Inequality and poverty

Poverty and inequality are prominent topics on the international development agenda, and one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals is to reduce inequality. How does the globally uneven distribution of wealth affect societies, participation and migration patterns?

Research and activites

Photo/illustration by Rasmus Fly

DIIS Policy Brief

2024

Locally-led climate change adaptation works: Here are eight ways to support it
Photo/illustration by Adobe Firefly

DIIS Comment

2024

Bilateral partnerships
Photo/illustration by Joerg Boethling / Alamy Stock Photo

DIIS Comment

2024

Towards a just green transition
DIIS Report

2024

Locally-led adaptation: moving from principles to practice in the water sector

Collaborative DIIS Report examines the global locally-led adaptation (LLA) principles in practice
Journal Article

2024

"These days, things have changed”

historicising current dynamics of climate-related migration in the savannah zone of Ghana
Photo/illustration by Section from collage design by Luisa Caria og Matheus Tanajura. Photos by Marie Kolling and Thaíse Sá Santos

Podcast

2024

Tech for good: Are tech companies exploiting or empowering the poor?
Book Chapter

2024

Indigenous peoples and green NGOs are surprisingly uneasy allies in the Arctic

Inuit have felt campaigns for animal rights as a threat to their livelihood and culture. While some green NGOs have gone lengths to realign with indigenous peoples in their reorientation to fight climate change, some Greenlanders find that climate policies threaten their right to development and self-determination.
Journal Article

2023

Mediating mobility in West Africa

Improvisation, culture, and volatility in migration infrastructures
Photo/illustration by Baalayela Forsca

DIIS Comment

2023

What Loss and Damage has to offer

Considering climate displacement and social cohesion
Photo/illustration by Greenshoots Communications / Alamy Stock Photo

DIIS Comment

2023

Loss and damage and social cohesion

Current knowledge and next steps for programming and practice
Photo/illustration by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Webinar

The costs of connection in the age of big data and AI

Online Zoom meeting

This webinar takes stock of the concept of Data Colonialism to understand contemporary links between data, capitalism, and global inequality
Photo/illustration by Luisa Caria & Matheus Tanajura

Data extractivism for poverty alleviation and “Tech for Good”

DIIS, in front of the auditorium

Interrogating the implications of “tech for good” that quantifiy and commodify information about the poor
Photo/illustration by MSF/Stefan Pejovic

Deadly borders: politics of aid and people on the move on the Mediterranean

DIIS Auditorium

What does it mean to rescue at sea? And how does it feel to be rescued? This seminar sheds light on the work of Doctors without Borders on the current situation on the deadliest migration route in the world, the Mediterranean Sea
Photo/illustration by Rasmus Fly

DIIS Policy Brief

2023

Managing Africa's resources equitably demands accountable states
Photo/illustration by KRCS-Denis Onyodi via Flickr copyright license

DIIS Blog

2023

African Climate Summit

A potential turning point for global diplomacy and climate action
Photo/illustration by Agencja Fotograficzna Caro / Alamy Stock Photo

Livestreaming

Data extractivism and humanitarian response: algorithms and predictive modeling

DIIS Auditorium

How do NGOs use algorithms and data-driven tools for predictive analysis in their humanitarian response?
Photo/illustration by Rasmus Fly

DIIS Policy Brief

2023

Three frontlines in Africa's resource conflicts

Green transitions, nature conservation and the drylands
Photo/illustration by Marie Gravesen

DIIS Blog

2023

The face of climate change along Turkana’s Turkwel river

A recent fieldtrip to Kenya’s Turkana County underscores that climate finance cannot be reduced to a question of funds, or the understanding of numbers going from one category to the next in an excel sheet. It is also important to focus on the socio-political circumstances and the different kinds of power dynamics operating on the ground. This is exactly what the GAP project sets out to do.
Book

