• Encourages, conducts, promotes, and coordinates interdisciplinary teaching and research in development studies.
• Designs curricula leading to degrees in the field of development studies.
• Conducts short training courses, seminars, public lectures, workshops, conferences on problems relating to socio-economic development working with government of Sudan and the wider Civic Society Organizations.
• Enhances and follows-up research on development studies through periodicals, reports, and publications.
• Provides communication facilities between researchers within the university, government, CSOs, and other related corporate bodies at the national and international level.
•  Cooperates closely with researchers, institutes, and other agencies in fields of specialization.
• Provides forum for exchange of experiences and disseminates know-how on development issues among experts, staff, and students.
•  Provides and promotes programs and research dealing with the area of documentation and information science as well as the exchange of publications where feasible.
• Promotes gender studies through teaching, research, training, and curricula development for capacity building.
• Conducts all that is necessary to carry out its stated objectives.

Influence inter-alia development policymaking, viz, its strategic formulation, execution, and evaluation.

DSRI was established 1976. The mandate is to link the University with the community through the development efforts of the state and non state actors. DSRI main strategy is to link government entities with wider Civil Society Organizations in a neutral sphere of opinion sharing between all actors within an environment of freedom of expression and tolerance. DSRI main activities are teaching, research, training, dialogue forums, and publications.