Overview
REGULATIONS FOR THE MASTER OF ARTS DEGREE IN DEVELOPMENT PRACTICE (AH17)
Duration: 18 months
Actual Credit Load: 330
Minimum Credit Load: 270
Maximum Credit Load: 330
MBK Credit Load: 250
ZNQF Level: 9
- PURPOSE OF PROGRAMME
The Master of Development Practice (MDP) programme prepares professionals for careers in sustainable development. It seeks to establish, sharpen and polish among MDP graduates, the technical knowledge and skills required to drive development locally, nationally and globally. It offers a strategic blend of theory and practice, with a strong emphasis on practice. This is in a bid to equip MDP graduates with knowledge, skills, and competencies essential for appropriate and effective engagement with stakeholders to address society’s complex sustainable development challenges. MDP centres on engagement whereby students are taught to undertake inquiry and take action based on real development challenges faced in local and global settings. The programme is equally designed to produce practitioners and particularly, managers who have the technical skills and drive to formulate, grow and sustain thriving development entities and processes in the corporate, non-governmental and state spheres. It seeks to ensure that graduates will have the skills required to design and manage viable development programmes. Broadly, MDP thus fosters the integration of knowledge and practice that is necessary to address the grand and systemic development challenges confronting society and development practitioners today.
- ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
- To qualify for enrolment into this programme, prospective students should have attained an Honours Degree in Development Studies, Development Practice or a related Social Science and Humanities discipline.
- Exceptions may be made for potential candidates who do not have the requisite programmes for entry but have traceable and ample experience at the management level in the world of development practice.
- PROGRAMME CHARACTERISTICS
The programme is offered on a module basis, with a project paper submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the programme.
Career Opportunities
- CAREER OPPORTUNITIES
Masters in Development Practice graduates have career opportunities in a wide array of institutions and organisations which include the following: management in mainstream development organisations and agencies, Social research organisations, local and International Non-Governmental Organisations, donor agencies, local government, central government ministries and departments; private corporate entities and development consultancies and other self-employment ventures.
- PROGRAMME DELIVERY
Teaching is offered on a face-to-face basis. However, online lectures will also be adopted in line with the new international drive for cyber –based learning. The bulk of the content will be practical and technical with students being given ample out-of-class practicums in line with the content of various modules.
Programme Structure
PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
Codes Module Credits
Level 1 Semester 1
*MADP 711 Conceptual Issues in Development Practice 20
*MADP 712 Formulation and Administration of Development Entities 20
*MADP 713 Resource Mobilisation Techniques for Development Practice 20
*MADP 714 Advanced Research Methodology for Development Practice 20
MADP 715 Advanced Project Management Skills 20
*MADP 716 Managing Environmental and Climatic Changes 20
Level 1 Semester 2
*MADP721 Disaster and Crisis Management 20
*MADP 722 Advanced Financial Management for Development Entities 20
*MADP 723 Applied Gender Mainstreaming in Development Practice 20
MADP 724 Advanced Strategic Management for Development Entities 20
MADP 725 Human Rights, Socio-Economic Justice and Development (optional) 20
MADS 726 Food Systems and Food Security. 20
Level 2 Semester 1
Module Codes Module Credits
*MADP 825 Development Practice Paper 90
- MODULE SYNOPSES
MADP 711 Conceptual Issues in Development Practice.
The module introduces students to the pertinent theories of contemporary development discourses. The focus of the module is to come up with a decisive definition of development that focuses on unveiling the indicators of development. The aim of the module is to use a constructivism centered approach to paint a vision and picture of what development should look like on the African continent. The module also gives an overview of the aspects involved in development practice as a basis for what is to come in the other modules.
MADP 712 Formulation and Administration of Development Entities.
