Founded
1973
London and Edinburgh
World wide
Research, policy, advocacy
Tom Mitchell
Tom Mitchell, David Satterthwaite, Lorenzo Cotula
Current work[edit]
IIED continues to both conduct research with partners in dozens of countries and act on a global stage through processes such as various multilateral environmental negotiations.
Directors[edit]
IIED's founding director Barbara Ward died in 1981. She was succeeded by William Clark, Brian Walker, Richard Sandbrook, Nigel Cross, Camilla Toulmin, Andrew Norton and, currently, Tom Mitchell, who took over in September 2022.[7]
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change[edit]
In 2023 British academic Jim Skea was elected as Chair[8] of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has been involved with the IPCC since it was created in the 1990s and, during his time as Chair, Skea has chosen to be hosted by IIED.[9]
Publications[edit]
IIED publishes a variety of reports, working papers, books, policy briefs and opinion papers, most of which are free to download as pdfs from its website. Its online presence has expanded to include social media applications in recent years.
Its long-standing series include the international journal Environment and Urbanization and Gatekeeper, along with three discontinued series: Participatory Learning and Action (dealing with participatory research), Haramata (dealing with drylands development issues) and Tiempo (dealing with climate change impacts, long before interest was widespread).
IIED's Earthscan Publications imprint was run from 1987 by Neil Middleton, until it moved to Kogan Page, later to be acquired by James & James,[10][11] and in 2011 being taken over by Taylor and Francis.[12] Earthscan has published many of IIED's books.
IIED organises the "Barbara Ward Lectures" in memory of the institute's first director, who died in 1981. Previous speakers have included:
Impact[edit]
IIED is generally acknowledged to be a successful organisation – its ideas are pragmatic and pro-poor, and it has helped to influence of major organisations, including the World Bank, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the Department for International Development of the UK government, and Scandinavian aid agencies such as SIDA and DANIDA.
For example, a former staff member, Gordon Conway, was partly responsible with Robert Chambers for developing participatory rural appraisal, a suite of largely visual techniques widely used in international and community development to elicit public views and ideas. IIED's Environmental Economics programme helped to develop some of the first "green accounting" and eco-taxation techniques that are now used in government and industry. Richard Sandbrook lobbied some of the world's largest corporations to improve their environmental performance – notably in the mining sector.[3][13]
IIED lists its sources of financial support on an annual basis.[2]
Including: AusAid, GTZ, DFID, Defra, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, IrishAid, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
Including: African Development Bank, European Commission, European Parliament, World Bank
Including: African Centre for Technology Studies, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Comic Relief, Ford Foundation, Hivos, Oxfam UK, WWF UK
Including: The Cooperative, Indufor Oy, Price Waterhouse Coopers Service, The Policy Practice. Work on Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development in the 2000s was operated separately from IIED offices to avoid corporate influence.[14]