Methods for Sustainable Development Prac

This course is the first part of a two-course sequence for advanced students concentrating in Economic and Political Development. The second part is the Workshop in Sustainable Development Practice (SIPA U9001). These courses are integrated into a year-long encounter with the actual practice of sustainable development, guided by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals. The course seeks to help students develop a conceptual and critical understanding of some of the key tools and approaches employed by organizations in sustainable development practice, and to skill students in using these approaches and tools in a discerning, ethical and effective manner that recognizes their shortcomings and limitations. The course takes a hands-on approach and promotes learning by doing. Questions of Whose development? Whose priorities and agenda? Whose proposed solutions and strategies? are ever present in choosing development approaches and outcomes. Development work, to the extent it involves development organizations and workers entering as external agents of change into a national arena or local community, is an intensely political exercise. What has changed in the course of sustainable development practice is that development workers increasingly perceive themselves less as direct agents of change - delivering top-down transfers of knowledge and resources from those who know best or have more, to those in need or who need to be influenced - and more as facilitators of change. According to this approach, the development worker seeks to act as a medium and partner in identifying local needs and priorities, and helping to translate these into equitable and sustainable development outcomes through knowledge-sharing, empowerment, capacity building and/or additional resources. However, this transition has been uneven, and externally-driven, top-down approaches persist. Development workers also need to be continually aware of the values, assumptions and biases that they bring to their interactions with local actors and that are implicit in the approaches and tools that they use. With needs, priorities and agendas contested across many levels and sets of interests, the job of a development worker is a complex and responsible one. To that end, this course also challenges students to reflect on their goals and desired approaches in their future roles as development agents. Registration in this course requires an application. Priority will be given to second-year EPD students. Apply at: