ED75.9017 Forced Migration and Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-region

Instructor Dr.Philippe Doneys (Gender and Development Studies)

Credit 1 credit

Objectives:

The course aims to understand various forms of forced migration and trafficking in persons in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region (GMS), including refugee flows, disaster related migration, labor trafficking, sex slavery and other form of involuntary servitude. It will examine both disaster-related and political forms of forced migration (including statelessness), as well as human trafficking, including why women tend to be particularly vulnerable to involuntary servitude and sex trafficking, and why men are often overlooked as trafficked persons for labor purposes. We will end with a discussion of how policies affect, prevent or cause forced migration and with a presentation of key challenges when conducting research on forced migration and human trafficking.

ED75.9023 Gender Issues in Global Economy

Instructor Prof.Kyoko Kusakabe (Gender and Development Studies)

Credit 1 credit

Objectives:

Globalization and regional economic integration are features that characterize the economy nowadays. The course discusses gender issues under such economic globalization. Patterns in economic development differs under different states and locations, and gender issues and relations are shaped by and also shape the economy. The course provides key concepts in understanding gender issues in economic globalization.

ED76.13 Natural Resources Degradation and Conservation

Instructor Prof.Rajendra P. Shrestha (National Resources Management)

Credit 3 credits

Objectives:

Degradation of natural resources has undermined the supporting capacity of the ecosystem with eventual consequences on the issues like food security, poverty alleviation, climate change and biodiversity loss. This is especially important in developing countries including those in Asia. The objective of the course is to introduce the major types of natural resources degradation in Asia, techniques and tools to monitor them, and to design appropriate conservation practices.

ED77.9012 Socio-ecological Systems Approach and Adaptive Governance

Instructor Dr.Thi Phuoc Lai Nguyen (Regional and Rural Development Planning)

Credit 1 credit

Objectives:

Nature and society sequentially respond socio-environmental changes as key features of the social, economic, climate and ecological systems evolve. However, it is often difficult to predict such changes because the interaction of a range of elements in the socio-ecological systems results in complex and dynamic behavior of the systems. In addition, societal responses may be governed by cultural and socio-economic constraints. Adaptive governance of complex socio­ ecological systems in the changing world is emerges important for determining desirable responses, such as ‘resilience’ and ‘sustainability’.

The course aims to introduce an interdisciplinary perspective of adaptive governance in the light of social-ecological and environmental change and transformation. It introduces theoretical understanding and insight of complex social-ecological systems and the concepts of adaptive governance in socio-ecological systems in theory and practices. It will also examine practical case studies on how resilience and adaptive capacity building can be examined from the local perspective to the national and regional perspective. Special emphasis will be given to the evaluation and identification of learning processes and changes.

ED82.9008 Community and Adaptation to Climate Change

Instructor Dr.Mokbul N Ahmad (Regional and Rural Development Planning)

Credit 1 credit

Objectives:

The main objective of the course is to make students understand the key challenges to adaptation to climate change at the community level. It deals with the concepts and types of adaptation, technological challenges, the role of governments, NGOs, civil society and international organizations in promoting adaptation. 

ED79.9013 Urban Resilience Assessment

Instructor Dr.Vilas Nitivattananon (Urban Environmental Management)

Credit 2 credits

Objectives:

Rapid urbanization and external risks including climate change creating new risks and challenges in the area of sustainable urban development and management. Urban resilience is a versatile concept, which helps frames the difficult process of tackling the environmental, social, and economic challenges of modern cities in a positive way. However, similar to other broad concepts such as sustainability, resilience is inherently vague. This course is designed to prepare people for careers and leadership roles in resilience assessment in an urban context. It is designed to provide students with the multidisciplinary knowledge and skills required to understand successful approaches, tools and practices for the assessment of urban resilience. The course also covers specific topics to support the integration of resilience into sustainable urban development and management, particularly multiple-scale and multi-sectoral resilience assessment methods and capacity building.