Development Policies

The course aims to provide basic knowledge on key topics of the current debate around development and policies for its implementation. This objective is defined according to 4 directions:
1)giving knowledge of the theoretical debate on development from a historical perspective till the current international commitment, with a special focus on human and sustainable development and the United Nations Agenda 2030.
2)presenting critically the available processes of elaboration of development policies at the national and local level, paying particular attention to their sectorial interactions, to participatory processes and to the role played (and to be played) by the different actors (public, civil society, private sector ) and to the international interactions and interdependences arising from globalization.
3)providing competencies to understand the basic elements and trends of financing for development, explaining the available channels to mobilize resources, constraints and opportunities, and the current international financial commitment framework.
4)describing and showing the main interlinkages among global governance, national policies and the role played by international actors, development policies and human rights and peace.
This knowledge will be provided through lectures, analysis of official documents of the United Nations and of governments (especially policy, planning and evaluation documents). The student will also be asked to participate in work groups that will present their results within the course.

At the end of the course, the students will acquire the essential knowledge to understand independently the international debate on sustainable development. These skills will enable them to read critically policy and planning documents produced by governments, to evaluate the internal PCD (Policy Coherence for Development), the coherence with the UN Agenda 2030 and with other international commitments, and to identify the main opportunities and trade-offs for financing and implementation.
These skills will be shown by the students partly during the work groups and partly during the final exam, when they will be asked to analyze an official governmental policy document, identifying issues and criteria for an evaluation.
The acquired knowledge, then, will provide the needed elements to identify areas for further study and research, mainly towards sustainably, intersectoral linkages, financing for development, means for global governance and links between development, human rights and peace.