Introducing key global development challenges

Global development requires thinking about

Social, economic, political, cultural and environmental change in ways that

Acknowledge the complexity and interconnectedness of our world. Global issues

Such as climate change and poverty transcend national boundaries and affect everyone. This free course introduces four key ‘challenges’ as a spur to thinking

Critically and creatively about responding to development issues on a global

Scale. You will identify how the four challenges of conflict, governance,

Justice, and transformation cut-across all areas of global development and call

Attention to fundamental principles and concerns such as peace, equality and

Making ‘good change’ happen. In seeking to tackle pressing development issues,

How do we negotiate the conflicting interests of different people and

Institutions? How can resources be managed in ways that are equitable and fair? How do we decide what ‘good change’ might look like and how can it be achieved? Such challenges provoke deep questioning. They unsettle as well as promote

Alternative visions of what we mean by development and how it might be pursued.This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course DD871 Key challenges in global development. You might also be interested in the related OpenLearn course, DD870 Introducing global development. To find out more, explore this OpenLearn article, which includes a video explaining what you can expect to learn.

Course learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

Appreciate how the four key challenges are used in this course to explore and identify fundamental development principles

Acquire a basic understanding of the nature of the four key challenges, namely conflict, governance, justice and transformation

Engage critically with a global development issue, that of migration, through the lens of the four key challenges.