2023

The long shadow of the border

Migrants, brokers and European border governance in Africa
DIIS Podcast

2023

But it's been more than 50 years! How Africa's resource conflicts are still rooted in colonialism
Livestreaming

Somali diaspora humanitarianism in complex crises

DIIS Auditorium

When disaster strike, diaspora groups are often first responders and remain engaged during lengthy and complex crises. Join this roundtable where we discuss practices, possibilities and pitfalls
Photo/illustration by Photo by UN Photo/Tobin Jones copyright license

Journal Article

2023

Somali vernacular humanitarianism: Translocal emergency assistance during times of crisis

New article on the history and practices of local and diaspora support during crises in Somaliland
Journal Article

2023

Tensions of modernity

Privilege, precarity, and colonial nostalgia among european security contractors in East Africa
Journal Article

2023

Rings in the water: Felt externalisation in the extended EU borderlands

New research unpacks how 'felt externalization' translates into human rights abuses, environmental crises, and death
Book Chapter

2023

Deterrence or empowerment?

Awareness and information campaigns as a migration governance tool to stop irregular migration

DIIS Report

2024

Locally-led adaptation: moving from principles to practice in the water sector

Claire Bedelian, Judith Mulwa, Beatrice Sumari, Peter Rogers, Marie Ladekjær Gravesen & Mikkel Funder

Download (pdf, 2.7 MB)
Journal Article

2024

"These days, things have changed”

historicising current dynamics of climate-related migration in the savannah zone of Ghana

Francis Jarawura, Joseph Teye, Nauja Kleist, Lily Salloum Lindegaard & David Quaye

Climate and Development

Read publication (external link)
Book Chapter

2024

Security transfigurations across sectors

Animals, climate, and self-determination in Greenland

Ulrik Pram Gad, Lill Rastad Bjørst & Marc Jacobsen

Greenland in Arctic security. University of Michigan Press

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Journal Article

2023

Mediating mobility in West Africa

Improvisation, culture, and volatility in migration infrastructures

Jesper Bjarnesen & Nauja Kleist

International Migration Review

Read publication (external link/open access)
Book

2023

The long shadow of the border

Migrants, brokers and European border governance in Africa

Ida Marie Savio Vammen, Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde & Hans Lucht

Read publication (external link)
Photo/illustration by Photo by UN Photo/Tobin Jones copyright license

Journal Article

2023

Somali vernacular humanitarianism: Translocal emergency assistance during times of crisis

Ahmed Musa & Nauja Kleist

Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies, 22

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Journal Article

2023

Tensions of modernity

Privilege, precarity, and colonial nostalgia among european security contractors in East Africa

Jethro Norman

Comparative Studies in Society and History, 65

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Journal Article

2023

Rings in the water: Felt externalisation in the extended EU borderlands

Ahlam Chemlali

Geopolitics

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Book Chapter

2023

Deterrence or empowerment?

Awareness and information campaigns as a migration governance tool to stop irregular migration

Ida Marie Savio Vammen

Handbook on irregular migration. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing

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Book Chapter

2023

Welcome aboard KLM Air Land! Hope and uncertainty in precarious migration projects

Nauja Kleist

Research Handbook on Irregular Migration. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing

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Article

2023

Conflict in Las Anod and Crisis in Somaliland

External Investment, Intensifying Internal Competition, and the Struggle for Narrative

Jethro Norman

African Arguments

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DIIS Working Paper

2023

Social ties and practices inclusion and exclusion

Somali responds to droughts

Ahmed Musa

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DIIS Working Paper

2023

Climate change adaptation relevance of Tanzania's national budget and its level of devolution

Noah Pauline, Peter Rogers, Edmund Mabhuye, Beatrice Sumari, Lucas Katera, Jamal Msami, Per Tidemand & Esbern Friis-Hansen

Download (pdf, 457.4 KB)
Journal Article

2022

Entre cuidado e exploração. Quando a dívida entra nas relações de família e vizinhança num bairro periférico

Marie Kolling

Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies - Iberoamericana, 51

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Journal Article

2022

Affective borderwork

Governance of unwanted migration to Europe through emotions

Ida Marie Savio Vammen & Katrine Syppli Kohl

Journal of Borderland Studies

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Working papers etc.

