International Institute for Environment and Development
Founded | 1973 |
---|---|
Founder | Registered charity |
Focus | Sustainable development |
Headquarters | London and Edinburgh |
Location | |
Area served | World wide |
Method | Research, policy, advocacy |
Executive director | Tom Mitchell |
Key people | Tom Mitchell, David Satterthwaite, Lorenzo Cotula |
Website | www |
The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) is an independent policy research institute (think tank) whose stated mission is to "build a fairer, more sustainable world, using evidence, action and influence in partnership with others."[1] Its director is Dr Tom Mitchell.
IIED is one of a small group of independent,
IIED is based in central London on High Holborn and has an office in Edinburgh. It formerly had offices in Dakar, Senegal (now an independent organisation IED-Afrique) and Buenos Aires, Argentina (also an independent sister institution, IIED-America Latina). There was also an office in Washington DC, USA (until IIED North America merged with the World Resources Institute in 1988).
The International Institute of Environment and Development has more than 140 employees and researchers from 16 countries. The organisation's Board of Trustees are all volunteers, currently 11 representatives from 11 different countries. The working budget of the IIED, £18.2 million in 2020/21, is achieved through donations, grants and mutually beneficial partnerships.[2]
History
Source:[3]
1970s
The origins of IIED can be found in the International Institute for Environmental Affairs (IIEA),
IIEA had helped shape the agenda for the 1972
IIED carried out research and lobbying work on a range of contemporary environment and development topics, using funds obtained from donor organisations and occasionally from corporations and foundations. It held its first symposium at the 1974 UN World Food Conference and in 1975 joined forces with UNEP to create Earthscan, an information and environment service for media. In 1976 it was heavily involved in HABITAT, the first UN Conference on Human Settlements.
1980s
In 1985, IIED and the
The institute's staff published a series of landmark books,[3] including Africa in Crisis by Lloyd Timberlake (1986), The Greening of Africa by Paul Harrison (1987), and No Timber Without Trees by Duncan Poore (1989) and Squatter Citizen: Life in the Urban Third World by Jorge Hardoy and David Satterthwaite (1989).
1990s
IIED played an important role ahead of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, or Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by mobilising civil society and drawing international attention to the summit. For this, IIED was awarded the Blue Planet Prize.[5] One of IIED's major projects of the 1990s was called "Towards a Sustainable Paper Cycle".
2000s
In 2001, IIED set up a climate change programme, led by
2010s
In 2012, IIED organised a major conference ahead of the Rio+20 Summit in Brazil.
Current work
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
IIED's founding director
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
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
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
IIED's
Barbara Ward Lectures
IIED organises the "Barbara Ward Lectures" in memory of the institute's first director, who died in 1981. Previous speakers have included:
- Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson
- Lindiwe Sisulu, Minister of Housing of the Republic of South Africa
- Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action
- UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
- Fatima Denton, director of the Special Initiatives Division and leader of the African Climate Policy Centre of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)
- Debra Roberts, head of the Sustainable and Resilient City Initiatives portfolio in eThekwini Municipality, Durban, South Africa
- Former Prime Minister of Norway and Director-General of the World Health Organization Gro Harlem Brundtland, and
- Rebeca Grynspan, secretary-general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Impact
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]
Funders
IIED lists its sources of financial support on an annual basis.[2]
- Governments and government agencies
Including:
- International and multilateral agencies
Including: African Development Bank, European Commission, European Parliament, World Bank
- Foundations and NGOs
Including:
- Corporate
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]
References
- ^ "About - International Institute for Environment and Development". www.iied.org.
- ^ a b Financial summary, IIED.
- ^ a b c Batterbury, SPJ. 2004. "The International Institute for Environment and Development: Notes on a small office". Global Environmental Change 14: 367–371.
- ^ Cross, Nigel (ed.), Evidence for Hope, Routledge, 2003, p. xiii.
- ^ 1992 Blue Planet Prize.
- Independent.co.uk.[dead link]
- ^ "IIED appoints new executive director". www.iied.org. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
- ^ "IPCC elects Jim Skea as the new Chair — IPCC". Retrieved 2024-01-03.
- ^ "IIED to host chair of IPCC". www.iied.org. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
- ^ Beech, Anne (27 January 2016). "Obituary: Neil Middleton". The Bookseller.
- ^ Eagleton, Terry (13 January 2016). "Neil Middleton obituary". The Guardian.
- ^ Williams, Charlotte (3 February 2011). "Earthscan acquired by Taylor & Francis". The Bookseller.
- ^ Pye-Smith, Charlie; Richard D. North (13 December 2005). "Obituaries: Richard Sandbrook". The Independent.
- ^ "Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development (MMSD)". 3 March 2009.
Further reading
- Cross, N. (ed.), 2003. Evidence for Hope: The Search for Sustainable Development. London: Earthscan. (Collection of essays about IIED to mark its 30th anniversary)
- Crump, Andy (1993). Dictionary of Environment and Development. MIT Press. p. 143. ISBN 0-262-53117-8.
- Brock, William Ranulf (1988). Welfare, Democracy, and the New Deal. Cambridge University Press. p. 126. ISBN 0-521-37992-X.