OBJECTIVES

The master’s in Human Development and Food Security I Level aims to meet the need in the world of co-operation in development and humanitarian aid, for professional analysts with technical expertise that can be used in the wide and interdisciplinary concept of human development. 

Its main objective is not only to teach ways of analysing and understanding the problems associated with poverty and food security but to provide students with a real “tool box” that can be used in different professional situations and socio-economical, political and environmental contexts. 

The idea behind the course is to train professional people who: 

• are capable of understanding and analysing a lack of capabilities at a local level (using both a quantitative statistical and a qualitative socio-economic approach) with a particular emphasis on food security

• possess the necessary tools for fighting poverty and food insecurity and are capable of taking concrete action of a predominantly socio-economic nature that aims at sustainable development

• are capable of formulating specific input for political decision-makers so that integrated and effective emergency and development plans can be defined. 

Professional profiles

Participants in the master's in Human Development and Food Security I Level will learn techniques that they can use to conceive, design, advise, plan and implement measures that will minimize the negative effects of a nonexistent or incomplete strategy for human development. It will focus on measures that tackle the problems associated with poverty and food insecurity. The master’s degree offers its participants a professional profile with a wide range of opportunities and skills. Participants can be employed by national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), public administration, local authorities, companies involved in activities in countries of low human development, international organizations, (United Nations Agencies, the European Union, OECD, etc.) and publishing. Some professional profiles are listed below: 

• Assessment expert

  • Analysing, describing and monitoring the causes of poverty and its embeddings in social, economic and environmental contexts using up-to-date methods with a high level of disaggregation (communities, households, and intrahouseholds). 

  • Organizing surveys using participatory methods and qualitative and quantitative analysis statistical analysis. 

• Programme Assistant/Advisor

  • Providing advice and strategies during analysis and implementation of measures to be taken that address the objectives and effects of the programme using a holistic and inclusive approach that is geared towards human development. 

• Policy Advisor, Project Designer, Project Manager/Assistant, advisor to local authorities for decentralized development cooperation

  • Offering advice and advocacy strategies when defining policies that are in line with the organizer’s mandate and committed to the fight against poverty and the promotion of human development

  • Mediating and negotiating with partners (donors, local governments and authorities, communities)

  • Performing activities related to decentralized development cooperation in a professional manner 

  • Defining suitable local intervention committed to tackling and eliminating poverty and malnutrition (food aid, rural finance, microcredit, fair trade, etc.) 

• Information officer, specialist journalist * 

  • Informing the general public of news and concepts on issues related to development, humanitarian emergencies and intervention by international organizations 

   

* The master’s is not a professional journalist’s qualification dictated by membership of a national register of journalists in Italy but allows participants to specialize in a specific area.