Planning for development impact
A practical workshop on international development
Speaker
Dr. Amy Beck HarrisDate & time
Location
This is an in-person event for current U-M students. Students must attend BOTH sessions in their entirety. This event will not be livestreamed.
How do international development projects design and manage activities that are targeted towards a particular development impact? This two-part workshop will begin with a brief overview of the role of international development within foreign policy. It will then provide students with a hands-on opportunity to develop and apply these crucial design, planning, and management skills using a United States foreign aid project in Nigeria as a case study. The ubiquitous tools of theory of change, logical frameworks, and performance management planning will be explored within the context of the US Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded project, Northern Education Initiative Plus (NEI+) Activity, which occurred in Northern Nigeria from 2015 - 2020. NEI+ focused on improving access to and quality of education in Northern Nigeria, with a focus on primary and basic education for vulnerable populations.
After discussing the tools and their applications, students will work in teams to apply them to the project’s specific international development goals. At the end of each application, student recommendations will be compared to actual project decisions, and the group will examine the differences and various factors leading to those differences. To facilitate this process, students will be asked to complete one short reading (~five pages) in advance of the first workshop day.
By the end of the workshop, students will have gained a better understanding of how international development teams connect activities to impact, while adding marketable development management skills to their professional toolkit.
This workshop is part of IPC’s Aid & Development series. At Aid & Development events, students build practical skills for future international development careers.
Participating students must agree to complete one short reading prior to the workshop. More details will be provided upon registration.
Facilitator
This workshop will be led by Dr. Amy Beck Harris, a lecturer at the Ford School of Public Policy.
Dr. Harris merges experience as a former foreign aid implementation professional working on USAID and World Bank projects with academic expertise in public management, international development, foreign aid contracting, and participatory development. Dr. Harris holds a PhD and MS in Public Policy and Management from the University of Washington, an MA in International Policy Studies from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and a BA in International Studies from Middlebury College.
