DRAFT: Overview of the Special Issue Journal

Draft concept note for the development of a special issue of a journal

“Challenges, Successes, and Opportunities in Building an Action-Centered Learning Network for Sustainable Development: Ten Years of the Global Masters in Development Practice”

Editors (as of 04-27-2021):

Padraig Carmody, Director MDP Program, Professor in Geography, Trinity College Dublin

Glenn Galloway, Director, MDP Program, Center for Latin American Studies/Center for African Studies, University of Florida

Lucia Rodriguez, Director Secretariat, MDP Global Association, Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)

Full Chapter Submission Deadline: Tentative timeline was included in author invitations

Description & Purpose

In early 2007, the Earth Institute of Columbia University convened a group of 20 eminent scholars from around the world to participate in the International Commission on Education for Sustainable Development Practice with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The Commission took on the task of identifying measures that could be taken to enhance the education of professionals who aspire to become practitioners devoted to the broad, interdisciplinary field of sustainable development. Following a year of analysis and deliberation, the Commission proposed the creation of an interdisciplinary graduate program organized around four pillars – health sciences, social sciences, natural sciences, and management – that would cultivate the development of knowledge, skills, and personal awareness necessary for effective development practice. The MacArthur Foundation generously made competitive funding available that led to the development of 10 Master in Development Practice (MDP) programs around the world and the creation of the MDP Global Association (GA), which was officially launched in New Delhi, India in 2010.

The MDP GA has now completed 10 years since its inception, a period characterized by notable achievements. Worldwide, the MDP program has graduated over 5,000 students, boasts an expanding network of 37 prestigious universities (see list in annex), and has forged collaborative partnerships with widely-recognized public, private and non-governmental organizations. Furthermore, MDP alumni are occupying important professional positions in which they are applying their knowledge and skills while generating invaluable insights and feedback for the GA. During this period, the field of sustainable development has been characterized by significant change, most notably the global adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that form the backbone of the United Nations Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. The Agenda 2030 was launched once the Millennium Development Goals era came to a conclusion in 2015. The SDGs greatly expanded the focus of sustainable development, both thematically and geographically, recognizing that all countries in the world fall short under the lens of sustainability. This recognition has contributed to the diversity of the MDP program and has fostered 1student mobility in non-traditional directions, for example, students from the “South” contributing to efforts to address development challenges in the “North”.

The purpose of the special issue being proposed here is to carry out an in-depth analysis of different dimensions of this global effort in order to document and disseminate learning and educational experiences that have been generated across the MDP GA, integrating the participation and perspectives of faculty, alumni, students and representatives of important partners. This special issue will be particularly timely, taking into consideration the growing global attention on sustainability and the fact that the GA now has as its institutional home the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, boasting as members over 525 universities from around the world. The special issue will be a rich source of information for academic institutions and organizations devoted to some degree on the challenges of sustainable development.

In the following section, a preliminary overview of topics that will be explored in the special issue is provided. Definitive titles will be established in conjunction with the teams of authors who commit to contributing to the development of the special issue. In other words, additional or alternative topics may be included in the definitive list.

Overview of the special issue

● Introduction to the special issue.   This paper will both introduce the special issue and provide a brief summary of its major findings.

● The challenge of education for sustainable development practice: Embracing diversity in institutional and regional contexts.

Universities around the world have taken on the challenge of preparing professionals to contribute to the complex challenges of sustainable development, like those articulated in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). MDP programs are found in markedly different institutional and developmental contexts across the network, leading to a diversification of academic and administrative approaches and how different programs engage with partners and the broader community. This paper explores this important topic, focusing on the emergence of diverse program models across the MDP Global Association, and how they balance attention to theory, research and practice. This paper will also explore programmatic innovations across the MDP GA during the COVID-19 pandemic and future implications of this global crisis for the education of development practitioners.

● Diversity in student sustainable development paradigms

The term “Development” conjures up different meanings and connotations among students who opt to pursue a career in development practice, a fact that has become abundantly clear in MDP programs around the world. While some students choose to focus on the role of the private sector and corporate social responsibility, others turn their attention to community-based development and the role of civil society. Another group of students identifies the need for social activism to address social inequities and environmental threats, while still others question the wisdom and feasibility of pursuing growth as a path to development. This paper will explore the different 2“Development” paradigms MDP students use across the GA and will address the following questions, What strategies and measures are effective in accommodating and capitalizing on this rich diversity of perspectives among students of development practice, and how do these different perspectives relate to the global agenda of sustainable development, embodied in the SDGs?

● Pedagogical innovations to enhance the quality of education of development practitioners.

