Integral to UKZN’s mission is a strategic thrust towards research and knowledge production that expresses itself in practical interventions for the upliftment of the wider South African society.

Economic development is a national priority and the University makes full and innovative use of its existing capacity in this regard.

The main focus of the Economic Development Strategic Initiative (EDSRI) is to strengthen and enhance applied and policy-relevant research in the field of economic development.

Initiated in June 2003, EDSRI is managed by representatives from the Disciplines of Economics and Finance, Sociology, Development Studies, Economic History, Agri-Business, Cultural and Heritage Tourism, and the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division (HEARD).

In its structure, the EDSRI aims to cover the interests of UKZN academic members across all the University’s campuses in the area of economic development. The role of each steering committee member has been to ensure that progress within the EDSRI is reported to academics across as large a number of Schools as possible, to engage a broad interest and stake in the EDSRI, and to provide feedback as to how to move the research initiative forward.

The EDSRI has convened a number of workshops on development-related issues. Workshops have been held on subjects such as “Making data work for development”, while the EDSRI sponsored a Strata training course – a statistical programme for data analysis for staff and students. The course aimed to improve researchers’ familiarity with the software necessary to access and process data.

The EDSRI focuses on racial, gender, urban-rural economic and livelihood inequalities in South Africa and continues to ask what the relationship is between the growth and spatial distribution of the public and private economic sectors. The research encompasses the formal and informal economy, the nature of poverty, the characteristics of the poor, areas and socio-economic empowerment.

The overall research objective of the Research Chair in Economic Development, held by economist Professor Dori Posel, is to explore the interface between households and labour markets in South Africa, advancing knowledge across a range of socio-economic areas, including those relating to marriage, migration, child care, household survival strategies and resource sharing, and labour force participation and employment.

The research is integral to evaluating the experiences of economic development among individual South Africans and to assessing economic and social policy that seek to reduce poverty and increase well-being.