Development Studies

This course introduces students to the concept of community health and primary health care as it is delivered in Ghana.  The course provides students an opportunities to learn about diseases of public health importance and selected endemic diseases specific to Ghana as well as their epidemiology and control in Ghana.  The course looks at the emerging non-communicable diseases in Ghana such as HIV/AIDS, hypertension, and breast and cervical cancers.  Students have first-hand learning opportunities on the psychosocial and social aspects of living with HIV, class discussions, and assigned readings with presentations. Students examine the importance of sexual reproductive health with a special emphasis on the needs of adolescents. Students learn the causes, symptoms, and treatment of hypertension and examine sanitation and food security as keys to community health.  

This course provides a geographical and critical perspective to global development, with a focus on energy transition processes in and in relation to the global South. It provides a fundamental understanding of the challenges related to sustainable development from the perspective of the global South by focusing on energy transitions. The course looks at historical transitions to fossil energies as well as the discussions on transitions away from fossil energies. It discusses how the systems and conditions for energy transitions are shaped by historical and uneven relations between the Global South and North. Core issues of energy and development and energy transitions are addressed from the perspective of the global South and placed in the context of global sustainability. The awareness of a spatial perspective to development problems and processes enable students to identify and understand the impact of regional and global processes on people’s lives in specific places.

This course focuses on the changes in Singapore's urban landscape. It places these changes within a framework that considers Singapore's efforts to globalize and examines how policies are formulated with the idea of sustaining an economy that has integral links sub-regionally with Southeast Asia while developing new spatial linkages that will strengthen its position in the global network. Emphasis is also given to recent discussions about how diversity and difference in the perception and use of space pose a challenge to the utilitarian and functional definition adopted by the state.

Full course description

The long-run economic development of countries, as well as inequality within countries are the major topics of this course. The long-run growth part deals with topics such as basic growth theories, including institutions, population, education, health, and migration. The inequality part relates to how the distribution of income, access to education, health services, or infrastructure can be highly uneven and become a major obstacle for economic development. Throuhout the course, policy implications and potential actions related to these topics are taken into consideration and discussed.

Course objectives

• To provide participants with an overview of major economic concepts and policies in development issues, such as growth and population dynamics, education, aid, trade and debt. 
• To deliver the skills needed to consider development problems and approach them in a rigorous and critical way, using both economic theories and policy analysis. 

Prerequisites

SSC1027 Principles of Economics. Knowledge of basic quantitative concepts such as reading and working with graphs and simple equations is also a prerequisite. 

This course critically examines the various key approaches which have dominated international development debate and underlie the multifarious development practices and policies of the last few decades. Using a perspective on the different channels, the main actors, and institutions involved, including new donors, private sector, international organizations, and international agreements that impact development processes in the global south. Focus is on the interfaces between academic paradigms, practitioners’ approaches, and the debate on questions of international cooperation and development in society at large. The course deals explicitly with the ethical and moral aspects related to development cooperation. The multidisciplinary character of this course makes it well suited for students of other programs, who may approach development issues from their own respective disciplinary backgrounds.