Aid and Poverty: the Political Economy of International Development Assistance (906N1)

15 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Spring teaching

International development assistance (aid) has apparently strong theoretical justification, and rich countries are increasing their aidflows to unprecedented levels in pursuit of poverty reduction. But the political economy of aid is becoming more polarised as global security concerns and global trade reform influence the purposes and practice of aid. Critics are many and anthropological, economic and political science analyses the dominant aid paradigm.

This course provides you with a historically-grounded assessment of international development assistance and its potential to reduce poverty through detailed treatment of the arguments for and against aid. There will be a strong emphasis on the new aid architecture as well as the special circumstances of 'fragile' states and the role of aid.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 18 hours of contact time and about 132 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2023/24. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to COVID-19, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let our applicants know of material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.