Curso 2023/2024 | guias.usal.es

Curso Académico 2023-24

GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS

GRADO EN ESTUDIOS GLOBALES/GLOBAL STUDIES

1. Subject Information

(Date last modified: 26-05-23 13:57)

Code: 109037
Plan: 290
ECTS: 4.00

Type: Opcional
Year: 3
Duration: Second semester

Language: ENGLISH

Area

Departament: Economía e Historia Económica

Virtual platform: Campus Virtual de la Universidad de Salamanca

Professor Information

Profesor/Profesora: José Antonio Ortega Osona
Group/s: Único

Centre: Fac. Economía y Empresa

Office: 234

Office hours: Contactar con el profesor

Web address: https://diarium.usal.es/jaortega/

E-mail: jaortega@usal.es
Phone: 923 294500 Ext 3172

2. Association of the subject matter within the study plan

Curricular area to which the subject matter pertains.

Optativas

Purpose of the subject within the curricular area and study plan.

6th semester elective course providing a hands-on approach to monitoring development goals.

Professional profile.

International Organizations, NGOs, Development, international firms.

3. Prerequisites

There are no formal prerequisites for this course. In terms of substance, it is related to other courses in the degree like “Methods and techniques”, “International Relations”, “Poverty and Inequality”, “Development Policy” or “International Organizations”. A background in basic statistics is useful, as well as knowledge of the international development agenda and the SDGs. No prior knowledge of computing is required, but previous experience with Excel and R is useful.

4. Learning objectives

This is a hand-on course on monitoring progress towards development goals with a global perspective. We will review the theory behind development indicators and the current development framework, including the process of setting up goals and a monitoring framework. Attention will focus on the current Sustainable Development Goals and composite development indicators such as the Human Development Index.

Practical work will be based on monitoring development goals using R. We lean how to obtain official data for development indicators from sources like the UN, the World Bank or Eurostat, how to process the data and put it into use, producing documents that combine analysis, graphs and tables to communicate on progress towards development goals.

The objectives of the course are, in particular:

Learn how a development framework such as the SDGs is adopted, and the role of indicators in global monitoring.
Learn efficient techniques to gather, manage and analyse global development data.
Relate global development goals to applied development practice, either at the global, regional, National or sub-National level.

5. Contents

Theory.

What makes a good indicator, the role of indicators and composite indicators in development goal setting. How is a monitoring framework adopted.
The specific process of adoption and monitoring of the SDGs and its role in policy development.
Basic concepts in data science: gathering and analysing data.
The role of information on the evaluation of development practice and identification of priority areas for the achievement of development goals.
A complete perspective on development policy from the adoption of goals and a monitoring framework to specific policy recommendations based on relevant data.

Practice.

Analysis of specific examples of development indicators, composite indicators and monitoring reports
Hands-on work with development indicators in R: getting SDG official data with goalie, development data from the World Bank, and setting it up for analysis using the tidyverse.
Basic tools for data wrangling, analysis and reporting: regional weighted averages, line graphs, maps, point and bar plots, summary tables.
Team work on a specific monitoring example with a focus on data based policy analysis and communication.

6. Competences acquired

Basic / General.

CB3

CB4

CB5

CG1

CG3

CG5

Specific.

CE2

CE3

CE13

CE14

CE22

CE23

7. Teaching methods

Diverse methodologies are applied to ensure progress on the theoretical and practice aspects.

In-class lectures on indicator theory, current development practice and basic data science concepts.
Examples of analysis provided in Studium and through https://rpubs.com/jaortega
Practice sessions in the computer room.
Moodle questionnaires and quizzes.
A team project on a specific example of development monitoring, supervised by the professor, leading to an html document published on the web and presented to the rest of the class.

8. Anticipated distribution of the use of the different teaching methods

9. Resources

Reference books.

Basic references

Ortega, J. A. (2023) Monitoring global indicators with R and the tidyverse, Rpubs.com. https://rpubs.com/jaortega/tidyverse-goalie-2023 https://rpubs.com/jaortega/tidyverseWB2023

Ritchie, Roser, Mispy, Ortiz-Ospina (2023), Measuring progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.SDG-Tracker.org, website.

Hadley Wickham, Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel, Garrett Grolemund (2023) R for Data Science, 2nd Ed., O’Reilly. https://r4ds.hadley.nz/

UN (2023) Sustainable Development Goal indicators website, https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/, website

Complementary references

UNECE (2021) Measuring and Monitoring progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. https://unece.org/unece-and-sdgs/publications/measuring-and-monitoring-progress-towards-sustainable-development-goals

Sachs, J., Lafortune, G., Kroll, C., Fuller, G., Woelm, F. (2022). From Crisis to Sustainable Development: the SDGs as Roadmap to 2030 and Beyond. Sustainable Development Report 2022. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.. https://sdgindex.org/reports/sustainable-development-report-2022/

UN (2020), Global indicator framework for the Sustainable Development Goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN, New York, https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/indicathttps://unstats.un.org/sdgs/indicators/indicators-list/ors/indicators-list/

UN (2020), The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022, UN, New York https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/progress-report/

UNSDSN (2015), Indicators and a monitoring framework for the sustainable development goals: Launching a data revolution for the SDGs. Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Av https://resources.unsdsn.org/indicators-and-a-monitoring-framework-for-sustainable-development-goals-launching-a-data-revolution-for-the-sdgs

Software

R (https://www.R-project.org/), RStudio (https://rstudio.com/) and specific packages (tidyverse, goalie, WBstats)

Other references: Specific references and materials will be provided in Studium.

10. Assessment

General considerations.

Evaluation is based on demonstration that the specific objectives have been achieved in terms of learning objectives. Specific evaluation tools include individual moodle quizzes and the final document produced in the team project.

Assessment criteria.

Being able to gather and analyse development indicators data and communicate on progress towards the achievement of international development goals.
Capacity to choose a relevant instance of analysis, and to carry out a coherent and complete analysis of global development data with a policy orientation.

Assessment tools.

Evaluation will be based on continuous evaluation and the final project. There will be no exam.

Quizzes and class activities: 40% of the final grade

In-class participation: 20% of the final grade

Final project: 40% of the final grade

Assessment recommendations.

To excel in the course it is important to combine the theoretical background, being able to relate the analysis of indicators to specific development goals, and to circumvent the practical challenges in working with data and carrying out a relevant analysis.

Guidelines in the case of failing the subject.

Identification of the specific reasons for unsatisfactory performance and specific work to circumvent it.

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