Rural Development and Communication
Master of Management of Development
Career opportunities
This master is intended for professionals working within Government and Non-Government rural development organisations as a project/programme coordinator/manager or as a specialist/consultant.
In the position of project/programme coordinator/manager, professionals coordinate the work of their department. They implement national or organisational policies into departments' programmes of activities. They facilitate necessary processes of change so that new policies are adequately mainstreamed in the mandate and activities of the organisation. They contribute to and supervise in the development and implementation of monitoring and evaluation programmes. They are responsible for and collaborate in capacity building of their staff. They establish and maintain networks with related organisations and institutions.
In the position of specialist/consultant, the specialists work in a specific professional field. They advise the management and staff members with other disciplines on issues related to their specialisation. They contribute to the effective incorporation of these issues in the organisation. They work in interdisciplinary teams. They collaborate in development of monitoring and evaluation tools and in programme and project planning. They do research in their specific field of work. They provide training for staff of their own organisation and related organisations. They make sure that issues related to their specialisation are on the agenda of their organisation and on the agenda of related organisations.
Within these positions, professionals perform some or all of the following roles: advisor, planner, facilitator, lobbyist, manager, policy maker, and researcher.
When an organisation reorganises its service-provision and information management, there is often a considerable need for new management styles, and thus for capacity building. Various sources and activities - such as policy reforms, customer surveys and the formulation of funding conditions - suggest this applies at all organisational levels.
In some cases, complex organisational problems need to be addressed; in others, staff needs to improve their ability to design and implement new strategies and activities for information and communication.
Jane Wanjiru from Kenya
Head Appropriate Household Technology section, Ministry of agriculture
"I work in a system where we persuasively transfer technology from researchers to farmers and categorize farmers into innovators, adopters and laggards. It is when I joined TREAT course that I understood the social nature of technical practice, what farmers do or do not do has a reason. I thought about how to analyse complex realities like rape, child marriages, drug and alcohol abuse. I learned to integrate instructive or best practices into narratives, entertainment and communicating to the audiences how they can tackle complex issues. My organisation works on pre-determined objectives, but I learnt I have a role to change my organisation."
Beatrice Oruoyehu from Nigeria
Directorate of Employment, Bwari local government
"The course for me has been quite challenging. It has also made me de-learn some of my previous notions and now I understand the fact that tacit knowledge could become explicit by sharing. Team work and brainstorming have been utilized greatly to generate ideas for change and I now appreciate the concepts of social learning, negotiation and public participation. Sharing knowledge and experiences with colleagues made such tasks easy. Though I must confess that this has not been smooth sailing all through."
"To keep pace with developments new competences can be needed."
"How to react to a dynamic and changing environment?"