Our International Development group is a specialist business within Arup. We work with city governments, development and humanitarian organisations, and communities to make a difference on vital projects in challenging contexts. From planning for the impacts of climate change, to rebuilding after disasters, the team is able to offer Arup’s world-renowned quality of services in a form tailored to local contexts and designed to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Collaboration for enduring change
Every project is a chance to share what we’ve learned. We build local capacity as we work, leaving communities better able to tackle future challenges. Long-term relationships with partners are central to this ethos. Our team provides strategic advice, assessment and evaluation services, and technical expertise to help our partners get the best results at organisational, programme or project level.
The range of our work is constantly growing as we seek to address global issues such as urbanisation, population growth and climate change. Whether we are conducting ethnographic research with young mothers in Jordan or designing digital tools to improve housing in India, accountability and participation are at the heart of everything we do.
Your international development partner
Our core team works with hundreds of people across Arup, delivering projects in the most vulnerable regions of the world. You gain the benefit of being able to tap into, and mobilise, specialists from our global network of 16,000 staff, based across five continents. Whether you operate in the private or public sector, in an academic institution or for a development bank, our aim is to provide services relevant and targeted to your project and context.
Our people have experience with leading organisations including BRAC, DAI, Médecins Sans Frontières, UN-Habitat, the World Bank and World Vision. As we typically work with multilateral banks, UN agencies, city authorities and NGOs, we ‘speak the language’ and understand the working styles of development partners and funding bodies. By working with us, you gain insights developed from working at the forefront of international development projects worldwide.
How we can help
We offer technical assistance, strategic advice and capacity building across a range of key areas:
Meeting global goals
Sustainable development principles guide our decision-making and we help our partners to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other key international agreements and commitments, including the 2015 Paris Declaration on Climate Change (2015), the 2015 Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the 2016 New Urban Agenda. We are a proud member of the UN Global Compact, bringing our principles-based approach to doing business to all of our projects and partnerships.
“For over 15 years, our International Development practice has delivered hundreds of projects which have helped vulnerable communities around the world. We work most effectively by joining hands with others who share our aims. ”
Jo da Silva DBE Global Sustainable Development Leader View profile
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Project
City Resilience Index
City Resilience Index enables city stakeholders to understand their city’s ability to adapt, survive and thrive in the face of a range of shocks and stresses. Over 100 cities worldwide have used the Cities Resilience Index to assess and improve their municipal systems.
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Project
Handwashing in emergencies
'Jengu' is a family of durable handwashing units that we developed in partnership with the British Red cross and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Originally designed for use in humanitarian emergency settings, Jengu has also been a valuable resource in fighting the spread of Covid-19 in schools and public buildings.
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Project
Global Program for Safer Schools
As part of the World Bank-funded Global Programme for Safer Schools, AID assessed school infrastructure in 14 countries, developing diagnostic tools and construction guides to improve resilience of education facilities. These tools are designed to reduce the negative impacts of natural disasters on education and enable governments to invest more effectively.
Our people
We are planners, engineers, researchers and advisors from a variety of backgrounds, all committed to using Arup’s technical strengths to create change in settings where resources are a challenge. Our team offers decades of international experience across the project cycle – from project scoping, assessment and design, through to delivery and evaluation – ensuring the right blend of technical skills is applied to each step of the process.
Contact us about your project
You can access services through regional consultants around the world. Wherever you’re based, we can help you get the most out of your project at any stage of the development lifecycle.