For a sustainable future

Updated on: Monday, July 19, 2010

With an increasing demand for specialised courses, several national and international institutes are introducing a range of options

Promoting development in a sustainable manner is perhaps one of the greatest challenges the world faces today. And to meet global challenges, there is a need for development experts who are well trained to tackle them.

Thus, to help provide individuals who are addressing global development challenges with the skills they need, MacArthur Foundation, a grant-making foundation based in Chicago, has committed $15 million to create a Master's in Development Practice (MDP) programme at universities worldwide over the next three years. The programmes combine training in the natural sciences, social sciences, health sciences, and management to help practitioners address global challenges such as sustainable development, climate change and extreme poverty.

The Uniandes School of Management, Colombia, has recently been appointed among 22 schools worldwide, to launch the MDP with the support of Columbia's Earth Institute and MacArthur Foundation. The universities are selected through a competitive process that includes reviews by experts outside the Foundation.

The MDP is a two-year degree providing graduate-level students with the skills and knowledge required to better identify and address the global challenges of sustainable development, such as poverty, population, health, conservation, climate change, and human rights.

The programme will provide individuals with training beyond the typical classroom study of economics and management found in most development studies programmes. A wide range of development professionals may pursue the degree including officials from inter-governmental organisations, developed and developing country ministries, aid agencies, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions, and the private sector.

In 2007, the MacArthur supported ‘International Commission on Education for Development Professionals,' found that worldwide, many people working in the field of development are not sufficiently prepared to tackle the challenges they face. The creation of MDP programmes is, thus, an acknowledgement that addressing extreme poverty and sustainable development throughout the world requires expert knowledge and an interdisciplinary approach, says Barry Lowenkron, MacArthur's vice-president for global security and sustainability.

He adds: "Currently, the bulk of development leaders are trained in narrow fields, usually in the social sciences, such as economics. By broadening their training and providing them with a knowledge base, they will be able to understand and address the rootcauses of extreme poverty and the challenges of sustainable development."

The first awards were made last year to 10 universities in seven countries. Together, the universities are expected to produce 400 graduates by 2013, with a total of 800 students enrolled each year.

The universities receiving grants to establish MDP programmes include BRAC University (Dhaka, Bangladesh), The Institute of Political Sciences (Sciences Po, Paris, France), Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (Turrialba, Costa Rica), Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia), Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), University of California, Berkeley (US), University of California, Davis (US), University of Peradeniya (Sri Lanka), University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada) and University of Winnipeg (Canada).

These universities were selected based on five criteria including support from top university leadership, excellent infrastructure and academic programmes, the ability to serve as a regional hub; geographic representation among students and exceptional faculty across the four core competencies of natural, health, and social sciences and management; and a timeline and business plan for financial sustainability when funding ends in three years.

A Global Master's in Development Practice Secretariat, supported by MacArthur and based at Columbia University's Earth Institute, will help manage the MDP network of universities, develop an open-source repository for the MDP curriculum and other teaching materials, and offer an online global classroom on sustainable development for students worldwide.

Times of India

For a sustainable future

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