Course Description

The most urgent problems that we face today are fundamentally global. They require nothing less than concerted, planet-wide action if we are to secure a long-term future. Since 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has attracted much international attention. They are regarded as a powerful instrument for leveraging transformative change in the way governments make policy decisions and how business function. This course will examine the SDGs as a political instrument for change and part of the solution to global problems we face today. The topics will cover the role of political institutions, human rights, SDGs data ecosystem, technological innovation, international trade, and multinational corporations as well as international efforts to tackle conflict and terrorism, food and water problems, global warming, and biodiversity. The course will also cover the role of official development assistance in a changing international landscape.

A primary focus of this course will be the following.

• The course will give the students the key concepts to discuss Sustainable Development Goals and students will recognize the key concepts, relevant empirical evidences, and current policy challenges in each of 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

• The course is designed to help first-year students to pick the “right” course in their second and third year of their program based on their area of interest.

• The course is to give students knowledge of relevance for their future career in international development, and find internships and other career opportunities.

This course is primarily intended to be a first-year undergraduate student regardless of their major, but we also welcome a second or third year student.

Course Schedule

1. Review (Matsuura)

2. Comparative Political Institutions (Matsuura)

3. Human Rights (Matsuura)

4. Data and SDGs (Matsuura)

5. Industry Structure and Technological Innovation (Matsuura)

6. International Trade (Matsuura)

7. Multinational Corporations and Their Social Responsibility (Matsuura)

8. Urgent Problems that the World Faces Today (Ihara)

9. Conflict, Terrorism, and Justice (Ihara)

10. World Food Supply and Demand (Ihara)

11. Global Water Problems (Ihara)

12. Global Warming(Ihara)

13. Biodiversity (Ihara)

14. JICA and the International Development (Ihara)

15. Wrap Up

Lecture 1. Review (Matsuura)

Lecture 2. Comparative Political Institutions (Matsuura)

• Chapter 2,3, Voigt, S. (2020). Constitutional Economics: A Primer: Cambridge University Press.

Lecture 3. Human Rights (Matsuura)

• Marks, S. (2017) “Human Rights: A Brief Introduction” Program on Human Rights in Development. Boston: Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health

• Chapter 17, Sen, A (2011). Ideas of Justice, Harvard University Press

• Matsuura, H. ”Health Equity, Justice, and Human Rights” , Lectures on Health Economics (in Japanese, will be distributed)

Lecture 4. Data Ecosystem and SDGs (Matsuura)

• Avendano, R., Jütting, J., & Kuhm, M. (2021). Counting the Invisible: The Challenges and Opportunities of the SDG Indicator Framework for Statistical Capacity Development. In The Palgrave Handbook of Development Cooperation for Achieving the 2030 Agenda (pp. 329-345). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

• Matsuura, H. ”Human Rights-Based Approach to Data and the SDGs Indicators as Human Rights Indicators: Measurement and Analysis”, Demography of Sustainable Development Goals (in Japanese, will be distributed)

Lecture 5. Industry Structure and Technological Innovation (Matsuura)

• Chapter3, Allen, Robert C. 2011. Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press,

• Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson. 2005. “The Rise of Europe: Atlantic Trade, Institutional Change, and Economic Growth,” American Economic Review, 95(3): 546-579

Lecture 6. International Trade (Matsuura)

• Frankel, J. and Romer, D., “Does Trade Cause Growth?,” American Economic Review 89:3 (1999), 379–99.

• Bernhofen, D. and Brown, J., “An Empirical Assessment of the Comparative Advantage Gains from Trade: Evidence from Japan,” American Economic Review 95:1 (2005), 208–25.

• Rose, A., “Do We Really Know that the WTO Increases Trade?,” American Economic Review 94:1 (2004), 98-114.

Lecture 7. Multinational Corporations and Their Social Responsibility (Matsuura)

• PwC Japan (2016) “Business and Sustainable Development Goal” downloadable from https://www.pwc.com/jp/ja/japan-knowledge/archive/assets/pdf/corporate-sustainability-sdgs1604-2.pdf (Japanese)

Lecture 8. Urgent Problems that the World Faces Today (Ihara)

• No reading

Lecture 9. Conflict, Terrorism, and Justice (Ihara)

• Ishii, H. (2014) “Meaning of Human Security: Disarmament, Development and Peace” http://libir.soka.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10911/4019/1/shk28-001.pdf (Japanese)

• Collier, P. (2007). “Chapter 2: The Conflict Trap “ in “The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest

• Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It”. New York: Oxford University Press. (Japanese Translation Available)

Lecture 10. World Food Supply and Demand (Ihara)

• Sachs, J. Chapter 10 (English)

• Sen, A. (1999) “Chapter 7 – Famines and other crises” in in “Development as freedom”. Oxford: Oxford University Press (Japanese Translation Available)

• Sen, A. (1999) “Chapter 9 – Population, food and freedom” in “Development as freedom”. Oxford: Oxford University Press” (Japanese Translation Available)

• Bremner, J. (2012) “Population and Food Security: Africa’s Challenge,” Population Reference Bureau, Policy Brief, February. http://www.prb.org/Publications/PolicyBriefs/population-food-security-africapart1.aspx (English)

Lecture 11. Global Water Problems (Ihara)

• Ward P, de Moel H, Varls O (2010) Is physical water scarcity a new phenomenon? Global assessment of water shortage over the last two millennia., Environmental Research Letters

• Oki, T (2016) "Future of Water--Global Risk and Japan", Iwanami Shoten (Japanese)

Lecture 12. Global Warming(Ihara)

• Sachs, J. Chapter 13 (English)

• Ministry of the Environment (2012) “Chapter 2: The Current Situation and the Challenges concerning Biodiversity” in “The National Biodiversity Strategy of Japan 2012-2020 Roadmap towards the Establishment of an Enriching Society in Harmony with Nature” http://www.env.go.jp/press/files/en/528.pdf (Japanese Translation Available)

Lecture 13. Biodiversity (Ihara)

• Field, B. ( 2005). “The Economics of Biodiversity Preservation.” Chapter 19 in Barry Field, Natural Resource Economics, Waveland Press

Lecture 14. JICA and the International Development (Ihara)

• JICA (2017) “JICA Profile” https://www.jica.go.jp/english/publications/brochures/c8h0vm0000avs7w2-att/jicaprofile_en.pdf (Japanese Translation Available)

• JICA (2016) “JICA’s Position Paper on SDGs: Toward AchievingSustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” https://www.jica.go.jp/aboutoda/sdgs/ku57pq00001qfok2-att/JICA_torikumi_e.pdf (Japanese Translation Available)

Lecture 15. Wrap Up

• No reading