This module is designed to impart among students the skills needed to form and administer development entities, which speak to the problems faced by developing countries. Such development entities include but are not limited to Non -Governmental Organisations and social entrepreneurship ventures. Students must acquire the capacity to start, grow and sustain development organisations that are relevant to the quest for sustainable development. The module aims to produce graduates who can identify areas in need of intervention, register development entities informed by such need, form effective boards of trustees, set up human resource policies, financial policies, standard operating procedures and sustainable strategies for the visibility and sustainability of such organisations. While learning from existing case studies, students will be taken through processes of actual formulation and administration of selected upcoming and established development institutions, respectively. By the end of the module, students must have engaged with selected development entities and produced an informed strategy document on how to form, grow and sustain a development entity of their proposition.
MADP 713 Resource Mobilisation Techniques for Development Practice.
This module focuses on training candidates to produce cutting-edge resource mobilisation strategies for development entities. The module explores and defines the concepts of resources and resource mobilisation before delving into the praxis itself. The module introduces students to the production of resource mobilisation documents like concept notes and project proposals using guidelines proffered by international donor agencies like USAID, DFID and the United Nations. The module goes beyond the conventional international donor- focused approach for mobilising resources to include the creation of strategies that focus on domestic resource mobilisation. Students will also learn how to produce effective reports and evidence records that tally with resource usage to satisfy donors’ accountability and transparency needs and ensure sustained resource reception. Students will undertake practical learning in resource mobilisation through systematic exposure to selected NGOs, state and local government institutions, corporate entities and entrepreneurial establishments, among others. By the end of the module, students should be able to apply what they would have learnt during practicums to formulate informed resource mobilisation strategies.
MADP 714 Advanced Research Methodology for Development Practice
The module introduces students to the practical skills required in research for development practice. The module focuses on practical research approaches which necessitates field- work. The module thus includes practicums to expose students to research techniques they would need to undertake in development practice. Students will work with development organisations with which the Department of Development Studies has MOUs and other synergies to hone their research skills. In sync with these organisations, students will undertake baseline surveys, participatory research approaches, and set up community focus group discussions while utilising all the various research approaches. Students will also submit a research report outlining all the research processes they engaged with during their practicums with selected organisations.
MADP 715 Advanced Project Management Skills.
The module introduces students to the project cycle. The module takes students through the project cycle from problem identification to project evaluation and learning. Every stage of the cycle will be conversed with practical examples being proffered. The focus will be to equip students with the critical skills required to manage projects and produce imperative project documents required at various stages of the project cycle. The module will be based on project management standards proffered by international donor agencies like USAID, DFID, AU, EU and the United Nations. Students will deal with tangible practical case studies that will require them to solve intrinsic project management problems. By the end of the module, students must have contributed to designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating a development project under assigned establishments.
MADP 716 Managing Climate and Environmental Changes
This course will examine the related issues of climate change and variability on one hand and environmental changes on the other. It focuses on the risks and socio-economic and environmental consequences of climate change. Students will explore key concepts, strategies and technologies for the prevention, mitigation and adaptation to the negative impacts of climate and environmental changes. While global case studies will be used, practicums will emphasise climate and environmental change policy designs and implementation approaches in Zimbabwe. Students will engage with mining, manufacturing, farming establishments among others to examine their specific environmental impacts, their policies and systems of controlling such impacts. They will work with relevant local and central government authorities as well as NGOs such as ZELA whose mandate is environmental and climate change management. Informed by a combination of in -class learning and practicums undertaken in collaboration with stakeholders, students must be able to design comprehensive environmental management plans which speak to the prevention and mitigation of well adaptation to climate change; critically assess management plans and suggest improvements; manage uncertainties that arise during the (technology, expenses, stakeholder expectations) development of management plans and their implementation.
MADP 721 Disaster and Crisis Management
Globally, there is an increased demand for communities and nations to sharpen their resilience to potential crises and disasters, particularly through using the principles of crisis and disaster management, disaster preparedness, response and recovery planning. This module engages students with the impact of crisis and disaster on community and national development. It addresses the issues of interruption of socio-economic development, the need for preparedness; response and recovery strategies to minimise both economic and human losses arising from both natural and human- made disasters and crises. It also focuses on disaster and crisis data reviewing and communication. This includes current approaches to crisis and disaster communication which include ICT (especially social media). Students will acquire such skills through interaction with Zimbabwe’s emergency planning and disaster management sector. They will undertake practicums under relevant entities to grasp the procedures, techniques, equipment and forms of organisation used in managing disasters and crisis- situations.
