This course is offered in a hybrid format — students can choose to attend online or in person at UNU headquarters in Tokyo. It has two sections: lectures and group work. The lecture series will cover various topics, such as core issues in developing countries, project evaluation methods, relationships between engineering and international development, applications of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to preserve World Heritage sites, development and natural disasters, global urban climatology, education in the context of international development, and a case study of an international plant construction project.
During the group work sessions, students will develop a proposal for an international development project, as an expert consultant would when requested to recommend development policies and projects to politicians and/or economic leaders in a developing country. The main purpose is to understand the process of development policy. Developing countries must determine policies and implement projects while balancing social and economic dimensions. Prioritization of policies is essential since the budget is always insufficient to cover all projects. Politicians and economic leaders must select a specific policy and project as a priority issue with their limited resources. Political situations are not stable in general, and thereby, economic activities have been sluggish in some developing countries. The selection of priority issues affects the developmental direction of the country.
The outline of the group work is as follows. First, each group selects one developing country with less than USD 5,000 GDP per capita according to the World Bank. The country selection should be made using criteria such as: (i) its political system and infrastructure are not well developed; (ii) it faces a number of political and economic challenges; (iii) it has an enormous income gap, with a considerable percentage of the population living on less than USD 1 per day.
Second, the groups will assume nine policies for developing countries: industry, infrastructure, foreign investment, democracy and citizenship, education, finance, governance, hygiene and health, and poverty reduction, and determine their prioritization order using the method of diamond ranking.
Finally, students will propose an effective project to achieve the more highly prioritized policies based on the results of diamond ranking and present an outline of the project that includes the project procedures, positive and negative side effects on other sectors/policies, a budget plan complete with financial resources, and methods to be used for procurement.
Course Structure
Please note that topics and schedule are subject to change.
Coordinator: Prof. Shinya Hanaoka (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Lecture 1: Basics of Project Evaluation (Prof. Hanaoka)
Group Work 1: Guidelines, Country Selection
Lecture 2: International Plant Construction Project (Prof. Sasaki)
Group Work 2: Prioritization of Development Policies
Lecture 3: Global Urban Climatology (Prof. Varquez)
Group Work 3: Interim Presentation and Project Selection
Lecture 4: Engineering and International Development (Prof. Takada)
Group Work 4: Project Outline, Project Procedure
Lecture 5: Application of ICT to Preserve World Heritage Sites (Prof. Yamaguchi)
Group Work 5: Evaluation Criteria, Budget Plan
Lecture 6: Development and Natural Disasters (Prof. Takagi)
Group Work 6: Procurement, Ripple Effects
Lecture 7: Education and International Development (Prof. Umemiya)
Group Work 7 & 8: Final Presentation
Lecturers
Shinya Hanaoka (Professor, Institute of Science Tokyo)
Shinobu Yume Yamaguchi (Professor; Director, UNU-IAS)
Jun-ichi Takada (Professor, Institute of Science Tokyo)
Hiroshi Takagi (Professor, Institute of Science Tokyo)
Alvin Christopher Galang Varquez (Associate Professor, Institute of Science Tokyo)
Masakazu Sasaki (Visiting Professor, Institute of Science Tokyo; Toyo Engineering Corporation)
Naoki Umemiya (Visiting Professor, Institute of Science Tokyo; Professor, Sophia University)