| Department of Economics and Natural Resources (2003/2004) | |||||||||||
| Earliest Possible Year | |||||||||||
| Duration | 1 semester | ||||||||||
| Credits | 6 (ECTS) | ||||||||||
| Course Level | Joint BSc and MSc | ||||||||||
| Examination | evaluation of project report Aid allowed Description of Examination: pass/fail, internal examiner | ||||||||||
| Organisation of Teaching | Students under Open University will be charged 3944 DKK in addition to the registration fee of 1056 DKK. | ||||||||||
| Block Placement | 3-week course June | ||||||||||
| Teaching Language | English | ||||||||||
| Optional Prerequisites | A basic understanding of economics | ||||||||||
| Restrictions | 30 KVL-students and approx. 10 external students | ||||||||||
| Course Objectives | |||||||||||
| Understanding of how policy measures affect economic growth, poverty, hunger, food security, and nutrition is very important. Similarly, understanding of how rural and agricultural development projects need good supporting policies for effectiveness is important. Inappropriate policies may cancel out the potential impact of otherwise effective projects and inappropriate projects may render good policies useless. The Course will provide guidelines for a combined design of policies and projects. | |||||||||||
| Course Contents | |||||||||||
| The goals of the Course are to strengthen: 1) the students' understanding of existing and alternative policy measures related to food security, agriculture, and natural resource management and how they affect the nutritional status and food security of various population groups as well as the agricultural sector and natural resources and 2) the ability of the students to assess the effects of alternative policy measures within the area of food, agriculture, and natural resource management. Developing country issues and policies will be emphasized. The Course will describe existing policy measures and analyze how they affect various population groups, with emphasis on low-income and food insecure groups. The interaction between policy measures in developing and industrialized countries as well as the impact of the latter on the former will be analyzed along with relevant international trade and institutional issues. The interaction between development projects and policy measures will be analyzed to assist in identifying the most appropriate combination of projects and policies. The Course will discuss and analyze a large number of policy measures in various countries and seek general lessons regarding the relationships between policies and effects while identifying ways of selecting the most effective measures in specific situations. The content of the Course will include past trends, current status and future projections for food security, demand and supply, nutritional status, population, urbanization, and related variables; basic relationships between government policy and food security, nutrition, and health; gender aspects; diet trends and their causes; globalization, trade, and technology; natural resource management; markets, infrastructure, and institutions; consumer, producer, and government behavior; analytical methods; and communication of policy-related knowledge to decision-makers. | |||||||||||
| Teaching And Learning Methods | |||||||||||
| The Course will consist of lectures, panel discussions, general discussion, training sessions and report preparation and presentations. The lecturers will be members of the KVL, Wageningen, and Cornell University faculties, senior research staff members from IFPRI, and guest lecturers. Additional details are shown in the tentative list of lectures on course homepage http://kursus.kvl.dk/foodpolicy/ The Course will be limited to 30 students and other participants of which it is expected that at least one-third will be from developing countries, not enrolled as students at KVL but working on development projects or policies. It is expected that at least 5 of the students from KVL will be nationals of developing countries, thus resulting in approximately one-half developing country nationals and one-half nationals from Denmark. Such diversity of background of the participants is believed to further enhance the value of the discussions and interactions. The course is open to students at the BSc-, MSc-, and PhD-levels and individuals currently working in development projects or on policy in developing countries. All students and other participants are expected to have a basic knowledge of development economics. | |||||||||||
| Course Litterature | |||||||||||
| Pinstrup-Andersen, Per, Seeds of Contention, 2001 IFPRI publications, Pinstrup-Andersen, Per and Rajul Pandya-Lorch, The Unfinished Agenda, 2001 IFPRI publications, Other references will be added | |||||||||||
| Course Coordinator | |||||||||||
| Per Pinstrup-Andersen, ppa@life.ku.dk, Institute of Food and Resource Economics/International Economics and Policy Division, Phone: 35336851 | |||||||||||
| Study Board | |||||||||||
| Study Committee NSN | |||||||||||
| Course Scope | |||||||||||
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