Think development – Think WIDER

WIDER Development Conference – Join us in Helsinki on 13-15 September 2018 for a truly unique event. Registration for the conference will open mid-August 2018.

Think development – Think WIDER


For more than 30 years, UNU-WIDER has been associated with some of the most advanced thinking in development economics. Since the Institute’s start in 1985, UNU-WIDER has undertaken research on all the principal themes of development economics. It has created a global network of thousands of researchers, many from developing countries. Helsinki has become the hub of this network, producing knowledge of real value to policy makers and practitioners in the developing world, across the UN, and to the international community more broadly.

Beginning in 2009, UNU-WIDER embarked on what has proven to be its most ambitious work programmes yet. Poverty, inequality, economic transformation, development finance, climate change, gender, food security, and many other topics, have featured in its activities and work resulting in some 2000+ publications ranging across these areas of research focus. The overall volume of work has tripled, with activities and conferences now ongoing across the globe. The Institute’s international development conferences provide a major platform for the exchange of ideas and calls for action. It has actively promoted the work of both early career academics and senior researchers spanning the developing world.

The conference will showcase UNU-WIDER, its work, and the many people and institutions that are engaged with it. The conference will hold panel discussions on all of the main themes and findings of UNU-WIDER’s research during 2009-18 — finance, food and climate change; and transformation, inclusion and sustainability. It will take stock of what we have learned, look to the future of development economics, and global development more broadly, serving as a bridge to fresh UNU-WIDER initiatives, aiming to mobilize evidence and action around the 2030 SDG agenda and its goals.

Presentations and plenary videos are available on the session pages and can also be accessed via the conference programme. See selection of photos from the conference.