Development research and outreach
Research at IOB on Development Processes, Actors and Policies
In line with IOB’s vision of a just and sustainable world, we strive to help build such a world through multidisciplinary academic research in close connection with academic education and political engagement as well as by allying with different types of partners.
In our research, we have a strong preference for policy-oriented research as well as a desire to contribute to real (policy) change through the generation, dissemination and application of our knowledge.
We think that, as a development studies institute located in the Global North, we have a comparative advantage in situating development processes in a multi-level and multi-actor governance perspective.
Our research group positions itself in the field of development studies, which aims to cultivate a multi-disciplinary and mixed-methods approach to the research of particular societal or policy issues.
We propose to stimulate work in function of three research lines. Each of these lines clusters existing research activities carried out by different academic staff members of IOB, while also opening up space for new and innovative research that is at the forefront of major development challenges.
All three research lines give concrete shape to the multi-level governance perspective we want to cultivate at IOB, reaching from the global to the local and vice versa. And each of the research lines also combines empirical work with an explicit Central Africa focus with work carried out elsewhere.