The Practice of Development

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course focuses on the practice of development, providing students the opportunity to design a project aimed at addressing a problem of relevance for a selected marginalized group (e.g., Dalits, Rohingya, Quilombos). More specifically, students will work on: Defining the scope of their project after analyzing the causes and effects of the problem Conducting a stakeholder analysis and developing a stakeholder engagement plan to ensure that all relevant parties, especially those typically excluded, are involved in the design, implementation, and evaluation of the project Designing a project by defining its theory of change, which involves: Specifying strategies to address the problem Defining activities to implement these strategies Specifying the short-term, interim, and long-term results these activities will produce if the project is successful Developing a monitoring and evaluation plan to determine the success of the project, which includes: Defining indicators for the various project results to allow for tracking progress toward achieving them Developing an evaluation plan, which includes defining evaluation questions, selecting the evaluation design, identifying data sources, specifying data collection and analysis methods, and developing a plan for dissemination of evaluation results Conducting a risk assessment to: a) determine both the internal and external risks of the projects, and b) specify actions that could be implemented to minimize risks. This course is very interactive. Students will learn concepts and have the opportunity to apply them in class through practical exercises and activities to prepare them for completing the related assignments.