Social cohesion is key for sustainable development. While social cohesion has suffered in many societies from the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, high levels of social cohesion have helped to overcome critical situations during the pandemic in other societies. As a consequence, protecting...

Over the last decades, the continued internationalisation of production and the organisation of complex production networks into global value chains (GVCs) have fostered the relevance and spread of standards. While standards were initially concerned with the quality and compatibility of...

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are pivotal for inclusive economic development, but suffer disproportionally from institutional and market failures, especially from constrained access to external finance. Digitalisation of the financial industry is often seen as a game changer. This...

Despite its importance for development, long-term finance is particularly scarce in countries with lower income levels. This not only results in unrealised growth and employment creation at the national level and at the level of individual firms, but also undermines a broader shift towards...

Generating decent employment is key to the creation of a new social contract and social cohesion in Sub-Saharan Africa. The crucial question is, thus, how can more decent jobs be created? Much of the extant research has focused on the role of states and businesses in shaping employment...