51 Foundational Courses for South Asian Development Practitioners

Master participatory approaches to community mobilization and asset-based development.

Master the specialized vocabulary and communication strategies for development work.

The logical framework, built from the results chain up — inputs to impact, indicators and SMART targets, means of verification, assumptions and risk, and how to build, test and critique the matrix.

Master the fundamentals of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning for development projects.

Master qualitative research techniques including interviews, focus groups, and ethnography.

Navigate ethical considerations in development research and protect vulnerable populations.

Learn to design robust theories of change that articulate impact pathways.

Attribution and the counterfactual — RCTs, difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, power, and using evidence.

Combining quantitative and qualitative research — core designs, integration, and quality.

Questionnaires, sampling, modes and fieldwork quality — designing surveys that measure what you mean.

Master techniques for examining relationships between two variables.

Read, question, visualise and use data responsibly — from India's data ecosystem to sampling, distributions, correlation, data quality and ethics.

Turn numbers into honest, clear charts — marks and channels, choosing a chart type, avoiding misleading visuals, colour, annotation, distributions, maps and accessibility. The companion to The Long View.

Master statistical techniques for causal inference in development economics.

Develop skills for cleaning, exploring, and visualizing household survey data.

Learn advanced psychometric techniques for developing measurement instruments.

Master advanced statistical techniques for analyzing complex relationships.

Transform raw field observations into actionable insights.

Master economic evaluation techniques for comparing development interventions.

Challenge dominant development paradigms through postcolonial frameworks.

Understand core economic concepts shaping development policy and practice.

Climate science, impacts, adaptation and mitigation for development practitioners — emissions, climate justice, and the South Asian context.

How inequality is measured and why it matters — income and wealth, the Gini coefficient and Lorenz curve, and the drivers of inequality in the Global South.

Develop essential skills for resource mobilization in the development sector.

Navigate the complex ecosystem of development institutions.

How governments raise revenue, allocate spending, and account to citizens — fiscal architecture, the Union and state budgets, finance commissions, and budget transparency in India.

A comprehensive course on the SNA boundary, care economy, sustainable-livelihoods framework, the agrarian question, migration, and the non-farm economy. Replaces Decent Work and Livelihoods 101.

Influence policy, practice and power — power analysis, the advocacy cycle, stakeholder mapping, policy windows, tactics, and ethics.

How politics and economics interact — institutions, collective action, rent-seeking, the developmental state, and political-economy analysis.

Explore how power dynamics shape data collection through an intersectional feminist framework.

A grounded introduction to identity, inequality and justice in South Asia — caste, tribe, religion, gender, sexuality, disability, region and language. Constitutional, sociological, and empirical tools for practitioners. 100-slide native HTML deck (12 sections, intersectional throughout).

Resources, agency and achievements — the care economy, labour-force participation, assets and finance, social norms, rights, and what works.

Power, reflexivity and voice in knowledge production — standpoint theory, situated knowledge, intersectionality.

Integrating gender across the programme cycle — analysis frameworks, gender-responsive budgeting, the twin-track approach.

Navigate ethical challenges in digital development and responsible innovation.

Explore how environmental degradation disproportionately impacts marginalized communities.

Examine the constitutional framework that guides Indias democracy.

Analyze how misinformation and polarization shape development outcomes.

Understand the economic value of unpaid care work and explore supportive policies.

Discover evidence-based teaching methodologies and learning theories.

Explore epidemiology, health systems, and disease prevention strategies.

Understand Social and Emotional Learning frameworks for education programs.

Navigate sensitive topics in sexual and reproductive health programming.

Learn to document and analyze social phenomena through photography and video.

Move from awareness to action — behaviour-change theory, audience segmentation, formative research, message design, channels and campaigns.

Early childhood development and the first 1,000 days — nutrition, nurturing care, and India’s ECD ecosystem.

Safe pregnancy and birth — the continuum of care, the three delays, and India’s maternal health programmes.