Master's in Development Practice Secretariat
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| October 2009 |
E-Newsletter | |
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Greetings!
This has been a very busy and exciting month for the Global Master's in Development Practice Secretariat!
Academic institutions and universities worldwide are preparing to launch their Master's in Development Practice (MDP) programs in 2010 and this means developing websites, recruiting students and hiring faculty members. In fact, Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin, one of the 10 MDP programs, seek to hire a lecturer in development practice. Please do take a look at the posting, and pass it on to others who may be interested.
You will notice that this month's electronic newsletter is laid out differently. We realize that it is important that we put a face to each of the MDP programs so that you can have a better understanding of their unique specialization or regional focus. To this end, we will occasionally dedicate the newsletter to one or two of the MDP programs. This month we will feature James Cook University in northern Queensland, Australia.
We hope that you enjoy learning about James Cook University's MDP program. And, if you are interested in knowing about other education initiatives related to sustainable development please view the latest video by Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute.
With Warm Regards,
Lucia Rodriguez
Director, Global MDP Secretariat
www.mdp.ei.columbia.edu
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Reefs, rainforests, and indigenous peoples:
Visualizing development scenarios
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 Tens of millions of poor people in insular SE Asia depend upon
rainforests and coastal resources for their livelihoods. Many of these people
are from ethnic minorities and survive at the margins of the societies and
economies of the region. They struggle to have their views taken into account
in government and aid agency planning and decision making processes.
Intu Boedhihartono, deputy director of the MDP programme at James Cook University in Cairns is pioneering new approaches to engaging these populations
in the development discourse. Intu is an anthropologist by profession but is
also an accomplished artist. She uses a variety of visual arts techniques to
encourage people to communicate their understanding of environment and
development issues and to explore scenarios for their futures.
"We simply encourage people to use drawings, photos and videos as a way of
organizing and recording their knowledge of the environment and we are always
astonished at the depth and extent of this knowledge" says Intu - an
Indonesian national. "They present rich pictures of the things that they
value and they demonstrate knowledge of features that most development planners
would overlook". "They also have very clear ideas on what will
and what will not work for them in development and here again they have a much
more nuanced perception than any external expert could hope to have".
Intu starts by getting to know communities and gradually encourages them to
start drawing the things that they value in their landscapes. These rough
images can be scanned and digitally manipulated and animated to provide images
around which they can debate scenarios. In some cases these images can be taken
to the stage of providing an agreed plan for a community. Intu notes that
"The most important thing is the discussion that the drawing encourages -
when people become enthusiastic - as they usually do - then all sorts of
surprising insights begin to emerge and women and children often weigh in with
their own special knowledge and ideas".
Training in the use of these visual techniques will be an important part of the
Cairns MDP - a course that will include a lot of field work with indigenous
communities in Eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Southern Philippines
as well as in Northern Australia.
The location of the James Cook University campus on the Queensland coast
adjacent to spectacular rainforests on one side and the Great Barrier Reef on
the other - both listed on the World Heritage Convention - makes it an ideal
base for this kind of work. The MDP programme will operate in partnership with
the University of Papua in Indonesia and Xavier University in Mindanao - both
of which are also located in areas with rich rainforests and coral reefs. The
programme will focus on the special needs of the tens of millions of people in
SE Asia and the pacific who are dependent on forest and coastal resources and
whose future is going to be drastically impacted by major external development
impacts on their environment.
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James
Cook University: A Focus on Tropical Research
Australia is unique amongst
developed countries in having a significant landmass in the tropics. Tropical
Australia accounts for 46% of the nation's landmass and despite its low and
dispersed population base, is the source of more than 30% of the nation's
exports, particularly from mining, oil and gas. 6% of Australians live in the
tropics, including close to one-third of indigenous Australians. In an era of
threatening climate change, tropical issues are of growing global significance.
Approximately one-half of the world's population lives in the tropics. With
population growth double the world average, the tropics are under severe and growing
pressure.
A high proportion of the world's biodiversity is located in the tropics,
including up to 80% of animal and plant species and 92% of world's coral reefs.
Population growth and urbanization have led to biodiversity loss on a massive
scale in many tropical countries, a process exacerbated by climate change. High
population density and growth are similarly linked to poor health outcomes and
to the emergence of new infectious diseases. 75% of new infectious diseases are
zoonoses where diseases of animals are transmitted to humans (e.g. SARS and
avian influenza), a process exacerbated by humans living in close physical
proximity to domesticated animals and by global warming which changes the
distribution of disease insect vectors (e.g. mosquitoes).
James cook University aims to be Australia's leading tropical university and
its goal "A brighter future for the tropics" will be reflected in the
very special MDP course that will be offered.
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For more information, please contact:
The Global Master's in Development Practice Secretariat
The Earth Institute
Columbia University
Email: mdp-info@ei.columbia.edu
Website: www.mdp.ei.columbia.edu
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