UNRISD in the Media by Date

• UNRISD introduced itself in Bonn City Hall (10 Feb 2020)
  The independent research institute wants to build a bridge between science and political practices. Three projects are planned to starts in Bonn.
• Reflections of an Engaged Economist: An Interview with Thandika Mkandawire (5 Dec 2019)
  Professor Thandika Mkandawire is a leading development economist specializing in the comparative study of Africa. His prodigious understanding of the varied history, political economy and development economics of a wide range of African countries underpins a reputation for incisive analysis of African development that reverberates through orthodox as well as heterodox economic circles. A Swedish national of Malawian origin, Thandika (as he is widely known by students and colleagues) was born in 1940 and raised in southern Africa during the late colonial period. He studied economics at Ohio State University, obtaining his BA and MA in the early 1960s, and continued his graduate studies in economics at the University of Stockholm. He was Director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) in Geneva from 1998 to 2009.
• Data Protection is Social Protection (7 Jun 2019)
  Social-protection programs are supposed to do just what the name implies: protect those segments of society that are most in need. Demanding that beneficiaries effectively renounce their rights to personal privacy and data protection, as many governments are doing, amounts to just the opposite.
• | Nicola Yeates Pays Tribute to Bob Deacon | Mobilising regional social governance and policy for the SDGs (7 Jun 2019)
  Anyone who knew and worked with Bob would surely agree that he was as much concerned with Social Policy as a political practice of policymaking as he was with it as a field of academic study and research. Over the years that we worked together, since his Finnish government-funded Globalism and Social Policy Programme (GASPP) from the late 1990s, I was struck by his insistence that academic research should tangibly and directly engage with, as he would put it, ‘real questions’ faced by policy activists in ‘real’ policy worlds beyond the academy.
• | Katja Hujo Pays Tribute to Bob Deacon | A global social contract: New steps towards a rights-based approach to migration governance? (24 May 2019)
  In this article published in the Global Social Policy Journal, Katja Hujo, Senior Research Coordinator at the UNRISD, admits that efforts are being made at the highest level to overcome dichotomies between rights approaches and development approaches to migration, and to recognize the complex nature of migration, which requires integrated policies, coherence between different policy areas and decision-making levels, and stronger bottom-up participation and migrant agency.
• Response to Martin Seeleib-Kaiser: Migration, social policy and power in historical perspective (24 May 2019)
  In this article published in the Global Social Policy Journal, Katja Hujo, Senior Coordinator at UNRISD, responds to Seeleib-Kaiser's key argument on migration fulfilling a social policy function. She draws on past research she conducted on the linkages between social policy and migration in the context of several United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) research projects and current debates within the United Nations.
• Bargaining for Development: An Assessment of the World Bank’s 2017 World Development Report, "Governance and the Law" (8 Jan 2019)
  "Governance and the Law" is the World Bank’s most comprehensive report on governance. It treats governance - "the process through which state and nonstate actors interact to design and implement policies within a given set of formal and informal rules that shape and are shaped by power" - as the primary determinant of development. This definition may overplay the importance of bargaining in governance. However, it is instructive that the Bank now recognizes the centrality of power, politics and bargaining in the study of development. Yusuf Bangura's Assessment covers the Report's many useful insights and offers a thorough consideration of its gaps and limitations. ICYMI: this is a must-read!
• Promoting Social and Solidarity Economy in Greece (25 Aug 2017)
  The Greek Parliament adopted on 20 October 2016 a new law that will create a supportive legal environment for the development of Social and Solidarity Economy. The priorities of the new law were further outlined in the speech minister Antonopoulos gave during the International Conference on Social and Solidarity Economy, organized by the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy (3-4 November, Rome, Italy).
• Short Video Clips of the Research Fair on the 2030 Agenda (20 Dec 2016)
  UNRISD participated in the Research Fair on the 2030 Agenda organized by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries (KFPE). Click on the title to see the two video clips.
• The help at home: No laws yet to help victims of injustice in India (19 Dec 2016)
  Hindustan Times deplore the story, among many others, of Reshmi who was just 12 years old when she left home to work as a live-in domestic help in Delhi. But when she asked for permission to visit her family, she was turned out by her employers, without being paid a single rupee for the work that she had done for 15 years. In this article, reference is made to an UNRISD research report entitled "Locating the Processes of Policy Change in the Context of Anti-Rape and Domestic Worker Mobilisations in India".
• Obiettivi di Sviluppo Sostenibile sono lontani dalla realtà (19 Dec 2016)
  Il 17 ottobre 2016 a Ginevra si è realizzato l’evento organizzato dall’UNRISD, l’Istituto di ricerca delle Nazioni Unite per lo sviluppo sociale, intitolato:“Il cammino verso un dialogo comune: nuovi percorsi per la realizzazione degli Obiettivi di Sviluppo Sostenibile”.
