IIED's best of 2025: insights
As 2025 draws to a close, we're showcasing some of the content we've published during the last 12 months. Our insights offer a place for IIED staff and guest authors to share new findings or their opinions related to research by the institute or its partners – in case you missed them, here are our top 10 most-read insights of the year.
Coastal communities in Tefe, Brazil (Photo: Rodrigo Kugnharski on Unsplash)
1. A just transition in agriculture: putting workers at the centre
Agriculture is both a major contributor to climate change and highly vulnerable to its impacts. As global food companies push for 'sustainable' or 'regenerative' practices, George Williams, just transitions advisor at Ethical Trading Initiative, asks one critical question: will this be a just transition for the workers who feed the world?
Let’s be clear: agricultural workers feed the world. And in many regions, agriculture is one of the largest employers. In Kenya, agriculture employs around 32% of the workforce, in South Africa it’s 19%, in Peru 24%, and in India 44%; all countries that UK consumers are accustomed to seeing on food labels at their local supermarket
2. Slum upgrading is climate action
Slum upgrading in informal settlements is a powerful form of climate action that builds resilience, reduces climate risks and inequities, and strengthens sustainable, community-led urban development. But, as Nina Schoonman from IIED and Yirah Contehas, the national chairperson of the Federation of the Urban and Rural Poor, highlight, it urgently needs greater recognition and funding from governments and climate finance institutions.
Too often, informality is framed as a problem to be ‘fixed’ rather than as a foundation for solutions. But upgrading is not only about physical improvements. It’s a political process that challenges exclusion, puts decision-making in the hands of communities, and reshapes how cities evolve in the face of climate change
3. Rising heat levels mean increased risks for women in informal settlements
Marcelle Mardon from IIED and Mussa Raido, researcher at the Center for Community Initiatives in Tanzania, discuss the intersection of extreme heat and gender, which formed the basis of a recent community-led study that found widening inequalities in the informal settlements of Dar es Salaam.
In Kombo, over 70% of women burn charcoal to cook family meals and prepare food to sell. This activity increases the temperature in the home and, coupled with smoke pollution, exacerbates existing respiratory and other health conditions among women and children
4. Community-led innovations leading to transformative change
Learning from informal settlement dwellers can pave the way to just, democratic, healthier and sustainable cities. Camila Cociña from IIED and Esley Philander from SDI present four strategies for including nature-based solutions, community mapping, innovative finance and access to global networks.
Adequate governance has always been at the centre of sustainable transformations. The case studies profiled in the collection demonstrate how facilitating collaboration between social actors, local governments and other institutions, has been pivotal in bringing about change
5. From Seville to Belém: reimagining country platforms for adaptation finance
Country platforms hold real potential to channel climate finance to the local level and are fast becoming a centrepiece of the programmatic finance push. Guest authors Christopher Bartlett, special climate adviser, and Sam Mugume, co-chair of the Coalition of Finance Ministers on Climate Action, set out five fundamentals to make country platforms credible vehicles for adaptation and development finance.
Country platforms only succeed when they are embedded in political realities, shaped by national actors, and built through inclusive and participatory processes that reflect the full diversity of local institutions and voices
6. UN Food Systems Summit: reasons for hope but more work to do
Reflecting on the UN Food Systems Summit earlier this year, Duncan Williamson sets out why taking a systems approach, with greater country collaboration, could help fix our broken food systems.
A truly systemic approach to food transformation presents multiple opportunities, with a more central role for blue foods. As demonstrated by our work at UNOC in June, there are many overlapping issues
7. Climate change and the gender justice backlash
In an increasingly hostile global landscape for civil society organisations working on gender and climate justice, Leah Moss, a senior policy strategist at Mama Cash, and Noemi Grutterwe, an alliance coordinator at the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action, highlight the need to work together to foster an environment in which women's rights organisations can thrive.
Women play a crucial role in climate adaptation, mitigation and disaster risk reduction. They are not the passive recipients of aid that they are often painted to be: women and marginalised communities are driving transformative, gender-just climate action
8. What will green transitions mean for food producers and workers?
Shifting to more sustainable models of food production is urgently needed. Emma Blackmore and Giulia Nicolini discuss what a ‘green transition’ might mean for workers who are central to producing the world’s food.
The global food system is driving climate change and biodiversity loss, and it is also deeply vulnerable to their effects. In light of growing scientific evidence and both policy and public pressure, many companies have made commitments to sustainable sourcing at scale
9. Forced evictions and climate change: on risk, CO2 emissions and anti-eviction struggles
Climate change is forcing people to leave informal settlements and is being used as a reason to justify evictions. Camila Cociña and Alexandre Apsan Frediani discuss evidence that shows how evicting residents undermines efforts to build climate resilience and to reduce carbon emissions in cities.
Evidence that explicitly demonstrates how forced evictions contribute to environmental damage and, at the same time, how climate change deepens the threat of evictions, can be a powerful tool for local and global justice-oriented movements; generating this evidence is more critical than ever
10. More GEF nature finance must reach Indigenous Peoples and local communities
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is a major funder of nature and climate finance. As the GEF consults on its plans for the next four years, Ramson Karmushu, director and founder of MIKIA Kenya, and IIED's Nicola Sorsby share preliminary research indicating that not enough GEF funding is reaching communities on the frontline of the biodiversity crisis.
It is crucial that future nature finance reaches the Indigenous Peoples and local communities worldwide who suffer the immediate consequences of biodiversity loss. These communities take care of huge areas of nature and have the best knowledge and practices for conserving biodiversity
That's our top 10 – but there were many more! To see all our 2025 opinion pieces, visit our insights page where we give our experts and partners the platform to provide insight into key events, updates on ongoing research, and share experiences from their work.
