January 31, 2019
CSS is set to play a major role in a £20 million global research center – funded by UKRI’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and managed by Coventry University’s Center for Trust, Peace and Social Relations (CTPSR) – announced by UK Research and Innovation ( UKRI) today as part of a new and ambitious approach to addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
The UKRI GCRF’s Center for Migration, Inequality and South-South Development will see CSS join forces with universities and organizations from around the world to explore how the movement of people in the Global South affects inequality and development in less developed regions. The initiative is believed to be the largest study on global migration ever conducted anywhere in the world.
Over the next five years, the Center will work with governments, international agencies, partners and NGOs on the ground in these countries and around the world to maximize the benefits of South-South migration for development – and investigate how it contributes to delivering the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as elimination on poverty and reducing inequality.
It is estimated that South-South migration accounts for nearly half of all international migration (up to 70% in some places), but its potential benefits have been undermined by the limited and unequal access to the economic and social rights and opportunities that migration can provide.
The Center will explore South-South migration in six global “corridors” connecting countries of origin and destination, with a particular focus on the following routes: Nepal and Malaysia; China – Ghana; Burkina Faso – Côte d’Ivoire; Ethiopia – South Africa; Haiti – Brazil; Egypt and Jordan.
Professor Haven Crowley, an expert on international migration at Coventry University, will lead the Hub Partner Network which includes:
- 20 leading universities, plus the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), PositiveNegatives, Samuel Hall and iLabAfrica;
- Six international organizations – the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the International Labor Organization (ILO), the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Development Program and the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development; And the
- Several local organizations in the 12 countries in which the center will operate: Burkina Faso, Brazil, China, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Jordan, Malaysia, Nepal and South Africa.
“The sheer size and ambition of these centers is what makes them so exciting. It enables us to deliver a coordinated global response with UK researchers working in partnership with researchers, governments, NGOs, community groups and international agencies across developing countries. Each center has the potential to change the quality of life for audiences around the world and protect our planet for future generations.”