• UNRISD Report Addresses Policy Innovations for Sustainable Development (1 Dec 2016)
  The article published by IISD highlights the findings of the UNRISD Flagship Report 2016 which draws on policy innovations from the South.
• Promouvoir l'Économie Sociale et Solidaire au travers des politiques publiques (1 Dec 2016)
  L'Observatoire européen de l'Économie sociale met en exergue le chapitre entièrement consacré à l'ESS dans le dernier rapport de l'UNRISD, "Politiques innovantes pour un changement transformateur."
• La economía feminista en América Latina (30 Nov 2016)
  Revista Nueva Sociedad has published its number 265 featuring a paper (in Spanish) from Valeria Esquivel, Research Coordinator on Gender & Development at UNRISD.
• Innovative policies that will deliver on the 2030 Agenda transformative promise (30 Nov 2016)
  The article from the SUN Movement introduces the UNRISD Flagship Report 2016: Policy Innovations for Transformative Change, Implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
• Book Review—Reforming pensions in developing and transition countries (1 Jul 2016)
  This is a book review published in the International Social Security Review.
• Le revenu de base, entre travail, capital et héritage (1 Jul 2016)
  L'auteur de l'article de "Tout l'emploi" donne son point de vue sur le revenu de base suite à la réunion de l'UNRISD "Travail informel et salaires precaires: Le revenu de base, une solution universelle?
• Should social welfare be universal or means-tested? (29 Jun 2016)
  The article from George Cautherley, Vice-Chairman, Hong Kong Democratic Foundation, quoted UNRISD flagship report "Combating Poverty and Inequality: Structural Change, Social Policy and Politics".
• Development Finance: Can Bitcoin play a role in social finance? (23 Jun 2016)
  The article reviews the UNRISD working paper on "How Can Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Technology Play a Role in Building Social and Solidarity Finance?"
• Blockchain News: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) releases Blockchain Paper on Social Finance (23 Jun 2016)
  The article reviews the UNRISD working paper on "How Can Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Technology Play a Role in Building Social and Solidarity Finance?"
• Cryptocoinsnews: UN Paper Claims Bitcoin Solutions for Developing Countries Could Be Interpreted as Neo-Colonialism (22 Jun 2016)
  The article reviews the UNRISD working paper on "How Can Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Technology Play a Role in Building Social and Solidarity Finance?"
• #15YearsofBulatlat | My sources of news, my sources of inspiration (22 Jun 2016)
  The article from Bulatlat quotes the definition of participation adopted by UNRISD in 1979: participation referred to “the organized efforts to increase control over resources and regulative institutions in given social situations, on the part of groups and movements of those hitherto excluded from such control” (Pearse and Stiefel 1979:8).
• Motherboard: Bitcoin Is Too Libertarian to Save the Developing World, Says UN Paper (18 Feb 2016)
  The article reviews the UNRISD working paper on " How Can Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Technology Play a Role in Building Social and Solidarity Finance?"
• Catch News: #ActEqual fails to shock. Gender equality needs a whole other approach (18 Feb 2016)
  The article from Catch News talks about ActionAid's digital campaign called #ActEqual that aims at shocking and awing viewers into noticing gender inequalities. The article also refers to the UNRISD's programme paper on "The Statistical Evidence on Care and Non-Care Work across Six Countries".
• Book Review—Social and Solidarity Economy: Beyond the Fringe (17 Feb 2016)
  This is a book review published in the Italian online magazine "La Rivista Impresa Sociale".
• Rappler: "Programs for women have 'stronger' impact vs malnutrition" (29 Oct 2015)
  An UNRISD definition of social protection was quoted in an article about a recent FAO report in Rappler, a Philippino social news network. 
• Book review on "Reforming Pensions in Developing and Transition Countries", edited by Katja Hujo (ed.) (2014) (23 Oct 2015)
  This book makes an important contribution to the social protection literature by focusing on recent pension policy developments in a number of developing and transition countries.
• Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari Quotes UNRISD Study on Parliamentary Accountability (20 Oct 2015)
  The Vice President of India, Hamid Ansari, quoted an UNRISD study on the parliamentary accountability in his remarks about the Indian Parliament. This was reported in an article in Northern Voices Online News, an online news organization in northern India,
• Ten Years of RTI (Right to Information Act): What Do We Know? (20 Oct 2015)
  There was indeed reason to celebrate. It was 2005. A new law had come into being. One which would give ordinary people the extraordinary power to question the government on a daily basis. One which in one fell swoop would hack away the ossified layers of opacity that characterised government decision-making. One which would change the power dynamic between the citizen and the state by placing people at the centre of the democratic process. One which would make an arbitrary and venal state more responsive to the needs and aspirations of citizens. And of course, one that would rid our country of the scourge of corruption that was immutably entrenched in the body politic.
