MacArthur Foundation Commits $15 Million for Master's in Development Practice Programs
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has announced a $15 million commitment to seed the creation of Global Master’s in Development Practice (MDP) programs at up to twelve universities worldwide over the next three years.
First recommended in a MacArthur-funded report from the International Commission on Education for Sustainable Development Practice, the two-year MDP programs will provide rigorous professional training for future leaders in the field of sustainable development, with an emphasis on practical, cross-disciplinary knowledge from the health, natural, and social sciences and a strong focus on leadership and management skills. Courses will cover topics such as agronomy, climate change, and tropical diseases and will be supplemented by two summers of field training. The first program to be announced will begin at Columbia University in the fall of 2009.
"Courses in the new MDP programs will train students to address the complex challenges contributing to poverty in proven, practical ways," said MacArthur Foundation president Jonathan Fanton. "It is our hope that MacArthur’s investment will not simply fund this initial group of schools, but will also encourage other universities to establish similar programs. We expect that these programs will quickly become self-sustaining, and that they will set a new standard for development education. We welcome the time when the MDP will become as familiar and ubiquitous as the MBA."
Columbia University's program will focus on:
- Health Sciences - nutrition, population sciences and reproductive health, basic epidemiology of infectious and non-infectious disease, health policy, health system design and management
- Natural Sciences and Engineering - agriculture, forestry and fishery management, water management, energy, engineering, environment and climate science, information management systems and design
- Social Sciences - anthropology, economics, education, politics and international political economies, statistics
- Management - project design and management, budget planning and financial management, commodities management, communication and negotiations, critical self-reflection, geographic information systems and decision making tools, institutional resource and human resource management, monitoring and evaluation