Research Pillars

1. Poverty

To understand the multi-dimensional aspects of poverty eradication in order to expand poverty analysis to include the broader development challenges in order to derive appropriate policy measures at different stages of development

2. Poverty & Sustainable Development

To understand and search for compatible frameworks between development targets such as growth, poverty eradication, the provision of basic needs, employment creation, equity and distribution, while sustaining the environment for future generations and to design appropriate policy measures for social transformation and managing sustainability.

3. Inequality, Distribution and Social Mobility

To understand the dynamics of social and economic development in order to promote inclusiveness, equality of access to resources and to reduce vulnerability of citizens, especially those at the lower strata of society at every level of policy making.

4. Labour & Human Capital

To understand and address labour market constraints that creates segmentation by class, income, ethnicity and gender and to understand the dynamics behind upward social mobility of vulnerable groups by exploring existing tools and framework in order to inform policy making.

5. Gender, Development & Group Vulnerability

To understand Group Vulnerability such as defined by gender, ethnicity, children, youth and the aging population for the purpose of mainstreaming in policy making.

6. Human Security

To understand human security as another dimension of development that has become a global challenge for policy making, in order to design appropriate policy instruments for intervention both locally and internationally.

7. Development & Social Policy

To understand the vulnerability of citizens in the face of crisis, natural or man- made and their rights to welfare and social protection and contribute towards designing policy instruments.

8. Political Economy

To understand the inter-relationship between the political, economic and social dimensions of development by comparing old and new modalities to analyze current realities from an academic and policy perspectives.

9. Growth & Wealth Creation

To look beyond poverty and welfare in the effort to eliminate poverty and search for new modalities, methodologies and approaches to inclusive wealth creation by:

1. Focusing on inclusive wealth creation through entrepreneurship and social justice, among others;

2. Harnessing technology, innovation, the role of millennials as the engine of growth and development while examining and capitalizing on the dynamics of the Fourth Industrial Revolution for the benefit of all target groups;

3. Seeking new modalities in entrepreneurship financing and mentoring to ensure success and to overcome start-up challenges.

10. Culture & Development

To understand the role of culture and development in line with the inter-disciplinary nature of development studies by:

1. Emphasizing the need to go beyond economics and to bring together disciplines such as sociology, anthropology and social studies among other, to enable a comprehensive understanding of how social and cultural norms play a role in influencing development outcomes;
2. Bridging the inter-disciplinary gap, as it is crucial for enabling the forces of inclusive growth, social justice, political cohesion and religious divisions, for example, as necessary building blocks towards a holistic development approach as expressed trough: Culture and social norms, ethnic relations, gender divisions for instance and to search for modalities and framework to achieve unity despite diversity that would enable creative policy solutions to ensure inclusion and limit exclusion in the path to development.