• Réduction de la pauvreté depuis 2000, quel bilan ? (2 Oct 2015)
  Entre 2000 et 2015, l’Organisation des Nations unies (ONU) a mené un programme de réduction de la pauvreté baptisé les « Objectifs du millénaire pour le développement ». Pourtant, les 48 pays les moins riches du monde n’en ont pas profité.
• Business World Online: Taxes, public services, and the Addis Ababa conference (8 Sep 2015)
  In the agenda’s most widely-lauded feature, all 193 United Nations (UN) member states pledged to deliver nationally-appropriate universal welfare systems, involving universal public services in health, education, energy, water and sanitation, and social protection floors for the poor and vulnerable.
• Journal article "Global political economy and frontier economies in Africa: Implications from the oil and gas industry in Ghana" in Energy Research & Social Science 10, 2015, pages 41–56 (30 Jul 2015)
  This review highlights what has been learnt from research on West Africa’s oil economy, Ghana and what remains to be studied. The existing knowledge about the industry is both analytical (entailing different frames of thinking, such as enclave and linkages approaches) and empirical (including in what ways is the oil resource a blessing, a curse, or both and to what extent regulations can attenuate or accentuate undesirable outcomes).
• GSP Forum: "Growing with Jobs: The Role of Institutions", in the Journal Global Social Policy, Vol. 15, Issue 2, pages 188-197 (27 Jul 2015)
  This GSP Forum feathers articles on the ILO’s Report World of Work 2014: Developing with jobs.
• Journal article "Shaping the National Social Protection Strategy in Cambodia: Global Influence and National Ownership" in the Global Social Policy, Vol. 15, Issue 2, pages 125-145 (27 Jul 2015)
  In the wake of the global economic crisis in 2008, the Cambodian government responded actively to the impact of the crisis by initiating various policy measures for social protection. Most importantly, it launched a National Social Protection Strategy (NSPS) in 2011 with a major focus on social assistance targeted at the poor, children and the disabled.
• Article: "Beyond Legal Empowerment: Improving Access to Justice from the Human Rights Perspective" in The International Journal of Human Rights", Vol. 19, Issue 3, pages 242-259. (10 Jun 2015)
  The authors argue that legal empowerment during political transitions must take into account the numerous and varied obstacles that people living in poverty face in accessing justice. Challenging impunity and strengthening justice require explicitly targeting power asymmetries and addressing obstacles that are social, cultural, financial and systemic in nature.
• Journal article: "The Social, Spatial, and Economic Roots of Urban Inequality in Africa: Contextualizing Jane Jacobs and Henry George" in American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Volume 74, Issue 3, May 2015, pages 550-586. (19 May 2015)
  This article tries to overcome the existing atomistic and piecemeal approach to the study of urban inequality in Africa by contextualizing the work of Jane Jacobs and Henry George, who took a holistic view of urban inequality. It argues that Jacobsianism and Georgism have much to offer in terms of understanding urban inequality in Africa, but neither analysis goes far enough to be able to serve as a solid foundation for policy.
• Book review on "Social Policy and Change in East Asia", edited by James Lee, James Midgley and Yapeng Zhu, in The China Journal (27 Feb 2015)
  This collection of papers, initially presented at a 2011 workshop, adds to a growing body of literature on social policy in East Asia.
• Journal article: "Oil boom, human capital and economic development: Some recent evidence" in The Economic and Labour Relations Review, vol. 26, issue 1, pp. 100-116 (12 Feb 2015)
  This article highlights and assesses orthodox responses to three crucial questions in political economy, namely: the role of human capital in the process of economic development, how this role transforms during a period of resource abundance and what is the place of education in empowering labour to reclaim or transform surplus value.
• Journal article: "Understanding Land Grabs in Africa: Insights from Marxist and Georgist Political Economics" in The Review of Black Political Economy (4 Feb 2015)
  This paper engages two contrasting approaches, namely Marxian and Georgist, assesses their relevance, and teases out insights for recent land grab research in Africa.
• Book review on "New Frontiers in Feminist Political Economy", edited by Shirin Rai and Georgina Waylen, in Gender & Development (15 Jan 2015)
  This outstanding volume summarises the gains and setbacks in progressing from the early stages of getting women into development thinking and practice, to the current state of a global feminist political economy that challenges dominant orthodoxies in economic thinking.
