Within the Department of Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London, there has traditionally been a strong and active focus on the social, economic, political and physical geography of developing countries. The Department currently brings together one of the largest groups of academic geographers in the United Kingdom researching into problems of development and the environment in the Developing World.

The aim of the Centre for Developing Areas Research (CEDAR) is to promote and foster geographical research, consultancy and teaching in the field of development studies. In pursuing this goal, members of the group teach a range of development-oriented courses at the undergraduate level from the first to third year levels. Specialist supervision is offered for postgraduate students wishing to read for the degrees of MA, MSc, MPhil and PhD on the geographical study of development.

The members of CEDAR have developed a new taught MSc on Practising Sustainable Development (adapted from the former MA/MSc Development and Environment). The MSc aims to examine how environmental, social, political and economic factors interrelate at a range of scales to produce particular understandings of 'sustainable development' and associated policies and practices. It also gives hands-on training in research methods, subject-specific skills and transferable skills. Follow the Masters Course link for more details.

Members of the group and their research students are also actively involved in grant-aided and consultancy-based research throughout the Developing World. Thematically, these research interests include the political economy of urbanisation, practices and problems of urban and regional planning in developing countries, the examination of the physical and agricultural bases of rural land use, agrarian change, gender and development, demographic change, tropical land monitoring and land development, the promotion of environmentally sustainable development, the role of infrastructural provision in regional development, migration and transnationalism, and information and communication technology for development (ICT4D). A particular objective of the Centre is to foster integrative work involving both the human and physical geosciences.

In 2000, the CEDAR grouping highlighted five major areas of endeavour, which were to be addressed during the period 2001-2006. These were: (i) the radical reappraisal of conventional concepts and practices of development; (ii) globalisation and its interface with geopolitics; (iii) Civil society and empowerment with particular reference to NGOs and state-civil society relations; (iv) the ecological consequences of development, environmental management and sustainability, and (v) innovative work on the use of new information technologies in providing high-quality, cost effective development education to students of the South and the enhancement of learning through the Imfundo Initiative.

In recent year, CEDAR members have received research funding from a wide range of sources, including the ESRC, The Leverhulme Trust, DFID, National Geographic Society and The British Academy.

The existing members of CEDAR have wide experience in different developing regions and economies in transition, including Latin America (particularly Brazil, Argentina and Mexico), the Caribbean (Barbados, St Lucia, St Vincent, Trinidad and the Southern Caribbean, Guyana, Jamaica), West Africa (particularly Ghana, Nigeria) East Africa (particularly Kenya), Southern Africa (particularly Namibia and South Africa), South Asia (especially India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia), East Asian (especially China and Singapore), the Middle East, Iberia and Estonia, and Antarctica and the Falklands/Malvinas.