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United Nations Research Institute for Social Development

Research institute of the United Nations

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A small team of researchers coordinates UNRISD's research programmes, which focus primarily on the developing world, working in collaboration with national research teams from local universities and research institutes. The Institute's work takes a holistic, multidisciplinary and political economy approach. UNRISD's location at the United Nations Office at Geneva gives researchers access to channels of policy influence through active participation in events, meetings, conferences and working groups.

History

UNRISD was established in 1963 "to conduct research into problems and policies of social development, and relationships between various types of social development and economic development". It was originally set up with a grant from the Government of the Netherlands, and its first Board Chair was the eminent economist Jan Tinbergen, who received the first-ever Nobel Prize for economics in 1969.

UNRISD's initial research focused on the design of indicators to measure development not just in terms of economic growth but also social factors, such as nutrition, health and education. As such, it employed many statisticians in its early years. Another early project focused on cooperatives as a tool for development, which produced some controversial results.

In the 1970s, global population growth made food production, supply and eventually food systems into a key topic in development. UNRISD's work on the so-called Green Revolution (the introduction of newly bred high-yield grain seeds to increase food production) took a typically critical view. It highlighted the fact that the quantity of food available was only one factor in ensuring populations in developing countries were not subject to hunger. Power inequalities impacting on the distribution of foodstuffs played a key role in determining who got enough to eat and who didn't.

By the 1980s, UNRISD was growing in size, in terms of both funding and staffing. Its remit diversified to cover popular participation and refugee issues, gradually leaving some of its early preoccupation with statistics behind.

In the 1990s UNRISD thrived. A wide range of topics were addressed, ranging from political violence to the socioeconomic impact of illicit drugs. Globalization in the modern era and structural adjustment programmes in developing countries brought about social crises which UNRISD researched and criticized, arguing that unregulated markets required a healthy public sector and stable governance to function properly.

Environmental issues took firm root in development debates during this decade. UNRISD's take was typically critical: whatever the benefits of conservation, it was often happening at the expense of social justice and the livelihoods of minorities.

In the 2000s, as globalization continued apace and social dimensions began to be re-introduced in the face of the sometimes catastrophic impacts of wide-ranging economic liberalization, UNRISD criticized a narrow social policy focus on safety nets and the targeting of vulnerable groups, arguing instead in favour of universal transformative social policy.

In the 2010s, the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by UN member states in 2015 established new global roadmap for development. UNRISD continued to work on social policy, often in conjunction with questions related to the 2030 Agenda. It also took up the new issue of the social and solidarity economy (SSE) and its contribution to sustainable development. Output on gender issues since 2016 fell due to a lack of gender capacity in-house following staff restructuring. Environmental issues are re-emerging as a key area of work, especially as they relate to social policy and climate justice.

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