• International Journal of Health Policy and Management: Review on "Health in All Policies: Seizing Opportunities, Implementing Policies". (5 Nov 2014)
  This article is a review of the book “Health in All Policies: Seizing opportunities, implementing policies” edited by Kimmo Leppo, Eeva Ollila, Sebastián Peña, Matthias Wismar, and Sarah Cook. It was published by the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland in 2013.
• A Global Movement for the Rights of Older People: "Thanks, Otto! Looking back at Bismarck's Legacy" (3 Nov 2014)
  Dr Katja Hujo from UNRISD viewed that the Bismarck system had received criticism from both ends of the political spectrum, but there was still value in the Bismarck system today – although it is an ambitious model.
• The Independent (Kampala): Uganda: One Million Rwandans Graduate Out of Poverty (3 Sep 2014)
  " ... Worldwide, social protection is being championed by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development aiming at preventing, managing, and overcoming situations that adversely affect people's well-being."
• International Journal of Community Currency Research: Book Review on "The Heretic's Guide to Global Finance, Hacking the Future of Money" by Brett Scott 2013, reviewed by Marie-Adélaïde Matheï. (16 Jun 2014)
  Discussions about the financial system reveal two sets of perspectives. Financial experts, bank CEOs...
• The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies, review on the UNRISD Poverty series volume "Growth, Inequality and Social Development in India: Is Inclusive Growth Possible?", edited by R. Nagaraj, UNRISD and Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, pp. 238. (24 Oct 2013)
  In this volume, the editor Rayaprolu Nagaraj from the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Researc...
• South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal, review on the UNRISD Poverty series volume "Growth, Inequality and Social Development in India: Is Inclusive Growth Possible?", edited by R. Nagaraj (9 Sep 2013)
  The authors collectively refreshed the debate examining the relationship between economic growth, policy regimes and poverty and clearly showed that economic growth is not enough. In terms of engaging with the sub-title of the book ‘is inclusive growth possible?’ and to propose the ‘policy regimes or institutional conditions’ to make growth inclusive, some produced pessimistically properly political economy answers while others completely ignored the challenge.
• China Daily, article on the UNRISD research project "Political and Social Economy of Care" (10 May 2013)
  ...For the first time in the Chinese context, a valuation of unpaid work has been estimated by using...
• The European Journal of Development Research, review on the UNRISD Poverty series volume "Growth, Inequality and Social Development in India: Is Inclusive Growth Possible?", edited by R. Nagaraj (18 Apr 2013)
  India is an ‘immature’ market economy representing social contradictions. On the one hand, it has an...
• Economic & Political Weekly, book review on "Growth, Inequality and Social Development in India: Is Inclusive Growth Possible?", edited by R. Nagaraj. (15 Jan 2013)
  At a time when establishing the highest possible growth rate is seen as the key to eliminating pover...
• The Hindu, review on "Growth, Inequality and Social Development in India: Is Inclusive Growth Possible?", edited by R. Nagaraj (2 Nov 2012)
  This book is timely inasmuch as it coincides with the brouhaha over India launching into a new wave ...
• CSR International, review on "Staking Their Claims: Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility in South Africa", edited by David Fig (18 Apr 2012)
  Based on research conducted by South African researchers on a collaborative project with UNRISD, the book explores the political, economic and social landscape distinctive to South Africa, a country uniquely impacted by its colonial and apartheid past.
• Bretton Woods Project article: "World Bank's Gender WDR: Too little, Too late?" (21 Nov 2011)
  Shahra Razavi, of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, said in an October paper the WDR was ultimately a "missed opportunity".
• Development Newswire article on "Combating Poverty and Inequality: Structural Change, Social Policy and Politics", UNRISD 2010 (3 Nov 2011)
  The report calls for a shift from safety nets and welfare program to mechanisms that help to generate employment opportunities and curb income inequality
• The Hindu news article on "Combating Poverty and Inequality: Structural Change, Social Policy and Politics", UNRISD 2010 (2 Nov 2011)
  The over-arching message from the report, which is important at a time when the global targets for poverty reduction appear elusive, is this: poverty and inequality are too serious issues to be left to the markets.
• Journal of Comparative Social Welfare review on "Combating Poverty and Inequality: Structural Change, Social Policy and Politics", UNRISD flagship report 2010 (31 Oct 2011)
  This is a review of the UNRISD flagship report in the Journal of Comparative Social Welfare.
