workshop involved 20 people from the private sector, international organisations, civil society organisations, academia and governments.
Photo: S Stein
