Short answers, pulled from the story.
UNRISD was established in 1963 with a grant from the Government of the Netherlands. Its founding mandate was to conduct research into problems and policies of social development and the relationships between social and economic development.
Jan Tinbergen, a Dutch economist, served as the first board chair of UNRISD from 1963 to 1974. He later received the first-ever Nobel Prize in economics in 1969.
UNRISD relies entirely on voluntary funding from governments, development agencies, and foundations. It receives no funding from the United Nations budget, an arrangement that preserves its independence and critical latitude.
UNRISD took a critical view of the Green Revolution, arguing that the quantity of food available was only one factor in addressing hunger. It highlighted that power inequalities affecting the distribution of food played a key role in determining who had enough to eat.
UNRISD maintains an online open-access repository with over 1,300 publications. The majority of items published after 1990 can be downloaded free of charge.
UNRISD's current research is organized into three programmes: Social Policy and Development, Gender and Development, and Social Dimensions of Sustainable Development. These address three major contemporary challenges: inequalities, conflict, and unsustainable practices.