Programme info

Micro-credential: Global Finance for Development


Learning outcomes

This micro-credential focuses on the following learning outcomes.

Financial globalization and the poor

1. The participant can explain the concept of financial globalization, identify the different types of external flows, measure the degree of financial globalization of specific countries or regions, and identify the causes and consequences of the financial globalization crisis.

2. The participant can sum up the literature regarding the impact of financial globalization on development and the poor at the macro as well as micro level.

3. The participant is able to assess, at the global, macro and micro level, current initiatives that want to increase and target better cross-border financial resources to development and poverty reduction, and help finance the supply of (global) public goods and meeting the SDGs.

4. The participant is able to assess, at the global, macro and micro level, current initiatives to cope with and prevent financial crises.

Aid and (global) public goods: a political economy perspective

5. The participant is able to apply the insights of the social sciences, including political science and economics, to critically assess discourses and practice in the field of (global) development and aid.

6. The participant understands the concept of (global) public goods and can apply it to concrete problems at the global level, and why it necessitates interventions at supra-national level.

7. The participant understands the role of aid and other (external) financial resources as vehicles to finance the supply of these (global) public goods and meeting the SDGs.

8. The participant understands the motivations and institutional characteristics of the main international actors (multilateral development organizations, bilateral donors, international development NGOs) and how their interactions with national actors (government, civil society, private sector) shape developmental outcomes.

9. The participant is familiar with the evolution in thinking on development and aid, both by the donors and by critical outsiders, and is able to find and interpret widely used statistical data and indicators on aid.

10. The participant is able to take part in the ongoing debate on the role of aid in development, including its successes and failures, and acquires the basics to make a more advanced analysis of the topic selected for further study.x

Practical information

The course is organised in 23 sessions of 2 hours, and 2 sessions of 3 hours.

The overall course is organised in two parts, with the first part organised in 9 sessions running from between mid-January and the mid of February, and the second part with 14 sessions running between mid-March until the end of March (+ 2* 3 hours hands-on sessions on aid statistics).

In both parts, the sessions are spread out over several sessions per week (quite concentrated in part II). Attendance in class is mandatory to allow for interaction, debate and group work. All sessions are organised in Antwerp (city campus). Students of the micro-credential course will participate in the same session as the students of the advanced master programmes in Development Studies of IOB. This group consists of a group of predominantly international students of about 20 students. The sessions will consist of lectures, debates, class discussions, directed self-study and exercises.