• Journal of Social Policy review on "Combating Poverty and Inequality: Structural Change, Social Policy and Politics", UNRISD 2010 (25 Oct 2011)
  This is a very useful sourcebook for those concerned with issues of poverty, inequality and the respective roles of state, market and civil society in promoting worldwide reductions in poverty...
• Economic & Political Weekly review on "Corporate Accountability and Sustainable Development", edited by Peter Utting and Jennifer Clapp, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2008 (21 Oct 2011)
  This volume creditably brings together a set of studies that give the reader an overview of the evolution of moral persuasion and voluntary compliance by corporations to formal and informal regulations that govern them. It also gives us the relative effectiveness of voluntarism and regulation in different regions of the world.
• Feminist Economics, review on "Gender Equality: Striving for Justice in an Unequal World", by UNRISD, Geneva, 2005; "Progress of the World's Women 2005: Women, Work, and Poverty", by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), 2005; and "The World's Women 2005: Progress in Statistics", by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), 2006 (20 May 2009)
  Three recent reports by different United Nations agencies provide an important picture of the world's women.
• The European Journal of Development Research, review on "Gender Equality: Striving for Justice in an Unequal World", by United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Geneva, 2005. (6 Apr 2009)
  In marking the 10-year anniversary of the United Nations Conference on Women, the UNRISD publication: Gender Equality: Striving for Justice in an Unequal World is a useful and timely review of the progress made in addressing gender inequality over the past decade.
• Journal of Social Policy, review on "Gender Justice, Development and Rights", edited by Maxine Molyneux and Shahra Razavi (18 Oct 2004)
  Gender Justice, Development and Rights is an extremely relevant contribution to social policy debates internationally as well as more locally, in the British context.
• International Affairs, review on "Gender Justice, Development, and Rights", edited by Maxine Molyneux and Shahra Razavi (27 Sep 2004)
  This solidly researched collection is a work of mature scholarship that will be widely read by academics, activists and administrators across a variety of fields.
• Development Policy Review on "Efficiency, Accountability and Implementation: Public Sector Reform in East and Southern Africa" by Ole Therkildsen. (30 Mar 2004)
  Overall the paper offers useful insights into the complexities of reform and shows that donors, through errors of omission and commission, must share responsibility for the failures and shortcomings of reform efforts.
• Development and Change; Review on Agricultural Expansion and Tropical Deforestation: Poverty, International Trade, and Land Use, by Solon Barraclough and Krishna Ghimire (8 Sep 2003)
  For the authors of this book, decisions by landowners to expand africulture drive the worldwide destruction of tropical forests.
• Development in Practice on Visible Hands (5 Feb 2003)
  The report produced by UNRISD for the 1995 Social Summit was going to be a hard act to follow.
• West Africa; Review on Global Media Governance - A Beginner's Guide, by Seán Ó Siochrú and Bruce Girard with Amy Mahan (11 Dec 2002)
  New technologies are challenging the conventional ways of regulating the media, says Desmond Davies, Editor of the African weekly magazine West Africa...
• Development Policy Review on Toward Integrated and Sustainable Development?, by Solon Barraclough (3 Dec 2002)
  [The author] suggests that the question of what social forces could be mobilised to bring about the policy and institutional reforms required to approach socially and ecologically sustainable development remains 'the key issue for international development agencies'.
• Development in Practice on The Native Tourist, edited by Krishna Ghimire (3 Sep 2002)
  This book is the first volume devoted specifically to this subject and the editor, Krishna Ghimire, deserves credit for attempting to bring domestic and regional tourism in developing countries to the attention of a wider audience.
• Echos du Cota; Evaluation des actions de développement au Sud, No.93, Décembre 2001; Bulletin trimestriel, on Les politiques sociales en Afrique de l’Ouest : Quels changements depuis le Sommet Copenhague (24 May 2002)
  Review of: Les politiques sociales en Afrique de l’Ouest : Quels changements depuis le Sommet Copenhague
• Le Monde on Visible Hands (22 May 2002)
  Le Monde, le 11 septembre 2001
• The Ecologist on The Native Tourist, edited by Krishna Ghimire (22 May 2002)
  Review of The Native Tourist, edited by Krishna Ghimire
• UN Chronicle on Visible Hands (21 May 2002)
  UN Chronicle, Vol.37 No. 4, December 2000-February 2001, Visible Hands-Taking Responsibility for Social Development
• Echos du Cota; Evaluation des actions de développement au Sud, No.93, Décembre 2001, Bulletin trimestriel d'information du COTA, on: Dynamique de la politique sociale en Côte d'Ivoire (21 May 2002)
  Review of: Dynamique de la politique sociale en Côte d’Ivoire, Par Francis Akindès, UNRISD, Genève, La Côte d’Ivoire ...