Professor Imraan Valodia
Pro VC: Climate, Sustainability and Inequality
Professor Imraan Valodia, is Professor of Economics, Pro Vice-Chancellor: Climate, Sustainability and Inequality, and Director of the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits).
His research interests include: inequality, climate justice, competition policy and industrial development and employment in developing countries.
Professor Valodia played a leading role in establishing and leading Wits University’s Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS). The SCIS is a a multi-disciplinary, cross-country initiative to promote research and policy change to advance greater equality.
Professor Valodia has led and participated in a number of large national and international studies. Including an international study, in 10 cities across the globe, of the informal economy. He co-led a pathbreaking three-year research project, conducted in 8 countries, on the gender impacts of direct and indirect taxation. More recently, through the SCIS, he has worked on global studies on employment and inequality and wealth inequality in the global South. He is currently leading studies on care and climate change, and green industrialisation in Africa. He has published extensively in leading academic journals and in the popular press on issues related to his research interests. He is recognised nationally and internationally for his research in economic development. His most recent book is the Oxford Handbook of the South African Economy, a detailed and wide-ranging coverage of the key economic questions in South Africa, which he co-edited.
Professor Valodia is a part-time member of the Competition Tribunal in South Africa. He is also Chair of the National Minimum Wage Commission, and a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (Assaf) Standing Committee on Science for the Reduction of Poverty and Inequality. In August 2016 Professor Valodia was appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa to chair the Advisory Panel on the National Minimum Wage. This led to the introduction of a National Minimum Wage in South Africa. In early 2018, he was appointed to a Panel to advise the Minister of Economic Development on amendments to the Competition Act. Professor Valodia has also served on a Panel of Experts to advise the Minister of Finance on Value-Added Taxes and zero-rating, and the Minister of Higher Education on the funding of higher education in South Africa. He serves as a member of President Ramaphosa’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) in South Africa.
Professor Valodia has worked with a number of international institutions including the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and UN Women. He is a member of the Board of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), and a member of the Board of the research network, Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO). He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. He is a member of the UNAIDS Global Council on Inequality, AIDS and Pandemics.