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Postgraduate
MSc, Postgraduate Diploma/Certificate in Poverty Reduction: Policy and Practice
Structure
and Syllabus
Part
I - Compulsory Modules
C119
Understanding Poverty
Introduces concepts and
definitions of poverty. It explores trends in poverty
(especially rural poverty) across and within continents,
along with debates about the causes of these trends, and
introduces the national and international policy
architecture for poverty reduction.
C124
Climate change and development
Provides a
multi-disciplinary understanding of climate change processes
and of their direct and indirect interactions with
development. It describes the main climate change processes,
scenarios and vulnerabilities, and international and
national policy responses. Different sectors' contributions
and sensitivities to climate change (and to mitigation and
adaptation responses) are identified, with their
implications for policies and outcomes for different
economies and for people's livelihoods within them.
C123
Managing knowledge and communication for development
Proven knowledge correctly
applied can enhance poor people’s capabilities to
participate in their own development and make choices about
their lives. This module equips students to distinguish
between different understandings of knowledge, evaluate
alternative technologies for communication, and consider the
implications for development policies and practice in the
field of knowledge management and development.
C130
Rural development
Introduces rural
development, looking at its history, key challenges, role in
poverty reduction, the agricultural and non-agricultural
sectors, rural services (government and market roles in
provision of infrastructure, finance, agricultural research
and extension, and health and education) and natural
resources (notably land and water policies).
C201
Understanding sustainable development
Explains and critically
evaluates the concept of sustainable development, its main
principles, the evolution of ideas about sustainability,
strategies for promoting sustainable development,
resistances to the concept, and some alternative approaches.
It also examines some important current issues and areas of
debate in relation to sustainable development.
C200 Environmental science and management
Provides an
overview of the Earth system and its main subsystems
and processes. It focuses on the science underlying
the most prominent global environmental issues.
Major approaches to, and principles of,
environmental management are also examined.
C105 Natural resource economics
Examines a number
of economic models of natural resource allocation
and demonstrates their application to policy making
and natural resource management to provide useful
insights to both policy makers and managers. The
second part of the module considers the economic
dimensions of sustainable economic growth and
development.
C114 International environmental law
Covers the
principles and rules of international law which have
as their primary objective the protection of the
environment. It addresses how the international
community has recognised and sought to deal with the
interdependence of the global environment through
regional and international agreements.
C168 Sustainable land management
Covers the physical
and biological processes essential to understanding
soil science and processes of land degradation. It
explores the causes of land degradation and measures
for mitigation and conservation in a range of
agro-climatic zones. Emphasis is placed on the
interaction of physical, economic, social, political
and institutional factors in determining land
management practices.
C126 Water resource management
Explains the key
themes, concepts, and tools associated with water
management. The module covers determinants of
availability and scarcity, assessment and management
from basin to user, economics and governance, the
management and sustainability of irrigated
agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture, and
environmental, social and political dimensions of
water use.
C140 Gender and social development
Examines gender and
social development from both an analytical and a
practical perspective. It describes tools and
frameworks for analysing social and gender
relations, and the relationship between academic and
policy work in this field. Current thinking relating
to the practice of social development and to the
promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment
is explored.
C231 Management in rural development
Considers how
managers of organisations operating in rural areas
of low-middle income countries can respond to the
challenges posed by the nature of the rural
environment and of many interventions designed to
promote rural development. It examines the relevance
of management theories developed within industrial
economies for such contexts and considers skills and
systems required for the management of people,
finance and information. Whilst relevant to managers
within state, private sector and civil society
organisations, there is a particular focus on
managing public sector organisations providing
public goods and delivering services within rural
areas.
C132 NGO management
Covers NGO growth
trends, strategic planning, structures, systems, and
management challenges. It explores these in relation
to accountability, transparency, performance,
monitoring and evaluation, and organisational
learning.
C128
Rural finance [scheduled for 2012]
Considers the
importance of savings, insurance, credit and money
transmission to poor rural households. It examines
why these services are often either unavailable or
available only on highly disadvantageous terms to
such households, despite huge advances in
microfinance in recent years. It then explores
options for enhancing provision of rural financial
services in poor economies.
C125 Food security and social protection
Considers in a
unified manner two highly topical policy areas that
too often are treated in isolation: food security
and social protection. The basic conceptual approach
centres on the livelihoods of poor individuals and
households and their management of risk and shocks.
Policies to help households manage risk and
accumulate assets are critically evaluated and
particular attention is paid to how greater
complementarity can be achieved across policies for
agricultural development and social protection.
C134 Project planning and management
Considers the
planning and management of public and private
investment in the rural sector in the context of
sectoral and national level programme support.
Concepts of project identification, preparation,
appraisal, and monitoring and evaluation are
explored. Methods such as logical framework,
financial and economic cost benefit analysis, and
social and environmental assessment are presented.
C110 Agricultural trade and policy
Introduces
neo-classical trade theory and examines trade theory
as it applies to a range of interventions in trade,
in particular, agricultural trade. The course also
introduces standard agricultural policy analysis
tools, a review of current issues affecting
international trade in agriculture, and analysis of
the major environmental influences on trade and
policy.
C138 Marketing for Small Agribusinesses
Markets are a key
component of development. You will analyse the
marketing challenges for micro- and small
enterprises within a broad range of natural resource
product and service sectors, focusing on how markets
function, marketing management, and policy measures
to support small firms and business services.
C127
Political economy of public policy
This module takes a
comparative political economy approach to explain
important differences in the way that politics and
policy making interact in different economies and
societies. Insights are applied to agricultural
policies across a range of developed and developing
countries, shedding light on the question of why
observed policies so often diverge from the optimal
policies that theory would recommend.
C135 Socioeconomics of rural livelihoods
Analysing the
decisions facing poor rural people in managing their
activities and resources is the theme of this
module. It examines the circumstances and objectives
of peasants and socioeconomic theories that describe
their livelihood strategies, and the policy
implications arising from this analysis.
R106 Research methods
Begins with a
discussion of the nature and role of research and
then seeks to provide a foundation of basic skills
in research. The course covers sampling, data
collection methods, basic statistical tests, an
introduction to SPSS®, and procedures for
qualitative data analysis.
RR01 Research report
The research report
involves desk-based and/or field-based research. The
report is assessed by submission of a research
proposal (10%) and a 10,000 word written report (90%
of final module mark). Students are individually
assigned a research supervisor for support and
advice. All research topics are subject to approval
by the Senior Teaching Fellow
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