What Are IIED's Six Priority Areas of Work?

IIED (the International Institute for Environment and Development) is an independent research organisation that describes its mission as delivering positive change on a global scale. Its work is organised around six stated priorities, which the institute says focus its research, partnerships and influence on tackling climate change, nature loss and inequality — and on the unfair systems that drive them. The six areas below are drawn from IIED's own description of "what we do."

The Six Priorities at a Glance

How the Priorities Connect

The six areas are not isolated programmes. IIED frames them as interlocking responses to three overlapping problems: climate change, nature loss and inequality. Several priorities explicitly pair social and environmental goals — for example, trade and investment are addressed in terms of benefiting both people and planet, and cities are framed around justice rather than infrastructure alone.

Climate and nature

Two priorities sit closest to the environmental core: transforming climate action and governance, and championing community-led nature governance and stewardship. IIED's current spotlight work illustrates this in practice. It highlights its asks at the UN biodiversity summit (CBD COP17, held 19–30 October in Yerevan, Armenia), where it says it is pushing to turn pledges into practical, equitable action supporting the priorities of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Related recent outputs include work on locally led finance for nature and on making subsidy reform work for nature, climate and people.

Cities, housing and justice

The cities priority is currently presented under the banner "Cities as places of justice." IIED says it is supporting people in urban spaces to prepare for and respond to climate change, challenging unfair and unsustainable housing systems, and generating evidence to improve support for migrants and refugees in cities. Concrete examples include an event on housing justice and forced evictions (listed for 29 October 2026) and an insight piece on forced evictions and climate change.

Trade, finance and migration

The remaining priorities address the economic and human systems behind inequality. Shifting trade, finance and investment is treated as a lever for both people and planet, while the migration priority focuses on brighter futures for migrants and displaced people — a theme that also appears in the cities work on refugees in urban areas.

Where to Follow Specific Priorities

If you want to track one area rather than the whole portfolio, IIED's site organises content by these themes, with news, insight articles, events and toolkits attached to each. For example, a recent news item describes a new IIED toolkit supporting Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States with climate reporting, and event listings point to where IIED and partners appear at COP31. The site also signals a subscription option for updates; access terms beyond that are not specified in the available material.

Choosing What Matters for Your Purpose

• If you follow international negotiations, start with the climate governance and biodiversity priorities, where IIED publishes its COP asks and event listings.
• If you work on urban policy or housing, the cities-as-justice priority is the most directly relevant, including its forced eviction and informal settlement work.
• If your interest is finance or markets, the trade, finance and investment priority covers subsidy reform and locally led finance for nature.
• If you represent a community or local organisation, the community-led nature governance priority and the locally led finance strand are the closest fit.

Each priority page on iied.org is the practical entry point for publications, events and toolkits tied to that theme.