The third edition of the first-level Master programme “ICT For Development and Social Good” is ready to kick off

Enrolments are now open for the first university Master‘s degree in Italy focused specifically on the application of information and communications technologies to social and development cooperation projects. You can enrol and apply for a scholarship by September, 7th, 2020 (15:00 CEST).

This innovative Master programme was designed with the aim  to prepare professionals from development and cooperation sector, able them to use digital tools in the best way, to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of social programmes: to date, it has trained over 50 people. It addresses students from all over the world who already have a Bachelor Degree (three-year degree), professionals in the field of development cooperation who intend to specialize in the use of ICT4D, as well as social start-up members with a focus on digital technologies and members of non-profit organisations active in promoting social projects.

The Master is held in English language and offers a blended formula: live online and residential learning courses, the latter based at the Luigi Einaudi Campus in Turin, Italy. The lectures are provided by international lecturers and experts of development agencies of the highest level. It is strongly focused on the learning-by-doing methodology, providing a wide range of applicative exercises, case studies, crash courses (intensive courses), which are carried out in partnership with experts and organisations, aiming at developing the participants’ practical skills. 

In addition to the “Full Master Model”, applicants can choose an “Online Master Model”: at the end, a Certificate of Attendance  and a personalized Portfolio will be provided to those who will graduate. To learn more about the two models you can visit the website. Finally, scholarships are available to partially or totally cover the enrollment costs, for both participation models (Full Master and Online Master).

The idea of ​​the Master takes shape a few years ago from the successful collaboration between the University of Turin and Ong 2.0 in the context of the long-term advanced training course “ICT Innovation for Development”. This course was implemented by Ong2.0 within the “Innovazione per lo sviluppo” programme and delivered for two editions: 2014-2015 and 2015-2016, achieving enormous success, with over 430 applications coming from all the continents!

From a long-term advanced training course, thus the programme becomes a full-fledged Master’s degree, starting from 2018-2019 and thanks to the “Digital Transformation” project, funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) and the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation. The curriculum explores in detail the extraordinary potential (and the risks) of the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to development projects in agriculture, health, in the fight against poverty and in the defence of human rights.

From new methodologies for project management and social innovation to ICT for the collection and visualisation of data in development programmes; from mobile applications also operating offline in order to work in the Global South to new trends in the field of development such as the use of blockchain, without forgetting the importance of information security and the future implications of artificial intelligence: the topics addressed in the Master’s offer a comprehensive overview of the challenges in this area. Finally, during this edition 2020-2021, the Master’s programme will consider the impact of  Covid-19 pandemic and what are some ways to respond to it within the context of development and international cooperation.

You can download the Master’s presentation flyer here.