For over 10 years, MDP programs around the world have strived to develop a rich array of pedagogical approaches to achieve desired student learning outcomes related to knowledge, skills, and professional behavior. Since MDP programs seek to help students become more effective development practitioners, considerable emphasis must be placed on developing essential skills/competencies in learning environments that foster inclusion and self-reflection. Even before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, MDP programs utilized a variable mix of in-person and online approaches, in some cases, patching in students from different countries in a synchronous fashion. However, current realities have demanded additional pedagogical innovation with important implications for the future. The underlying question that will be explored in this paper is, how has pedagogical innovation enhanced the quality of education of development practitioners across the MDP GA and how might this innovation continue to evolve in future years and what the implications are for education for sustainable development are globally? In addition, measures taken by MDP programs to decolonize pedagogical approaches will be explored in this article.

● Necessary knowledge domains for sustainable development practitioners

Core courses of the MDP program introduce students to a considerable number of concepts and principles related to the four pillars of learning: Social sciences, Health sciences, Natural sciences, and Management. Explicit efforts are made to integrate knowledge across disciplines since an underlying premise of the MDP program is that sustainable development processes are interdisciplinary in nature and require practitioners to be cognizant of complex linkages among different realms of knowledge. This paper will explore how knowledge and associated cognitive skills are fostered among MDP students across the global network.

● Learning in and from the field: Co-production of applied knowledge with partner organizations and program beneficiaries

The MDP field practicum (FP) is the capstone experiential learning opportunity that MDP students undertake. The MDP FP involves the planning and conduct of a project to contribute to a development initiative being carried out by a host organization somewhere in the world. Using different approaches and strategies, MDP FPs have been carried out on an extremely broad range of topics – considering the thematic breadth of the SDGs – in rural and urban contexts in both “more” and “less” developed countries and with host organizations numbering in the thousands. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many students opting to conduct their FPs using remote technology. This paper will explore the question, what are the most important lessons learned and challenges associated with the capstone MDP field practicum that can be shared with universities worldwide devoted to education in sustainable development?

● Strategic partnership with international organizations: Case of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

This paper will present a case study of a strategic partnership between the MDP GA and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Under this strategic partnership, MDP students have received financial support to conduct their field practicums to contribute to IFAD-supported development projects around the world and other initiatives being carried out by IFAD partners. To date, over 100 students have benefited from this partnership to identify and conduct their capstone field practicum. This paper will systematize lessons learned from this important initiative to illustrate how an international development organization can tap into the support and faculty and students while providing engaging research and practitioner opportunities.

● The Master of Development Practice (MDP) Program and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Global Association (GA) of MDP programs was launched when the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were being pursued to address challenges associated with extreme poverty and other development priorities. Shortly thereafter, the process began to transition from the MDGs to the broader Agenda 2030 embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through close linkages with the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), the MDP GA has had considerable alignment with the SDGs, both during the formulation process leading up to their development and presently in their implementation. This paper will explore how the SDGs have transformed MDP programs across the MDP GA and how they are striving to contribute to this global agenda.

● “On the Job”: MDP Alumni perspectives on employment in sustainable development professions

The number of MDP alumni now exceeds 5,000 around the world. Many of them are occupying important positions with notable non-profits and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private sector entities, academic institutions, research organizations, international organizations, among others. This paper will explore globally, the perspectives of MDP alumni on employment in sustainable development to gain insights into knowledge and skills that have been found and/or are projected to be essential for development practitioners. It will also examine how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted development practice and what are perceived as potentially enduring impacts of this global crisis.

● Final synthesis.

This paper will include an analytical synthesis of the major findings of the papers, exploring linkages and diversity across the papers.

Authorship of the articles of the special issue

A team of authors will be brought together to develop each article, integrating the broad participation of persons who have played different roles in the MDP program (directors, faculty members, students, alumni, and partners) and who represent programs from different regions of the world. Each article will have two or more coordinating lead authors (CLAs) who will be responsible for providing leadership to the development of the article by helping to identify additional contributing authors who will participate in the article, coordinating their contributions, and ensuring 4timely progress is made. The number of contributing authors will be variable. Some will make limited, but important contributions, for example summaries of illustrative cases and experiences.

Workshops to discuss and track the development of the special issue.

Once the special issue is approved, a remote workshop will be carried out that will bring the coordinator, editors, and coordinating lead authors together to discuss in depth the development of the special issue. Prior to the workshop, each team of authors will be required to develop a preliminary outline of the major points that will be explored in each article and the methods that will be utilized to secure necessary information. To support this process, the editors will develop a number guiding questions to be taken into consideration for each team of authors, while granting the authors the freedom to exercise their intellectual creativity. The proposed content of each article will be discussed in-depth to provide feedback and constructive ideas to each group of authors as they embark on the development of their respective papers.

A second remote workshop will be carried out once the teams of authors have developed a first draft of their respective articles. The purpose of this workshop will be to provide feedback on the development of each article and to discuss principal findings that will be highlighted in the synthesis of the special issue.