General description and participation fee

The training programme is divided into 464 hours of frontal teaching, 36 hours of other forms of training, such as seminars. The activities are completed by 250 hours of internship. The course will be delivered in English. Those admitted to the course are required to pay a registration fee of Euro 4,000.00 (including the insurance fee).

Objectives

The master aims to train professionals capable of addressing rural development under different perspectives: technical, social, economic and institutional. In particular, rural development is still a high-priority process in many parts of the world, where local communities rely on the agricultural sector, which requires continuous adaptation to respond to the challenges of globalization, population growth, natural and anthropogenic threats. Moreover, the development of rural communities must be channeled along paths of environmental, social and economic sustainability, which is the only available guarantee of a lasting and solid balance between the institutional, cultural and natural context and planetary boundaries. The development operator in such contexts must possess the keys to understand the reality in which he/she operates and to favor processes of self-development, empowerment, construction of social and institutional capital. This is why the purpose of the Master in Cooperation for Rural and Agri-food Sustainable Development is to provide, as a priority, the technical skills to help design and implement rural, agricultural and agri-food development interventions in countries with limited resources and, at the same time, provide the tools to decode and interpret the social, institutional and economic context.

Professional opportunities

The main professional opportunities can be found in the following professional sectors:

• Non-governmental organizations;
• Community Institutions and Agencies;
• Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS);
• Local societies;
• Professional consultancy for Italian, EU and international institutions.