GEOG 456           3 Credit Hours

Rural Development Experiences

This information is for second semester 2017/2018 academic year

Teacher responsible

Prof Joseph. Yaro

Availability

This course is available open to all visiting students but only as a second semester course.

Course content

This course aims at building the capacities of students in the practice of rural development. It introduces students to the design and evaluation of rural development projects. It also provides a critical analysis of the past experiences/strategies of rural development projects in Sub-Saharan Africa.  Students will be expected to design a developmental project, conduct a baseline survey and evaluate a project in rural Ghana.

Teaching

 Thursdays 11:30-1:30pm

The course meets once weekly and consists of a 2-hour time slot. Classes will combine lectures and class discussions. Students are expected to come to class prepared to discuss the readings/themes in an informed manner.

Formative coursework

These will entail field visits to project sites in the middle of the semester (Contingent on availability of funds). Seminar presentations by groups and a take-home assignment shall be graded.

Indicative Reading

Moseley, Malcom J.  2003. Rural Development: Principles and Practices, Sage Publications, London. Pages – 1-8

World Bank 1997. Rural development: From vision to action. A sector strategy. Pages. 29-39

Kersty Hobson, Ruth Mayne, Jo Hamilton 2014. A step by step guide to Monitoring and Evaluation.   http://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/research/technologies/projects/mesc/guide-to-monitoring-and-evaluation-v1-march2014.pdf

ASARECA, 2010. Guidelines for Project Baseline studies. The Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa.

case of the Upper East Region Agricultural Development Project (URADEP). Department of administration and organisation science, University of Bergen, Bergen.

Yaro, Joseph Awetori 2013. 'Transnational Agricultural Investments/Land Grabbing: A Contemporary Solution or Challenge for Rural Development in Ghana?', in George Owusu, et al. (eds.), Selected Readings in Geography. Woeli Publishing Services, Accra. Pp. 63-178.

Assessment and Grading

Continuous Assessment:

• Project 1                                              15%
• Baseline                                              10%
• Attendance                                          5%
• Final Exam                                          70%

• Total:                                                  100%

Grading Scale: