Fall 2024
Global Development: Theory and Practice
Alexander Puutio PhD, Senior Expert, Office of the Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations
Students build upon the body of knowledge and industry best practices in ways that allow them to effectively analyze and (de)construct theories of development, as well as related ideologies, major trends, and objective frameworks held by governments and international organizations. The discussion is centered around the features of robust theories, including explanatory and predictive power, as well as the limitations development theories face in dynamic contexts. Students strengthen their understanding of development theories by constructing their own explanatory frameworks for why and how positive change happens at the scale of communities and nations. Development indicators and other data sources are explored and analyzed critically. After covering the theory of development, the course explores its practical applications. Students learn how to critically assess, create, deliver upon, and measure the impact of tangible development projects. The course covers tangible examples of both successful and failed development projects which are analyzed for drivers of success and common denominators of failed projects. Students learn how to approach and analyze critical project design tools, including theories of change, logical frameworks, activity plans, funding and resourcing frameworks, and impact measurement processes. Students select a real-life development project as a case study, which is used as a pedagogical device to cement the learning goals of the course. In their case study, students will apply best-in-class monitoring and evaluation, as well as a range of other analytical tools to assess their chosen development projects from design to sustained impact. Over the past years, students selected projects implemented by organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank Group, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Department for International Development (DFID). Past case studies and recent flagship projects are used as entry points for discussion in each class. This course is divided into the following four broad thematic areas that guide the discussions and analysis in class: the theories of development including key principles and prerequisites; project design and planning; operational delivery and coordination; and impact measurement and sustaining results.
Prerequisites: Experience manipulating data and algebraic equations on spreadsheets is helpful.
Spring 2025
Global Development: Theory and Practice
Alexander Puutio PhD, Senior Expert, Office of the Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations
Students build upon the body of knowledge and industry best practices in ways that allow them to effectively analyze and (de)construct theories of development, as well as related ideologies, major trends, and objective frameworks held by governments and international organizations. The discussion is centered around the features of robust theories, including explanatory and predictive power, as well as the limitations development theories face in dynamic contexts. Students strengthen their understanding of development theories by constructing their own explanatory frameworks for why and how positive change happens at the scale of communities and nations. Development indicators and other data sources are explored and analyzed critically. After covering the theory of development, the course explores its practical applications. Students learn how to critically assess, create, deliver upon, and measure the impact of tangible development projects. The course covers tangible examples of both successful and failed development projects which are analyzed for drivers of success and common denominators of failed projects. Students learn how to approach and analyze critical project design tools, including theories of change, logical frameworks, activity plans, funding and resourcing frameworks, and impact measurement processes. Students select a real-life development project as a case study, which is used as a pedagogical device to cement the learning goals of the course. In their case study, students will apply best-in-class monitoring and evaluation, as well as a range of other analytical tools to assess their chosen development projects from design to sustained impact. Over the past years, students selected projects implemented by organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank Group, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Department for International Development (DFID). Past case studies and recent flagship projects are used as entry points for discussion in each class. This course is divided into the following four broad thematic areas that guide the discussions and analysis in class: the theories of development including key principles and prerequisites; project design and planning; operational delivery and coordination; and impact measurement and sustaining results.
Prerequisites: Experience manipulating data and algebraic equations on spreadsheets is helpful.
Fall 2024
Foundations of Sustainable Development Practice
Omid Parhizkar PhD, Sustainable Development Professional and Operations Officer, Global Environment Facility, The World Bank Group
The broad goal of this course is to introduce students to the foundations of sustainable development including food and nutritional security, social service delivery, energy policy, water resource management, urbanization, infrastructure, human rights, biodiversity, adaptation to climate change, mitigating greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), sustainable business, ethics, governance, and education. Through a global classroom, lectures are attended virtually with academic, policy and practice partners of the Global Association from around the world. The course consists of weekly live global classroom broadcasts featuring international experts.
Fall 2024
Leading with Ethics: Professional Practices for Sustainable Development
Nazeli Tonoyan MA
In an era where global challenges demand urgent and united action, the international community strives for a future where everyone can lead dignified lives. This ambition calls upon a framework of global moral practices encompassing economic development, public health, human rights, and environmental stewardship. This course delves into the ethical considerations surrounding these practices, including the questions they raise and the assessment criteria they require. The course aims to equip students with the necessary knowledge to navigate our complex ethical landscape, including exclusion and discrimination based on various identity aspects. It emphasizes the importance of inclusion in social development goals across multiple sectors and integrates ethics with professionalism. Ethics cannot be viewed in isolation from the environments in which they are practiced. Unique identities, experiences, histories, and beliefs shape individuals and play a significant role in determining ethical considerations. This course highlights the importance of values, ethics, virtues, character, roles, duties, freedoms, and obligations in sustainable international development policies and programs. The course is designed for students interested in ethics and professionalism and equips participants with the skills necessary for careers in public policy, sustainable international development, and human rights.
Spring 2025
Water Crises and Solutions: Engaging Science and Social Science to Develop Sustainable Solutions
Jenny Kehl PhD, Professor of Business, International and Political Economy, Concordia University
Water scarcity will be one of the defining crises of the twenty-first century. This course combines knowledge from environmental science with global political economy, natural resource governance, sustainable economic development, and international security. It examines how water scarcity disrupts food security, distorts economic development, jeopardizes public health, threatens energy production, decreases political stability, and threatens regional security. The course engages science and social science to explore, analyze, and develop sustainable solutions for vital water systems and ecosystem services.
Spring 2025
Meeting Climate Change Challenges and Commitments: A View from the Global South
Carol Franco PhD, Senior Research Associate, Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, Virginia Tech
Climate change is the greatest challenges of the twenty-first century. As a consequence of this, 195 countries agreed in Paris in 2015 to hold the increase in global average temperatures to below 2 celsius from pre-industrial levels. This international commitment spawned a complex framework and process to achieve this goal, which presents unique challenges for developing nations. This course furthers students¿ understanding of climate change, including the science, causes, impacts, actions, and policies taken to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The course introduces students to the international climate change policy framework, with attention paid to the policy-making process, particularly the role, aim, and history of the United Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Emphasis is placed on developing countries parties, which are considered most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. This course also prepares and provides students with the opportunity to travel to a developing country to learn first-hand the current development and climate change issues impacting the country and the policies in place to address them. The first part of the course focuses on climate change science, causes, impacts, and policy. Students review key climate change concepts: vulnerability, resilience, adaptation, and mitigation among others in the context of the global south. In the second part of the course, students learn about the history of the negotiations and the negotiation process at the UNFCCC (objectives, role, and negotiating groups). The course inspects the Paris Agreement (PA), its components and implications, as well as the challenges to comply with the commitments agreed under it. Finally, the third part of the course focuses on preparing students for a negotiation simulation on a topic being debated at the annual Conference of Parties (COP).
Spring 2025
Landscape Strategies for Global Development
Daniel Marcucci PhD, Professor of Practice, Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Landscapes are, by definition, integrated wholes. They are coupled human and natural systems. Everyone has a sense of landscape, and in many cases the value of landscape lies in the eye of the beholder. A systematic look at landscapes reveal them to be spatially heterogeneous patterns of ecosystems, including elements of geology, hydrology, atmosphere, and biology. Not only do they provide natural resources, but they are also the source of myriad landscape-ecosystem services. From a management perspective, landscapes are the scale at which people and societies organize their economic and societal activities. This course examines how integrated landscape management facilitates development practice while optimizing sustainable landscapes. The United Nations has promoted landscape partnerships for sustainable development as a means for achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs). We use a case study method to investigate what holistic landscape thinking entails; what landscape ecology tells us about the structure, function, and change of landscapes; and how integrated approaches at the landscape scale achieve equitable socio-economic outcomes and regenerative environments.
Fall 2024
Management in the Context of Global Development
Alexander Puutio PhD, Senior Expert, Office of the Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations
The field of global development is evolving rapidly among a host of socioeconomic, geopolitical, and environmental challenges. As a result, effective management practices are becoming increasingly crucial for development organizations as well as other entities engaged in designing, implementing, and sustaining projects that aim to tackle complex social, economic, and environmental challenges. This course provides a robust foundation for future leaders and development experts in managing development organizations and projects, equipping them with the necessary skills and insights to navigate the complexities and challenges unique to the industry. Students delve deep into the intricacies of organizational design, management practices, and the processes and tools for managing projects within diverse and often unpredictable contexts of global development. The course emphasizes the importance of adaptability, accountability, and a context-specific understanding of the socio-political, economic, and cultural dimensions that influence development work. Key topics include organizational design and decision architecture, systems thinking and business analysis, participatory design and stakeholder management, theory of change mapping, adaptive project management strategies, and monitoring and evaluation. Students explore how to overcome common pitfalls in project planning and learn to foster meaningful discussions between planners, stakeholders, and communities to co-create sustainable solutions. The course offers a hands-on approach to developing analytical and creative skills essential for assessing complex contexts and innovating solutions. A significant focus is on collaborative methods for mapping long-term change at the project, program, and policy levels, ensuring students can build strategic pathways for impactful change. By the end of this course, students are adept at managing development projects with an integrated understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the field. They are prepared to lead with confidence, applying best practices in project management to facilitate long-term, sustainable development outcomes.
Prerequisites: Previous experience in project design and implementation is helpful, but not required.
Spring 2025
The Economic Foundations of Global Development
Alexander Puutio PhD, Senior Expert, Office of the Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations
This course provides a foundational understanding of the role of economic theories and economists in driving the discourse and outcomes of global development. From theories of industrialization and modernization to sustainable development and socioeconomic equity, economic frameworks and approaches are often found at the very core of the intellectual constellations upon which these theories are built. Students explore how global development is dependent on economic thinking across the whole spectrum of theory building, policy making, project design, and impact evaluation. This course covers the essential concepts and tools from macroeconomics, microeconomics, behavioral economics, and finance that are applied in the global development industry today. Topics covered include macroeconomic policy making, global trade and finance, government expenditures and the Keynesian multiplier, game theory, incentive structures and the principles of econometrics, and economic analysis in support of impact evaluation. Students gain a deep understanding of how economic principles inform the discourse around global development and how they can be applied in support of development objectives and goals in various settings.
