Meeting Dates:  Please make certain to verify the dates of the Institutes that you have registered for with the International Development Office, as dates may change.  Also, for many Institutes, some advanced reading is required.  Please visit the International Development Office regarding these materials.

Credits:   Each institute is worth one credit hour of graduate level credit. Skills institutes offered by the International Development Program must be taken for a grade.

Eligible Students: All AU and consortium university graduate students interested in international development who have completed either 33.636, 33.637, or the equivalent are eligible. Undergraduates and non-degree students admitted only by permission of IDP and the instructor. Non-degree students should contact the Graduate Advising Office at (202) 885-1690, for information on registering for Skills Institutes.

Cost:   Students will be charged the current tuition rate for one graduate level credit hour plus an additional materials fee. Note:  If this is the only course taken, a Sports Center fee of $30 will be assessed.  Skills Institutes may not be audited.

Registration:  Register as you would for regular courses.  Students may register up to the day before the Institute begins, but since space is limited, early registration is strongly recommended.  Students are registered on a first-come first-served basis.  Students may drop an Institute with a 100% refund provided that the add-drop forms are filled and signed no later than 5 pm of the Friday prior to the beginning of the Institute. If you do wish to drop the course, it is important that you ask your academic advisor to do so. Do not drop yourself from the course.

WAITLIST:   If upon attempting to register you discover that a class is full, you may request to be put on a waiting list by calling the ID Office. We will need your name, phone number, degree program, e-mail, and the title and course number of the Skills Institute you wish to attend.

For further information please contact the International Development Program Office
in Hurst Hall 214; 202-885-1660

Skills Institutes for Spring 2008

SIS.638.001 Rapid Assessment Techniques
Instructor: Cheryl Levine

This institute will present both the methodological underpinnings and practical techniques for promoting local participation in field research while covering the fundamentals of qualitative research. The methodological tools covered will include population profiling techniques and focusing-and-prioritizing techniques. Participants will have the opportunity to practice many of the techniques and to reflect on how rapid appraisal techniques might be applied to their own research/development interests.

SIS.638.002 Cost Benefit Analysis
Instructor: John Beyer

This institute introduces the participants to the fundamental analytical concepts, techniques and issues in cost-benefit analysis and engages participants in the application of these concepts and techniques to actual case studies in problem-solving environment. The institute utilizes a case study approach, drawing on actual projects from India , Egypt , and Burkina Faso.

SIS.638.003 Advocacy: Power and Citizen Participation
Instructor: Molly Reilly

Participation, citizenship and advocacy are garnering attention ways to approach entrenched development problems. While these concepts are subject to differing interpretation, it is clear that development and other groups focused on trade, debt, human rights, and other issues are gaining power and prominence and wielding influence at the local, national and global levels. This skills institute aims to build practical skills and understanding of advocacy and citizen participation as paths to achieve development and social justice goals. The skills institute will focus on closing the gap between lofty ideas and concrete program design choices, equipping students to design, plan and identify effective interventions. We will move from definitional questions to practical approaches for integrating participation, rights and power analysis into development initiatives, focusing on the application of real life analytical and planning tools to student-selected problems. We will examine the role of power in perpetuating exclusion from public decision-making, and look at how development strategies can support, rather than impede, people’s efforts to participate decisions that affect their lives.

SIS.638.004International Resource Development
Instructor: Emily Gantz McKay

This institute will help prepare participants to obtain funding for international projects/programs and assist international non-government organizations (NGO's) with resource development. Three segments of the institute will include Resource Development Methods, Written Materials and How to Use Them, and Helping an NGO to Establish a Strong Fundraising System. The institute participants will study various fund raising techniques, work on proposal writing, and become familiar with ways to identify, research, and contact major donors, with emphasis on foundations and corporations.

