Tools of the Trade take away paper
The International Development third year course ‘Tools of the Trade’ aims to introduce students to a range of tools and methods used in the development world to identify, design, implement and evaluate development interventions.
The course takes a ‘hands on’ approach and enables students to develop skills which are useful, not only in development, but also in many other types of work in the public policy, private and voluntary sectors. In addition to the specific skills and tools covered in the course, students also gain experience of working in teams, in presenting clear and convincing arguments, and in advocacy and negotiating skills.
In 2011, we introduced a new mode of assessment for the course in the form of a ‘take-away paper’. For this students were given 48 hours in which to prepare an assignment from a choice of three.
The scenarios were all imaginary, but students were expected to research into the real issues surrounding them and then present detail accounts of their proposed interventions.
Below are two excellent examples of our students’ work:
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TASK
The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) wishes to put in place a comprehensive maternal and newborn health programme in Ghana, with the goal of improving the quality of health services provided to women and their babies and increasing access to and use of these services. The priorities include increasing the proportion of mothers who give birth in a hospital or attended by a skilled birth attendant and ensuring newborn babies receive the recommended immunisations. The programme needs to address institutional, financial and management issues as well as the barriers at an individual and community level, which prevent women from accessing or using these health services.Draft a logframe for this project complete with appropriate objectives, indicators, data sources and risks/assumptions. Provide an explanation of your logframe design.
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TASK
As part of the global drive to reduce carbon emissions and in order to provide millions of Indians with access to electricity, the Indian Government recently announced an ambitious solar energy plan. This plan envisages that India will install a number of solar power plants across the country and generate 20GW of power from sunlight by 2022, providing 20 million rural homes with solar lighting and making India less reliant on coal for generating electricity. The Indian Government has requested that developed nations provide technological and financial support to implement the planPut together a stakeholder analysis, identifying the main stakeholders, assessing their importance and influence and outlining any actions you might take to engage with each group. Provide an explanation of the analysis.