The International Development Program is designed for students and faculty concerned with analyzing and participating in economic, environmental, social, and political change, with particular emphasis on improving the opportunities for the poor and vulneralbe of the Third World. Given this perspective, development becomes an ethical and political as well as a technical undertaking. With this community focus, equity becomes a central objective, in decisionmaking as well as the distribution of benefits. The Program has been active since 1975. The approach of the program is multidisciplinary, combining both micro and macro-level analysis that links theory with practical skills, and research with action to provide training in implementation skills as well as critical analysis.
Students are able to choose from a variety of different concentrations, based on a core program.
The International Development Program is actively involved in professional training, both on and off-campus. For the past ten years, it has offered a series of international development skills institutes which provide both degree students and outsiders intensive short-term training in particular development techniques. The International Development Program offers two Master's degrees. Both degrees combine theory and practice, and are anchored by a required multidisciplinary core and give students the opportunity to select a particular focus of concentration. It combines skills from development and public administration for those individuals specifically interested in management of development activities.