Length Length

7 modules, accessible at any time

Effort Effort

2-4 hours per module

Price Price

FREE

Languages Languages

English

Video Transcripts Video Transcripts

English, Español, Français

Prerequisites Prerequisites

None

Requirements Requirements

An internet connection to access course materials

DEVELOPMENT
Analyse the latest issues and debates about global environmental change, sustainability, and resilience

DEVELOPMENT
COMPLEXITY
Understand complexity and complex systems in ways that help analyze the world and diverse development contexts

COMPLEXITY
RESILIENCE THINKING
Identify cutting-edge and surprising ways that core concepts of resilience thinking can be applied in practice

RESILIENCE THINKING
TOOLS FOR PRACTICE
Understand the evolution of resilience thinking tools, and master those that can support your own activities

TOOLS FOR PRACTICE

Overview

This course is self-paced. You can enroll and complete the course materials at any time.

With concerns about climate and global environmental changes, extreme events, and increases in social, economic, and political shocks, the concept of resilience is proving popular across a range of sectors as a way to understand and respond to our surprise-riddled world.

Resilience thinking includes the ability to persist in the face of challenges, adapt to new realities, or transform to fundamentally new paths for development. Resilience thinking is more than a theory, more than a set of tools. It is a way of seeing the world, offering a new perspective of how change in the world happens. Resilience thinking provides a new approach for building understanding and taking action in a complex world that is deeply interconnected and ever-changing. A world where controlled, planned approaches, existing knowledge and current solutions are not enough to effectively respond to the challenges in a highly dynamic and uncertain future. Addressing poverty, injustice, and inequality, and advancing human well-being remains a major ambition and challenge for the 21st century, and it now needs to take into account that development will happen in a context radically different from the past.

This course includes case studies and examples from practitioners who are working with resilience concepts in diverse contexts around the world. It is supported by strong scientific evidence and committed to being a platform to bring together and spark collaboration between individuals and organizations from around the world who are driven to transform development.

structure

  • Pre-recorded lectures
  • Readings
  • Quizzes
  • Discussion forum

Lead Faculty

  • Faculty Image

    Michele-Lee Moore

    University of Victoria

  • Faculty Image

    Johan Rockström

    Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

This course is for

Development practitioners, policymakers and managers within development agencies around the world, as well as those working in the field with an interest in resilience thinking as it relates to development policy and practice

Students who are interested in the intersection of resilience, sustainability and development, and with a general interest in both local and global sustainability challenges

Anyone with an interest in development, resilience thinking, and sustainability

Questions?

Course logistics and requirements

This course is self-paced, so learners can join anytime and learn whenever and wherever is best for them.

Please note that this course is not facilitated by a course team. We encourage students to engage with one another via the discussion forum. Any specific questions can be sent to the SDG Academy team at courses@sdgacademy.org.

Certificates

Please note that this course is being offered audit-only, and therefore no certificate will be granted. The course is not credit-bearing on its own. However, some students have been able to negotiate for academic credit with their universities. Speak with your institution to see if this is an option for you.

syllabus

Prologue: Welcome to the Course – An introduction to the course and what to expect

Module 1: Setting the Scene - Development in a changing world

We have entered the geological epoch of the Anthropocene, the age of humans. Humanity is now the largest driving force of change on the planet. What does this mean for development? In this new reality, development must be able to navigate slow and rapid change, complexity, and surprise. This module will set the scene for how resilience thinking can help development practice navigate uncertainty.

Module 2: Why does the world seem so complex?

In the Anthropocene, why does the world seem so complex? In this module, we define what we mean by complexity, and some ways to think about complexity in the context of development.

Module 3: Transformations and innovation for rethinking development practice

Development practice as we know it needs to be able to navigate uncertainties. However, the business-as-usual approach is not working in the Anthropocene. A new way of thinking about innovation and the capacity to transform is necessary in order to thrive in the face of uncertainty and change. This module defines transformation, outlines some of the science around transformation, provides examples of transformative development practice and reimagines the role of innovation.

Module 4: The journey from theory to practice

Modules 1-3 provide a strong foundation for why, theoretically, resilience thinking could help transform development practice in the Anthropocene. Module 4 highlights a number of approaches and tools that can help practitioners, policymakers, and others rethink their development interventions.

Module 5: Reconnecting the social-ecological-cultural for rethinking development practice

This module highlights the importance of seeing the social, ecological, and cultural as inseparable. It also emphasizes that for development to succeed in the Anthropocene, all of these dimensions must be considered together in development practice.

Module 6: Why the global matters for transforming development practice

This module explores how humanity’s actions in one place and time, can have surprising consequences for other places and times. This module explores why the global matters for local development and how changes at the local level can scale up and have global implications.

Module 7: Alternative futures for development practice

Knowing all this, where do we go from here? This final module uses “futures thinking” as an approach towards development practice. The different chapters present ways of thinking that can help us change the present for the better, through imagining positive alternative futures for development and indeed, for humanity.

Epilogue: Reflections from the instructors and a call to action