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.