SIS.638.005 Project and Program Evaluation
Instructor: Nancy E. Horn

This institute focuses on the development of skills to evaluate projects and programs using a variety of qualitative tools. The Institute provides a basic understanding of the steps to include in preparing for and conducting an evaluation. Topics considered include: you as the evaluator; designing programs and designing evaluations; developing indicators; and practicing the use of several different tools. Given time constraints, the Institute focuses on the evaluation process and does not cover data analysis

Skills Institutes for Summer 2008

SIS.638.001 Social Entrepreneurship: Private Sector Skills
Instructors: Robert Tomasko & Joe Eldridg

This course provides an immersion into the skills and mindsets of the private sector that are especially relevant to managing non-governmental and non-profit organizations. Students will have hands-on experience applying techniques from the business world through case studies and a team project. They will learn how to be smart consumers of the latest corporate management practices, and how to distinguish well-tested ideas from merely trendy ones. Many social activists focus on the worst practices of the private sector; this institute will give attention to the best, and how to adapt them to organizations concerned with social and economic development, human rights and peace. The focus will be on skills related to growing, funding, and managing an organization.

SIS.638.002 Proposal Writing
Instructor: Steve Hansch

This intensive, short course focuses on the skills in organizing, writing, and editing a winning proposal for foreign aid programs, with a bias twoard the rigor required by donors such as USAID and UNHCR. The course will compare and contrast the proposal requirements with some other donors too, including USDA, the World Bank, and major foundations. The proposal-writing process will be from the point of view of a non-govermental agency, but other perspectives, such as for-profits, will also be discussed. The course will focus primarily on grant proposals, but contract and IQC proposals will also be discussed. Guest speakers will be available to answer questions. Examples of proposals will but given out, but the focus of the class will be on writing/editing.

Skills Institutes for Fall 2008

*For further information please contact the International Development Program Office in Hurst Hall 214; 202-885-1660

SIS.638.001 Gender Analysis and Development
Instructor: Patricia Morris

This course explores the concept of gender and its practical application to international development programs and policy. It will cover a variety of analytical and planning tools as well as frameworks and methodologies developed and used by gender practitioners and activists worldwide. The course will take a broad approach to development, including strategies that address basic needs and those that promote rights and strengthen civil society.

SIS.638.002 Business Development Services
Instructor: Jacqueline Bass

This skills institute will expose students to new strategies to assist micro and small entrepreneurs access vital business services such as business training, market access and assistance, product development, and advisory and information services among others. The course will acquaint students with emerging and innovative ideas on BDS best practices including the essential principles and core skills behind the design and management of BDS interventions to create well functioning BDS markets. The institute will expose students to the wide range of business development services currently in use around the globe, groundbreaking new BDS strategies, major intervention types and techniques, and tools and practices. The instructor will provide a practical emphasis to the course drawing lessons from donor and practitioner agencies across the world through case studies and group exercises to illustrate emerging approaches to business services in different contexts (urban, rural, peri-urban, and transitional economies) and types of enterprises targeted (micro, small and medium scale enterprises) to facilitate learning and enhance the skills and knowledge of students in the design and management of BDS interventions.

SIS.638.003 Project and Program Evaluation
Instructor: Nancy E. Horn

This institute focuses on the development of skills to evaluate projects and programs using a variety of qualitative tools. The Institute provides a basic understanding of the steps to include in preparing for and conducting an evaluation. Topics considered will include: you as the evaluator; designing programs and designing evaluations; developing indicators; and practicing the use of several different tools. Given time constraints, the Institute focuses on the evaluation process and does not cover data analysis.

SIS.638.004 Cultural Dynamics of Management
Instructor: Joyce Francis

The focus of the Managing Cultural Diversity skills workshop is culture's impact on human interaction (both verbal and non-verbal communication) in the workplace. The goal is to enhance participants' skill in working with and managing colleagues from other cultural backgrounds. Through multiple simulations, class discussion, and independent study, participants will analyze their own cultural patterns, differentiating them from those of other value systems. This understanding permits us to transcend our personal cultural limitations where appropriate, an important intercultural skill, so that we may be more effective in working across cultures.

SIS.638.005 Organizational Development
Instructor: Nancy E. Horn

Change in organizations is both a function and result of changes in the external and internal organizational environment. For an organization to increase its effectiveness, certain fundamental skills must be practiced. In this Skills Institute, you will consider how "double loop learning" and the tenets of The Fifth Discipline can help you in the change process, how to conduct an organizational effectiveness assessment, how to design and implement a participatory strategic/developmental planning process, and how to grow and develop effective staff through the implementation of a well-designed Human Resources function.