Required courses

Core Courses (27 credits)

The GHD core was thoughtfully designed in consultation with faculty, alumni and industry practitioners to address the skillsets that sought-after, agile development professionals need. Before honing in on your thematic, regional and skill-based areas of interest through your specializations and certificates, you will gain a strong foundation in quantitative analysis, project management and program design and evaluation in the core.

• GHDP 5001: Economics of Development: Growth (3 credits)
• GHDP 5002: Political Economy of International Development (3 credits)
• GHDP 5003: Quantitative Methods for Research and Evaluation in Development (3 credits)
• GHDP 5004: Strategy, Design and Implementation (3 credits)
• GHDP 5006: Evaluation of Programs and Projects (3 credits)
• GHDP 5012: Economics of Development: Poverty I (1.5 credits)
• GHDP 5013: Economics of Development: Poverty II (1.5 credits)
• GHDP 5007: Development Finance (3 credits)
• GHDP 5014: Ethical Leadership in Development (1.5 credits)
• GHDP 5098: Management Analysis and Practice I (1.5 credits)
• GHDP 5099: Management Analysis and Practice II (3 credits)

Specialization (9 credits) or certificate courses (15 credits)

While your core courses will prepare you to work across sectors and contexts, your specializations or certificates, gained through elective coursework, will allow you to dive deeper into your thematic, regional, and skill-based areas of expertise.

STEM-related course requirement (3 credits)

You will complete three additional credits of STEM-related courses, which can be selected from an extensive list. These should relate to your academic and personal interests.

Internships

To gain professional experience and apply what you learn to practice, you will complete two internships. The first takes place during the summer between your first and second year and is a chance to work abroad for 10-12 weeks. Where budgets allow, funding for travel expenses and a modest stipend are provided by the program. The second internship should be in your area of interest and will take place during the academic year.

Capstone project

In your capstone project, you will select a client and explore a significant issue pertinent to your specialization, such as a crucial policy or an emerging challenge. You’ll complete a thorough analysis involving multiple frameworks—economic, political or legal, among others—to develop actionable recommendations. Throughout the year, you’ll give various presentations to faculty and peers and conclude with a professional presentation and a comprehensive 40-page report for the client.

This project functions much like a real-world consulting job, providing deep insights into complex issues and tangible evidence of your expertise and analytical abilities. The deliverable includes a poster, a client-ready report and a non-proprietary version suitable for employment portfolios.

The precise content of the report and the types of analysis included depend on the issue and the needs of the client, but in most cases, the final report will consist of:

• Background, context and description of the issue
• Assessment of the broader development context into which the issue falls
• Selection criteria for screening alternatives
• Quantitative analysis (economic/financial, cost-benefit, statistical, multivariate regression)
• Policy and/or institutional analysis
• Political and/or legal analysis where appropriate
• Multiple options, alternatives and recommendations for action

Electives

In the Global Human Development program, 21 credits are completed through elective coursework. You can use these credits to complete a specialization or graduate certificate.

Specializations

You can use elective credits to pursue a specialization, which requires nine credits on a focused topic. You must select one specialization or graduate certificate at a minimum.

These are the specializations we offer:

Education and human capital

This specialization will help you understand the current status and likely future trends in education systems in poor and middle-income countries. You’ll explore the impact of policies and programs on changes in access to schooling, relevance and quality of schooling and student achievement. Examining the complex challenges facing countries seeking to allocate sufficient human and financial resources to meet demands, you’ll become familiar with and develop expertise in different components of the educational system as well as its role in current innovations.

Food, agriculture and rural livelihoods

This specialization deepens your appreciation of the range of social, economic and political challenges faced by rural communities in developing economies. You’ll learn about opportunities for rural economies to stimulate national economic growth, provide food for the urban population and even lead to an exportable food surplus. You’ll also understand the roles that food production, trade and food aid have played in addressing food insecurity and the new technologies and approaches that promise to mitigate food scarcity.

Environment and climate

In this specialization, you will examine the range of environmental challenges the world now faces and some of the trade-offs that programs and policymakers face. You’ll better understand the scientific underpinnings of natural resource management, climate change and climate mitigation strategies. You’ll increase appreciation for strategies that have worked to mitigate environmental challenges and achieved a measure of sustainability.

Quantitative analysis and evaluation

This specialization will expand your skills in quantitative analysis, building on core courses in statistics and economics. You’ll strengthen your aptitudes and knowledge in statistics, econometrics, evaluation, data analysis, research methods, research design, data modeling, data visualization and other quantitative skills and methods. We recommend that you first take two economics courses and then GHDP-625 (Applied Econometrics) in the spring semester of your second year to obtain this specialization.

Global health

The specialization gives a broad understanding of health determinants and global distribution by drawing upon both medicine and social science, including demography, economics, epidemiology, politics and sociology. You’ll better understand the pathology of major diseases, and how they are prevented, diagnosed and treated. Additionally, you will gain insights into cost-effectiveness analysis and cost-benefit methods in health services. You will also explore the impact of individual, cultural and behavioral factors on the utilization of health services. Furthermore, you will develop a comprehensive understanding of the burden of disease and the distribution of health services across diverse populations.

Humanitarian crises and displacement

This specialization gives an overview of the legal, political and socio-economic ramifications of humanitarian crises and forced displacement. You’ll understand these complex issues and how humanitarian and development work intersect. Courses focus on humanitarian operations, including design, management and implementation, drawing lessons from field experience worldwide.

You are required to take INAF 698 – Introduction to Humanitarian Emergencies. You’ll choose two of these electives:

• INAF 648: Migration and Development
• INAF 694: Seminar on Humanitarian Crises
• GHDP 622: Field Operations for Humanitarian Assistance

Program development and evaluation

In this specialization, you will learn to compile, organize and analyze quantitative and qualitative data and other information to inform the design, monitoring and evaluation of development projects, programs and policies. Coursework enables you to understand the nuances of objectives, contexts and timeframes across sectors to develop tailored and context-specific interventions to effectively address the needs of the population you aim to serve.

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Language proficiency

You can more effectively partner with the organizations you serve if you share a language. Because of this, you must pass an oral proficiency exam in a non-native language before graduating. To help, we provide language scholarships for one class per semester until you pass your exam.

Language courses do not fulfill the 48 credits required to graduate. You can take classes in the language you want to take the proficiency exam. If the language department thinks you’re proficient enough to pass the exam, you may take other language courses until you do so.

Georgetown offers a number of languages, however, your language of proficiency is not limited to them. The Faculty of Languages and Linguistics has more detailed information about the languages offered and the oral proficiency exam.

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Grade point average

You must achieve a 3.0 GPA to graduate.