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• ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ load: 8 ECTS credits
• Language of instruction: English
• Location: Stadscampus​
• Faculty: Institute of Development Policy

Part I of this microcredential conceptualizes, defines and measures financial globalization, describes and critically assesses the current International Monetary and Financial Architecture, reappraises the use of external capital (financial globalization) in its relation to development from a general comprehensive framework, and discusses different types of (international) financial crises (banking, currency and debt crises). This knowledge is then applied to assess the impact of financial globalization on development and the poor, and to discuss what strategies and policy interventions are needed at different levels in order to make sure that financial globalization strategies can be translated into a virtuous process for development and poverty reduction. We not only look at the global and the macro (i.e. the Global South recipient country) level, but also look at micro-(local)level interventions.

Part II of the course looks at aid, and its relationship with development, from a political economy perspective, combining insights from political as well as economic sciences. It introduces the students into the history and politics of aid, including learning how to look up and interpret aid statistics; it also describes the evolving global aid architecture. Subsequently, it discusses the extensive literature on whether and how aid is good for development. In doing so it discusses the macro-economic and fiscal effects of aid on recipient countries, and the effects of different aid delivery modalities, aid heterogeneity and aid volatility. Moreover, students get acquainted with theories on (global) public goods, and aid as an instrument for financing these global public goods. Attention is also given to more recent, ‘innovative’ (global) funding instruments, as a lot of these more innovative instruments aim at crowding -in more private sources of finance for explicit development purposes. Finally, the course dives into the latest debates on the implications of recent crises such as the pandemic for aid.

The course is organised in 26 sessions of 2 hours, and 2 sessions of 3 hours.

The overall course is organised in two parts, with the first part organised in 12 sessions running from between mid-January and the mid of February, and the second part with 14 sessions running between mid-March until the end of March (+ 2* 3 hours hands-on sessions on aid statistics).

In both parts, the sessions are spread out over several sessions per week (quite concentrated in part II). Attendance in class is mandatory to allow for interaction, debate and group work. All sessions are organised in Antwerp (city campus). Students of the micro-credential course will participate in the same session as the students of the advanced master programmes in Development Studies of IOB. This group consists of a group of predominantly international students of about 20 students. The sessions will consist of lectures, debates, class discussions, directed self-study and exercises.

This micro-credential focuses on the following learning outcomes.