2022

Towards a political economy of renewable energy in Ghana: A review

Rasmus Hundsbæk Pedersen

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Book Chapter

2022

Gendered Dynamics in West African Migration

Mary Boatemaa Setrana & Nauja Kleist

Migration in West Africa. Cham, Switzerland: Springer

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Journal Article

2022

Worldviews and Conflict Analysis

Mona Kanwal Sheikh

Negotiation Journal

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DIIS Working Paper

2022

Characterisation of Danish agricultural investments in Tanzania and Uganda

Presentation of six cases of agricultural investments and their intended development outcomes

Rikke Broegaard, Helle Munk Ravnborg, Evelyne Lazaro, Teddy Nakanwagi, David Tumusiime, Festo Maro, Michael Byaruhanga, Bernard Bashaasha & Khamaldin Mutabazi

Download (pdf, 4.6 MB)
Photo/illustration by Marie Kolling, DIIS

Book Chapter

2022

‘Knowing how to walk’

Risk, violence and practices of endurance in urban Brazil

Marie Kolling

Extraordinary Risks, Ordinary Lives. Palgrave Macmillan

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Chapter

2022

Transnational jihadi movements

Mona Kanwal Sheikh & Saer El-Jaichi

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. Oxford University Press

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Journal Article

2022

Transnational jihad as a bundled conflict-constellation

Mona Kanwal Sheikh

Studies in Conflict & Terrorism

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DIIS Report

2022

Actors and drivers of conflict in the Sahel

Unpacking 'new climate wars'

Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde & Boubacar Ba

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DIIS Report

2022

Women on the move

Trafficking, sex work and reproductive health among West African migrant women

Sine Plambech, Ahlam Chemlali & Maria Chiara Cerio

Download (pdf, 4.2 MB)
Journal Article

2022

Failed Transnationalization?

The Challenges Faced by al-Qaeda and IS in South Asia

Dino Krause

Studies in Conflict & Terrorism

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Photo/illustration by Rasmus Fly

DIIS Policy Brief

2024

Locally-led climate change adaptation works: Here are eight ways to support it

Claire Bedelian, Judith Mulwa, Beatrice Sumari, Peter Rogers, Marie Ladekjær Gravesen & Mikkel Funder

Download (pdf, 4.1 MB)
Photo/illustration by Adobe Firefly

DIIS Comment

2024

Bilateral partnerships

Lars Engberg-Pedersen

Read publication (external link)
Photo/illustration by Joerg Boethling / Alamy Stock Photo

DIIS Comment

2024

Towards a just green transition

The governance challenge

Mikkel Funder
Photo/illustration by Baalayela Forsca

DIIS Comment

2023

What Loss and Damage has to offer

Considering climate displacement and social cohesion

Lily Salloum Lindegaard & Francis Jarawura

Read publication (external link)
Photo/illustration by Greenshoots Communications / Alamy Stock Photo

DIIS Comment

2023

Loss and damage and social cohesion

Current knowledge and next steps for programming and practice

Lily Salloum Lindegaard

Read publication (external link)
Photo/illustration by Rasmus Fly

DIIS Policy Brief

2023

Managing Africa's resources equitably demands accountable states

Peter Albrecht, Marie Ladekjær Gravesen, Frank Agyei, Kwesi Aning, Richard Asante, Deborah Atobrah, Anne Bartlett, Sandra Bhatasara, Veronika Čáslavová, Mamadou Cisse, James Drew, Esther Egele-Godswill, Sophie Erfurth, Abel Gwaindepi , Rahma Hassan, Sti…

