Sustainable Development: From Ideas to Action at Azim Premji University

About the Programme

Sustainable Development: From Ideas to Action is a self-paced online course that looks at one of the biggest challenges of our time, balancing economic growth with a healthy environment. It makes the case that in a country as large and diverse as India, sustainable development has to be participatory and flexible, changing to meet people's real needs rather than following one fixed plan. The course is built to get more field-level workers involved in the shift towards sustainability, and to help them add a sustainability lens to the development work they're already doing.

Eligibility

Open to anyone aged 18 or above, with no other formal eligibility criteria stated. It's especially useful for people adding a sustainability dimension to ongoing development work in urban or rural settings.

Curriculum Overview

• Unit 1, Introduction: what sustainable development is, its global history, India's own story with sustainability, and the 3E framework for sustainable development.
• Unit 2, Main Debates: the global debate on who should prioritise sustainability and why, where different stakeholders in India stand, and the policy tools supporting action.
• Unit 3, What Can We Do? Action by Local Institutions: a decision-making framework for sustainable development, and what Panchayats and Civil Society Organisations can do.
• Unit 4, What Can We Do? Actions by Individuals: public spaces, solid waste in peri-urban areas, water resource management, textiles in a rural setting, and pulling it all together, from ideas to action.

Programme Highlights

• Four units with 3 to 4 short videos each, about 20 minutes long, watched at one video a week.
• A short multiple-choice quiz at the end of every unit.
• A monthly one-hour online discussion with instructors to ask questions, talk through topics, and share examples from participants' own work.
• Guest speakers and case studies from people working directly in the field, including a former Panchayat President and practitioners in water and sanitation.
• A certificate of participation for anyone who scores at least 50% across the quizzes.

Fees & Financial Aid

INR 1,180, including tax. Seats are given on a first-come, first-served basis.