Master of Development Practice
The Master of Development Practice (MDP) is a two-year professional post-graduate degree in sustainable development studies. The MDP program integrates core areas of the health, natural, social and management sciences to analyze and diagnose the multi-dimensional challenges of sustainable development such as extreme poverty, climate change and infectious disease.
Origins[edit]
The MDP program was first outlined in 2008 in the final report issued by the International Commission on Education for Sustainable Development Practice. The commission was convened in 2007 by the Earth Institute at Columbia University with support from the MacArthur foundation. The report states:
The International Commission on Education for Sustainable Development Practice was convened in 2007 to analyze existing training and education programs for development practitioners and to make recommendations for the future. All Commission members have participated in their personal capacities.
Finding a lack of comprehensive cross-disciplinary programs to train practitioners in the full range of challenges of sustainable development, the Commission proposes a set of recommendations for a new educational system focused on sustainable development practice. Central to the Commission’s recommendations is the proposed Master’s in Development Practice program. With emphasis on policy and implementation, the MDP program is rooted in four main disciplines: health sciences, natural sciences and engineering, social sciences, and management. The Commission’s recommendations are designed to meet the world’s rapidly growing demand for highly skilled sustainable development practitioners.[1]
The report goes on to recommend the establishment of a global network of MDP programs with a standardized interdisciplinary curriculum specifically tailored to address certain gaps identified in the existing graduate degree programs. Columbia University became the first institution to open an MDP program in 2009; since then, the global network of MDP programs has grown to 33 universities on 6 continents.
Program Overview[edit]
The MDP curriculum has core courses that student must take but provides for the opportunity for concentration areas such as economics, climate change, education, among others. MDP programs typically last between one and two years and can be face-to-face or in blended learning formats. Other facets of the MDP program include:
- Core courses in the health sciences, natural sciences, social sciences and management sciences
- A Foundations of Sustainable Development Practice (FSDP) course that fosters cross-border and cross-disciplinary collaboration. The FSDP course is often offered in a “Global Classroom” format with a standardized syllabus and live fora for students from different universities to engage with one another.
- Electives in a foreign language or additional credits in the core courses
- Field training experiences that provide students the opportunity to gain first-hand experience of integrated development approaches within the real-world context
- Intensive pre-MDP preparation where students may need to take additional courses if they have not fulfilled prerequisite requirements in areas such as chemistry, biology, economics, math or statistics
Alumni of MDP programs have found employment practicing sustainable development in a number of organizations and sectors including United Nations agencies, multilateral development banks, aid agencies, development consultancies, NGOs, impact investing firms, and social enterprises. Academic institutions interested in joining the international network of MDP programs can find more information at the Global MDP Association’s webpage.
See Also[edit]
References[edit]
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