Download (pdf, 1.5 MB)
Photo/illustration by KRCS-Denis Onyodi via Flickr copyright license

DIIS Blog

2023

African Climate Summit

A potential turning point for global diplomacy and climate action

Esbern Friis-Hansen & David Lyndorff Paris

Read publication (external link)
Photo/illustration by Rasmus Fly

DIIS Policy Brief

2023

Three frontlines in Africa's resource conflicts

Green transitions, nature conservation and the drylands

Peter Albrecht & Marie Ladekjær Gravesen

Download (pdf, 432.6 KB)
Photo/illustration by Marie Gravesen

DIIS Blog

2023

The face of climate change along Turkana’s Turkwel river

Marie Ladekjær Gravesen & David Lyndorff Paris

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DIIS Policy Brief

2022

No climate security without human security

Insights from Africa’s climate hotspots

Louise Wiuff Moe & Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde

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DIIS Policy Brief

2022

Our climate future depends on conflict dynamics in Congo

Climate and conflict

Peer Schouten, Judith Verweijen & Fergus Simpson

Download (pdf, 6.1 MB)
DIIS Interview

2022

Fra bliktag til landsby-business

Esbern Friis-Hansen & Jon Clausen

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DIIS Comment

2022

Experimental politics in a future of global crises

Adam Moe Fejerskov

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DIIS Policy Brief

2022

Free association: between self-government and dependence ,

Some insights from the compact of free association between the US and the Republic of the Marshall Islands

Rens van Munster

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Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright license

DIIS Interview

2022

EU policies and debt keep migrant women trapped in Tunisia

Marie Barse
Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright license

Interview

2022

Climate change and conflict in Mali

Alexandre Gernigon & Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde
Brief

2022

Adaptation, professionalization and disruption

Current trends and future scenarios of Somali diaspora engagement

Nauja Kleist, Ahmed Musa & Jethro Norman

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DIIS Policy Brief

2022

Three factors may spark violence in Kenya's 2022 elections

Marie Ladekjær Gravesen & Evans Muriu

Download (pdf, 1.2 MB)
DIIS Policy Brief

2022

How renewable energy transitions impact power structures in local communities

Maria-Louise Clausen, Ekatherina Zhukova & Vasna Ramasar

Download (pdf, 3.3 MB)
Photo/illustration by Cecilie Castor von Spreckelsen

DIIS Policy Brief

2021

The EU should make corporations accountable for their impacts in the global south

Dirty global supply chains

Peer Schouten

Download (pdf, 2 MB)
DIIS Policy Brief

2021

Development aid is unlikely to reduce migration from Africa

Migration, aid and economic progress

Hans Lucht, Lars Engberg-Pedersen & Ida Marie Savio Vammen

Download (pdf, 2.1 MB)
DIIS Policy Brief

2021

Risks of technology use in humanitarian settings

Avoiding harm, delivering impact

Adam Moe Fejerskov, Maria-Louise Clausen & Sarah Seddig

Download (pdf, 414.9 KB)
DIIS Comment

2021

Explained: What is climate change adaptation?

Lily Salloum Lindegaard

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Policy Brief

2021

Integrating community development in public procurement of renewable energy generation

lessons from South Africa

Mikkel Funder, Holle Wlokas & Karen Holm Olsen

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Photo/illustration by Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Ritzau Scanpix copyright license

DIIS Longread

2021

What makes a climate migrant?