Fall 2024
A One Health Approach to Global Sustainable Development
Camille Hopkins PhD, Disease Ecologist and Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine
Today we are facing increasingly complex, wicked environmental problems: climate change, drought, wildfires, biodiversity loss, pollution, invasive species, increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters, emerging infectious diseases, habitat degradation, and overexploitation of species. How can we implement sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the face of these stressors? The international Quadripartite (which is comprised of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme, World Health Organization, and World Organisation for Animal Health) recommends a One Health approach. The Quadripartite's One Health High-Level Expert Panel defines One Health as "an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals, and ecosystems. It recognizes the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants, and the wider environment (including ecosystems) are closely linked and interdependent. The [One Health] approach mobilizes multiple sectors, disciplines, and communities at varying levels of society to work together to foster well-being and tackle threats to health and ecosystems, while addressing the collective need for healthy food, water, energy, and air, taking action on climate change and contributing to sustainable development." This course provides students with the skills and knowledge needed to become a One Health practitioner.
Fall 2024
Just Transitions to Net Zero: Navigating the Complexities of Decarbonizing Energy Systems
Maria Petrova PhD, Professor of Environmental Science, Sustainability, and Energy Policy and Director of Program Development for The Earth Commons, Georgetown University
Achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 a target set by scientists and adopted internationally by businesses and governments requires a complete transformation in how energy is produced, distributed, and consumed at an unprecedented speed and scale. Such transformation will affect not only the energy technologies we currently depend on but also the broader socioeconomic, policy, behavioral, and natural resource systems that are built around energy production and consumption. In this course, students gain an understanding of the characteristics and drivers of past and current energy systems, the challenges of just transitions, and the opportunities provided by innovation. Emphasis is placed on fostering equity and inclusivity in the transition process, addressing disparities between north-south regions, urban and rural areas, and diverse carbon economy workforces. Through critical discussions and case studies, students develop the analytical skills and practical insights necessary to propose pathways to tackling the current energy transition in a just and sustainable manner. Students may not take both DEVP E-180 and ENVR E-113 for degree or certificate credit.
Fall 2024
Theory of Change Mapping in Global Development
Joshua Ellsworth MS, Program Fellow, Hartford International University for Religion and Peace
It is very easy for humans to come up with solutions to development problems we think we understand, but it is often much harder for us to capture the complexity of real-world contexts and explain why we think our solutions actually work in practice. This gap extends into strategic program design; it is not uncommon that the logic driving global sustainable development initiatives are not based upon a deep analysis of the actual context, but rather reflect the biases and assumptions of project planners and the organizations they represent. Overcoming these biases and assumptions requires intentional methods to foster discussions between planners and stakeholders. Theory of change mapping has emerged as a powerful tool for teams to work through these limitations. This course serves as a workshop for student practitioners to draw on their academic, lived, and professional experiences to explore how they can construct collaborative methods for mapping long-term change in complex social and environmental situations and at project, program, and policy levels. Through lectures, in-class exercises, and team projects, this course focuses on developing, in an integrated manner, the analytical skills to assess contexts, and the creative thinking and planning skills to identify and innovate solutions to tough challenges. It covers systems and problem analysis, theory of change mapping, participatory design, and tools for effective teamwork. Student teams work together on a semester-long project to develop a shared understanding of a real-life context and build a number of strategic pathways for long-term change and related projects to achieve concrete, short-term results.
Spring 2025
Global Development Practice Capstone
Judith Irene Rodriguez MA, Senior Research Associate, Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure, Harvard Graduate School of Design and Research Specialist, Healthy Cities Lab, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
This course is a capstone designed for students earning a Master of Liberal Arts, global development practice. The course approach is learner-centered, whereby students create a development plan for a client by applying skills and knowledge gained from their graduate school experience. This course builds upon the student's guided prework completed in DEVP E-598. The course deliverables include a detailed actionable and measurable plan, as well as a presentation to be given to the class and to client stakeholders. Appropriate clients may include communities, corporations, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), governmental agencies, schools, universities, and hospitals. Students work with a client with one or more stakeholders to develop and deliver a customized development plan focused on one or more of these areas: community development, human rights, labor practices, education, environmental sustainability, and fair operating practices. Listings of prior projects may be viewed at the Global Development Practice Capstone website.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts, global development practice. Candidates must be in good academic standing, ready to graduate in May with only the capstone left to complete (no other course registration is allowed simultaneously with the capstone), and have successfully completed the precapstone tutorial, DEVP E-598, in the previous fall term. Candidates who do not meet these requirements are dropped from the course.