International Development Courses

Microfranchising is a new methodology adapting some of the methods of commercial franchising to meet the needs of the economically active poor in developing countries. Developed a decade ago in Asia and used widely in Africa, it has been very successful to help hundreds of thousands of women’s businesses grow more rapidly and with more stability. The Western Hemisphere is a new frontier for microfranchising. There are few examples in industrialized countries despite the fact that commercial franchising plays a major role in the US economy, especially in the retail and service sector. The course will examine successful examples as well as examines why it has not yet been successful elsewhere.

Urban migration, climate change and natural hazards pose some of the greatest unfolding challenges of the 21st century. The need for communities to recover from disasters in an increasingly urban and warmer world will provide new opportunities for practitioners to evolve urban disaster recovery strategies. The Post 2015 Development Agenda and the Post 2015 Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction highlight these challenges. This mini-course will examine these themes using case studies from recent disasters in Haiti, Chile, Japan and the United States.