Stories of waves of climate migrants miss the complexity that lies behind migration itself

Lily Salloum Lindegaard

Read publication (external link)

Photo/illustration by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Webinar

The costs of connection in the age of big data and AI

Online Zoom meeting

This webinar takes stock of the concept of Data Colonialism to understand contemporary links between data, capitalism, and global inequality
Photo/illustration by Luisa Caria & Matheus Tanajura

Data extractivism for poverty alleviation and “Tech for Good”

DIIS, in front of the auditorium

Interrogating the implications of “tech for good” that quantifiy and commodify information about the poor
Photo/illustration by MSF/Stefan Pejovic

Deadly borders: politics of aid and people on the move on the Mediterranean

DIIS Auditorium

What does it mean to rescue at sea? And how does it feel to be rescued? This seminar sheds light on the work of Doctors without Borders on the current situation on the deadliest migration route in the world, the Mediterranean Sea
Photo/illustration by Agencja Fotograficzna Caro / Alamy Stock Photo

Livestreaming

Data extractivism and humanitarian response: algorithms and predictive modeling

DIIS Auditorium

How do NGOs use algorithms and data-driven tools for predictive analysis in their humanitarian response?
Livestreaming

Somali diaspora humanitarianism in complex crises

DIIS Auditorium

When disaster strike, diaspora groups are often first responders and remain engaged during lengthy and complex crises. Join this roundtable where we discuss practices, possibilities and pitfalls
Livestreaming

Technocolonialism: Digital humanitarianism as extraction and experimentality

DIIS Auditorium

Join us for this seminar with Professor Mirca Madianou on how data practices revitalise colonial legacies in humanitarianism and technological development itself
Photo/illustration by Jemal Ould Mohamed Oumar via Wikimedia Commons copyright license

Call for papers

4 July 2022

Call for papers for conference on Natural Resource Management and Conflict in Africa

We invite abstracts and papers that are interdisciplinary and oriented towards providing unique perspectives on natural resource management and conflict in Africa.
Photo/illustration by Nauja Kleist

Livestreaming

Climate change and human mobility

DIIS, Auditorium

How is climate change and mobility linked and how do people cope through moving or staying? These are some of the questions four researchers discuss based on their research at this seminar
Photo/illustration by Sura Nualpradid / Shutterstock.com

Livestreaming

Beyond green grabbing: rights, governance and nature-based solutions in the Global South

Auditorium, DIIS

This seminar will discuss how the rights and benefits of indigenous people and local communities can be secured in nature-based solutions
Blogpost

31 January 2022

Doing a PhD during Pandemic Times

A Somali Mother’s Journey
Photo/illustration by AG, Aboubacrine, ICRC

Webinar

What drives African migration and what role does development aid have to play?

Unpacking the relationship between migration and development and the implication for development policy
Photo/illustration by "President Reagan speaking at a rally for Senator Durenberger", Michael Evans, 1982, Courtesy of Ronald Reagan Library, National Archives and Records Administration

Livestreaming

Freedom on the offensive

DIIS Auditorium

Book talk on human rights, democracy promotion, and U.S. interventionism in the late Cold War
Livestreaming

Presentation of the 2021 OECD DAC peer review of Denmark

DIIS Auditorium

What are the main conclusions of the assessment of Danish development co-operation?
Photo/illustration by Mikkel Funder

Rights and resilience

DIIS Auditorium

Exploring the links between climate change adaptation and land rights
Blogpost

6 May 2021

A Year After the Floods In Qardho

What Has Been The Response And How Is The Community Coping?
Photo/illustration by Christian Vium

Webinar

Does more information save migrants’ lives?

Webinar launch of new report about West African migrants’ use of information en route to Europe
10 February 2021

DIIS-researcher new editor of Progress in Development Studies

DIIS senior researcher Adam Fejerskov has been appointed new associate editor of Progress in Development Studies.
Webinar

Rentier infrastructure: Debt, data, & sovereignty in Kenya

Online via Zoom

Kevin Donovan examines the precarity of phone-based lending
Photo/illustration by Brian Larkin

Webinar

The ambient infrastructure of generators

Online via Zoom

Brian Larkin kicks of the analytical approaches to infrastructure webinar series
Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright license

Blog

30 June 2020

Here, There and Everywhere

Covid-19 Travel Ban Effects on the Somali Diaspora
Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright license

Blog

30 May 2020

Khat and COVID-19

Somalia’s cross-border economy in the time of coronavirus
Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright license