MADP 722 Advanced Financial Management for Development
The module focuses on key accounting and financial concepts required to facilitate the process of practical development. It dissects accounting and financial issues that are enshrined in the financial policies of development entities. Students will learn from government institutions, the farming sector and other enterprises as well as NGOs how to formulate and track multi-tier budgets; undertake procurement processes, transparency and accountability procedures as well and financial report writing. The module thus ensures that accounting and financial management standards from existing development institutions will be used as a basis of learning.
MADP 723 Applied Gender Mainstreaming in Development Practice.
The focus of the module is to teach students how to mainstream gender in development practice. The module exposes students to local and central government as well as donors and NGOs’ systems of gender inclusion. Students will work with the various gender analytical frameworks and implementation tools utilised by these development institutions. They will be exposed to the Sarah Longwe, Social Relations, Moser and Harvard Analytical Frameworks among others. This emanates from the understanding that gender mainstreaming, from the institutional level to the community level, is a prerequisite for holistic development. By the end of the module, students must be able to draw from existing development projects and gender mainstreaming standards proffered by national and international institutions as a basis for learning. They must produce astute reports on gender mainstreaming as observed in the field.
MADP 724 Advanced Strategic Management for Development Entities
This module is based on the notion that sustainability is the ultimate indicator of good management and administration of development entities. For this to happen, good leaders of development entities must have good strategic planning and management skills. The module will introduce students to the fundamentals of strategic planning and plan implementation. Students must work with relevant organisations to construct cutting- edge strategic plans for such development entities and must demonstrate the ability to foretell operational environments for development endeavours.
MADP 725 – Human Rights, Socio-Economic Justice and Development (Optional Module)
The module helps to frame relevant problems that arise in particular economic, social, cultural or religious contexts and leads to a deeper analysis of such problems. Technical aspects such as social accountability, social protection, and economic justice programming will be explored. The module will be hinged upon the rights- based approach to development programming which upholds the notion that the process of achieving development is tantamount to the process of availing rights to people. The theory of change approach will also guide the module. The thinking is that social and economic justice should be life- changing ideals. Hence, the process of seeing social justice should be executed through the altering of social and economic systems towards the attainment of positive change. The expected outcome of the module should be students with highly critical analysis skills in the arena of human rights, social and economic justice as well as the practical skills to guide advocacy and actions towards the attainment of such.
MADP 726 -Food Systems Food Security (optional)
The module explores theories of food security as well as systems of food production, storage and for ensuring equitable access to food globally. The course covers the core bio-physical elements of food production which include land, soil, water and biodiversity. It then surveys a selection of different farming and other systems that provide food and livelihoods in different parts of the world. Students will particularly make participatory observations from commercial and smallholder farms of different types, including fisheries, in Zimbabwe. They should be able to identify the various hindrances to adequate food production in the Zimbabwean farming sector. They will also be exposed to food processing industries to physically assess their contributions to food security and the challenges faced in ensuring the same. Each student must submit a report comprehensively explaining the food systems, their contribution to food security and hindrances examined in the field and possible solutions.
MADP 825 – Development Practice Project/Dissertation
This document involves the production of a tangible report on a development practice initiative(s) that the student-initiated or introduced to address a telling development practice problem. The initiative can be a new approach to solving a critical development practice problem. Using the project cycle as a framework (from problem identification, appraisal, implementation, monitoring and evaluation) the development practice paper is a thorough description and assessment of the innovations introduced by the student to solve a critical development practice issue. The desire is to assess the extent to which the student’s development practice skills have been deepened and sharpened. Students will work with a supervisor who will help them to produce the paper.