Dr Mahvish Shami CON.8.12

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Development Management (LSE and Sciences Po). This course is available on the MSc in Development Management. This course is not available as an outside option.

This unit is a compulsory core half unit course for the MSc Development Management. Students work on a consultancy report in Autumn and Winter Terms.

Students will gain practical experience of dealing with current policy issues and best practice in the field of international development by working as a part of a team on a live consultancy project for a real client. The consultancies are based around an experiential learning format. Clients provide Terms of Reference for the student groups to work on. Students receive guidance from academic staff through a structured supervision process and support from a staff coach through formal workshops.

Students are allocated to consultancy teams usually comprising between three and six people. Students can express preferences for particular clients but may not be allocated to one of these. The roster of clients and projects changes every year.

The consultancy project begins in Autumn Term with client reports due in the Winter Term. The client report and final presentation form part of the assessment.

The course links the practical management of a development consultancy with broader issues of managing development.

This course is delivered through a combination of 4 lectures and two student led formative problem-solving sessions (conducted over zoom) and one session dedicated to student inception report presentations in the AT and another 3-student led formative problem-solving sessions (conducted over zoom) in the WT. In addition, consultancy groups are expected to meet informally for two hours every week from week 2 -11 in the AT.  The course is intended to take about 30 working days per person over two terms.

The lectures focus on two elements:

1. Dealing with the administration and management of a development consultancy at a group level as well as a

2. Critical engagement with development management interventions in practice (covering topics such as managerialism and results-based management, the politics of data, accountability, professionalisation, certification and credentialism, the political economy of projects/evaluation and log frames). 

Autumn Term

Weeks 2, 3, 4 and 5: 2-hour lectures covering 1 and 2 above

Week 6: Reading Week

Weeks 7 & 11: Problem-solving drop-in sessions (zoom based)

Weeks 8 & 9: Inception report presentations

Winter Term

Weeks 1, 3 and 7: Problem-solving drop-in sessions (zoom based)

Final presentations in week 11.

Students will participate in consultations with coaches to assist groups to formulate their proposals and negotiate their projects with their commissioning agencies.  The inception report presentations in week 11 also provide verbal formative feedback from peers and coaches.

There is no specific reading for this course as this will reflect the specific project Terms of Reference that students work to.

Project (70%, 8000 words), other (10%) and group presentation (20%) in the WT.

Other (10%) = peer review (360 review)

Final client presentations are at the end of the Winter Term and are scheduled by the students in consultation with academic staff and the client. Students should be aware that presentations to clients may have to take place in the week after the end of WT, and students should plan accordingly and be available to participate if required.