Blog

5 May 2020

Puntland and COVID-19

Local Responses and Economic Impact
Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright license

Blog

23 April 2020

Somaliland and Covid-19

Emerging Issues and Economic Impact
Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright license

Blog

20 April 2020

COVID-19 Is Confirmed In Puntland

How Are Families Coping?
Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright license

4 December 2019

Media and trafficking in human beings

DIIS report informs EU media and the Council of Europe

Article

2021

In the Pursuit of Development, Inequality is Every Bit as Detrimental as Climate Change

New Global Policy Opinion outlines how development cooperation can address it

Glono - Global Norms and Heterogenous Donor Organizations

GLONO was a research programme on how international norms about gender equality are being used in concrete development policies and practices by seven very different donor organisations.

The...

Photo/illustration by Section from collage design by Luisa Caria og Matheus Tanajura. Photos by Marie Kolling and Thaíse Sá Santos

Podcast

2024

Tech for good: Are tech companies exploiting or empowering the poor?
DIIS Podcast

2023

But it's been more than 50 years! How Africa's resource conflicts are still rooted in colonialism
Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright license

Podcast

2022

Adapting to a changing climate in Ethiopia

Climate change has become an apparent reality in world. The problem is more pronounced in developing countries, such as Ethiopia, where the majority of the population and the national economy are dependent on the agricultural sector.
Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright license

Podcast

2022

What drives migration in Ghana and Ethiopia?

We often hear that climate change will cause mass movements of people, but is that really the case? In this interview we hear from experts from Ethiopia and Ghana that for years have been studying how climate change affects migration.
Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright license

Podcast

2022

Is climate change really what drives migration in Ghana?
Photo/illustration by Pexels. Jens Mahnke. copyright license

Podcast

2019

Digitalization of money easily becomes a mechanism of exclusion

New podcast on the social consequences of digital economies

Experts

Photo/illustration by Lynggaardhansenfoto.dk

Adam Moe Fejerskov

Sustainable development and governance

Senior Researcher

+45 3269 8779

admo@diis.dk
Photo/illustration by Lynggaardhansenfoto.dk

Helle Munk Ravnborg

Sustainable development and governance

Senior Researcher

+4525471657

hmr@diis.dk
Photo/illustration by Lynggaardhansenfoto.dk

Ida Marie Savio Vammen

Migration and global order

Senior Researcher

+45 3269 8707

imv@diis.dk
Photo/illustration by Lynggaardhansenfoto.dk

Kasper Arabi

Foreign policy and diplomacy

Research Assistant

+45 2088 8644

kaar@diis.dk
Photo/illustration by Lynggaardhansenfoto.dk

Lars Engberg-Pedersen

Sustainable development and governance

Head of unit, Senior researcher

+45 3269 8695

lep@diis.dk
Photo/illustration by Lynggaardhansenfoto.dk

Lily Salloum Lindegaard

Sustainable development and governance

Senior Researcher

91325502

liln@diis.dk
Photo/illustration by Jette Mariboe, DIIS

Marie Kolling

Sustainable development and governance

Senior Researcher

+45 9132 5503

mako@diis.dlk
Mikkel Funder

Sustainable development and governance

Senior Researcher

+45 3269 8697

mfu@diis.dk
Photo/illustration by Lynggaardhansenfoto.dk

Nauja Kleist

Migration and global order

Senior Researcher

+45 3269 8667

nkl@diis.dk
Ole Therkildsen

Sustainable development and governance

Emeritus Researcher

+45 3269 8714

oth@diis.dk
Photo/illustration by Jette Mariboe, DIIS

Sarah Kristine Poppelkvist

Sustainable development and governance

PhD Candidate

sajo@diis.dk
Photo/illustration by Lynggaardhansenfoto.dk

Yang Jiang

Migration and global order

Senior Researcher

+45 9132 5560

yaji@diis.dk