Human rights

Social exclusion

Social exclusion is when people are disadvantaged because of who they are. This can be because of their ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation, caste, descent, gender, age, disability, HIV status, and migrant status or where they live. Discrimination occurs in public institutions, such as the legal system or education and health services, as well as social institutions like the household.

Social exclusion causes poverty of particular groups, and reduces the rate of poverty reduction of society as a whole. It can cause social tensions and conflict.

DFID works with partners to address the needs and rights of specific excluded groups, particularly disabled people, children and youth.

The relationship between social exclusion, inequality and growth has an important effect on development, and needs special attention. We still do not know enough about how to give disadvantaged and marginalised people a voice in decision-making. Nor do we know enough about how social exclusion affects potential for economic growth.

We support research into the economic impact of social exclusion and inequality and its role in the relationship between growth, employment and poverty.

We also develop research on disability. We will fund new research to explore in detail the link between disability and poverty, and we will look at how development programmes can better support disabled people. We will work with disabled people’s organisations in developing countries to increase their capacity to do research.

Links

• Reducing poverty by tackling social exclusion (154kb)
• Research4development - governance in challenging environments
• DFID Human Rights Research from IDS Knowledge Services
• United Nations Research Institute for Social Development
• SAFOD Research Programme on Poverty, Disability and Policy
• DFID Research Strategy 2008-2013 - Political and Social Science Research (610kb)