Age of Sustainable Development

Module 1: What is Sustainable Development?

• Intro to Sustainable Development (SD)
• Economic Growth & Progress
• Continuing Poverty
• Environmental Threats
• Business-as-usual vs. SD
• From the MDGs to the SDGs: Agenda 2030

Module 2: Economic Development

• Incomes Around the World
• Urban/Rural Inequality
• Income Inequality Woithin Countries
• Measuring Wellbeing
• Convergence or Divergence

Module 3: History of Economic Development

• Economic Development from 1750
• Industrial Revolution
• Waves of Tech Change
• Diffusion of Economic Growth
• Economic Development Since WWII

Module 4: Inequality Between Countries

• Clinical Economics
• The Role of Physical Geography: Transport, Energy, Disease, Crops
• The Role of Culture: Demography, Education, Gender
• The Role of Politics
• Countries Stuck in Poverty

Module 5: MDGs: End of Extreme Poverty

• Extreme Poverty Can End
• Ending Extreme Poverty in Africa
• Food Supply in South Asia
• Official Development Assistance
• Designing Practical Interventions: Millennium Villages Projects

Module 6: Growth Within Planetary Boundaries

• The Origins of the Boundary Concept: Thomas Malthus
• Neo-Malthusian Frameworks: Growth Dynamics
• The 9 Planetary Boundaries
• Living Within Limits: Energy, Agriculture and Industry

Module 7: Human Rights, Gender Equality

• Ethics: Wealth, Poverty, Inequality
• UN Declarations
• Divided Societies
• Forces of Widening Inequalities
• Gender Inequality & Solutions

Module 8: Education

• Human Development: Life-Cycle Approach
• Early Childhood Development
• Education & the Supply Response
• Social Mobility
• The Role of Higher Ed

Module 9: Universal Health Coverage

• Human Right to Health
• Poverty & Disease
• Designing a Health System in Low-Income Countries
• Healthcare for All
• Health Coverage in High-Income Countries

Module 10: Sustainable Food Supply: the End of Hunger

• Malnutrition
• Farm Systems, Ecology, Food Security
• How Environmental Change Threatens the Food System
• How the Food System Threatens the Environment
• A Sustainable Global Food Supply

Module 11: Sustainable Cities

• Patterns of Urbanization
• What Makes a City Sustainable?
• Smart Infrastructure
• Urban Resilience
• Planning for SD

Module 12: Curbing Climate Change

• Science of Climate Change
• Consequences
• Mitigation
• Adaptation
• Global Cooperation

Module 13: Saving Biodiversity

• What is Biodiversity?
• Biodiversity Under Threat
• Oceans & Fisheries
• Deforestation
• International Dynamics

Module 14: The Sustainable Development Goals

• The Sustainable Development Goals
• Goal-based Development
• Financing for Sustainable Development
• Principles of Good Governance
• Is Sustainable Development Feasible?