Environment and Sustainable Development

Course Code
Course
Number of Credits
Description/Course Objective
Semester
ED85.9001 Selected Topic: Environment and Development
2
 Through introducing major environmental issues, such as climate change, water scarcity and pollution, food security and biodiversity, health within the context of sustainable development, this course aims to explore the interface between development and environmental issues in a global and regional context. It focuses on: (i) the different theoretical perspectives of development and environment, and (ii) the dimensions of sustainability. The course will also introduce to students systems approaches to managing change and environmental sustainable development. Aug Sem
ED85.9002 Selected Topic: Introduction to Deveopment Economics
1
 The course will provide introductory knowledge on poverty issues and economic development in low- and middle-income economies. The students will be equipped with some key concepts in development economics for understanding and analyzing why some countries are poorer than others. Aug Sem
ED85.9003 Selected Topic: Introduction to Environmental Economics
2
 The main objective of the course is to introduce the concepts and tools used by economists to analyze environmental problems. The course is designed to serve students coming from different academic and professional background and with limited prior exposure to economic theories. Aug Sem
ED85.9004 Selected Topic: Development Finance
2
 This subject provides the knowledge on the sole repository for statistics on the external debt of developing countries on a loan-by-loan basis, and the total external debt of all low-and middle-income countries in both electronic and print formats and on financial flows, trends in external debt, major economic aggregates, key debt ratios, average terms of new commitments, currency composition of long-term debt, debt restructuring, scheduled debt service projections, and other major financial indicators for developing countries such as Vietnam. Aug Sem
ED85.9005 Selected Topic: Development Project Planning and Management
2
 Development project planning and management stand for a set of necessary skills for both researchers and practitioners who work in the field of development. This course is designed to provide students with the opportunity to gain a comprehensive understanding of key concepts and essential skills to effective project development and management in development affairs. It aims to help students develop knowledge and skills in planning, designing, implementing, managing and evaluating projects. Aug Sem
ED85.9006 Selected Topic: Regional and Rural Development
2
 The main objective of the course is to focus on the key development challenges of the developing countries. It deals with the concepts and theories of development, poverty analysis, problems of education, health, aid, role of NGOs and civil society, and regional disparity in the developing world. Aug Sem
ED85.9007 Selected Topic: Urban Resilience Assessment
2
 Rapid urbanization and external risks including climate change creating new risks and challenges in the area of sustainable urban development and management. Urban resilience is a versatile concept, which helps frames the difficult process of tackling the environmental, social, and economic challenges of modern cities in a positive way. However, similar to other broad concepts such as sustainability, resilience is inherently vague. This course is designed to prepare people for careers and leadership roles in resilience assessment in an urban context. It is designed to provide students with the multidisciplinary knowledge and skills required to understand successful approaches, tools and practices for the assessment of urban resilience. The course also covers specific topics to support the integration of resilience into sustainable urban development and management, particularly multiple-scale and multi-sectoral resilience assessment methods and capacity building. Aug Sem
ED85.9008 Selected Topic: Public Management
2
 This subject focuses the key concepts and principles in the management and governance of public organizations as well as an important foundation for many key concepts and ideas that are developed further. It provides participants with grounding in the development of public management and in the principles of good governance, social inclusion and community cohesion, the role of the state in provision and commissioning of public services; the nature of public accountability, forms of democracy; ethics; corruption and institutional aspects of governance. Aug Sem
ED85.9009 Selected Topic: Policy and Economic Analysis
2
 The focus of this subject is to bring together a core set of competencies to evaluate a broad array of policies; these tools include economic analysis, program evaluation, risk assessment, and statistical and quantitative techniques. It discusses how government institutions and policies impact the regulation of markets, and how to measure the success or failure of government programs. It focuses primarily, although not exclusively, on the application of quantitative techniques to policy issues that arise in various subject matter areas. The concentration in this subject enables students to develop their research skills in policy analysis. Aug Sem
ED85.9010 Selected Topic: Geospatial Techniques for Development and Environment
2
 Environmental issues are the outcome of various human-environment processes due to multiple reasons at various geographic scales. Understanding of environmental issues in the context of sustainable development and managing them requires an informed decision making platform with integrated perspective. Several tools and techniques like Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and spatial modeling are useful to assess, analyze the environmental problems and recommend solutions to the problems. The objective of the course is to provide the students the concepts of geographic data/information, concepts and principle of remotes sensing, GIS, and GPS so that the students have adequate knowledge and skill in applying these tools and techniques in environmental management.  Jan Sem
ED85.9011 Selected Topic: Air Quality Management
1
 This course aims to equip students with scientific basis and engineering knowledge to understand the complexity of the air pollution problems, multiple effects of air pollution, and principal tools for effective integrated air quality management. Jan Sem
ED85.9012 Selected Topic: Hazardous Waste Technology and Management
1
 Discharge of toxic and hazardous chemicals has increased manifolds due to their excessive use which has become a serious threat to human health and the environment. This course highlights the knowledge on properties of hazardous chemicals, their spread in the environment and risk associated with it. Furthermore, students also learn about hazardous waste minimization and various technologies employed for hazardous waste treatment and disposal, including remediation of hazardous waste contaminated sites. Jan Sem
ED85.9013 Selected Topic: Water Pollution Management
1
 Water pollution is an issue of global concern, as many countries are experiencing deteriorating water quality combined with growing demand. Pollution leads to economic water scarcity, as available water requires purification and infrastructure investment, which burden developing countries. This course highlights the key knowledge on causes for deterioration of water quality, pollution prevention and control measures, integrated water resources management principles that can help mitigate pollution’s impact on human health and the environment, and policy instruments that enable coordinated action. Jan Sem
ED85.9014 Selected Topic: Gender and SMEs in the Global Economy
1
 Women dominate micro and small-scale enterprises in Asia. The course aims to enhance understanding on the gender differences in barriers and opportunities to manage micro- and small-scale enterprises in the rapidly changing economy. Women’s economic empowerment is an important part in promoting sustainable development in both urban and rural contexts. The course will cover theoretical debate as well as practices and instruments that facilitates economic empowerment of women. Jan Sem
ED85.9015 Selected Topic: Gender Analysis and Health Policy Research
1
 This course takes a cross-cultural, inter-disciplinary and multi-methodological approach to understand contemporary Gender and Health issues. In particular, the course will explore the social - gendered, socio-economic-cultural, racial/ethnic, and geographical – determinants of health. The first half of the course will focus on theoretical frameworks for analyzing gender as a social determinant of health including role of gender norms (femininity and masculinity) and the how structural issues of social roles, class, race, gender, sexual orientation etc. determine health and well-being of individuals. The second section of the course will focus on health policy and systems research including gender transformative approach for SDG Health goal priorities. Jan Sem
ED85.9016 Selected Topic: Green Financing for Sustainability
1
 Adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, and Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 to combat climate change, biodiversity degradation and poverty around the world has created a lot of low-carbon development opportunities and related financial sources for both developed and developing countries. However, these opportunities are not explored by developing countries to the maximum due to the lack of knowledge and capacity to tap into these fast-evolving trends. This course is designed to train and equip students with sound knowledge and skills in identification of the low-carbon development opportunities, development of low-carbon development projects, and how green financing works. Students will be equipped with real-world examples and skills in green financing hackathons. Aug Sem