About the Masters in Development Practice

Developed with support from the MacArthur Foundation, the Masters Degree in Development Practice (MDP) at the University of Peradeniya is a two-year, professional degree program, designed to equip development practitioners to confront complex sustainable development challenges. By acquiring interdisciplinary knowledge and practical skills, cohorts of 25-30 students will prepare to work across different fields to design and manage integrated development interventions and to design appropriate policies to support sustainable development. The curriculum draws from a range of disciplines across Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Health Sciences and Management. The programme will focus on the Southern Asian region and emphasize the sustainable development of tropical coastal areas and small islands, preparing for climate change and risk reduction and management of disasters. The trans-disciplinary academic curriculum emphasizes the development of critical knowledge, skills and attributes of an effective professional.

FECT and MDP

FECT has been involved from the outset in developing the MDP program at the University of Peradeniya contributing to proposal development, liaison with Columbia University, linkages with Sri Lankan and international partners. At the launch of the MDP program on 24 September 2011, the Head of the Department of Economics and Statistics, Dr. Ranil Abayasekara placed on record his appreciation of those who had contributed to bringing the program to fruition: Dr. Lareef Zubair of the Earth Institute at Columbia, initiator and supporter of the program, Dr. Dileni Gunewardena (program/project coordinator), several academic staff members (within and outside the Department) who played a key role, university administrators, and staff of other universities.(see more) FECT draws on a history of working with the Earth Institute at Columbia University and a variety of South Asian organizations to: 

MDP is for...


practitioners who are engaged in sustainable development and for those interested in pursuing a career in

The program will reach out to prospective candidates from the South Asian region, and to those from outside the region who have an interest in regional issues and sustainable development issues.

The MDP at University of Peradeniya shall focus on:

Courses will be conducted at the University of Peradeniya. Lecturers and professionals from different disciplines will teach these courses. A three months internship is scheduled to begin at the end of the first academic year.


Partner Universities in the Global MDP Network



The program at the University of Peradeniya is a node of a global network of  22 Universities that are offering MDP. The Global Master's in Development Practice Secretariat, based at Columbia University's Earth Institute, helps coordinate the MDP network .


Image Source: http://globalmdp.org

The other MDP nodes are:

BRAC Development Institute, Bangladesh
CATIE, Costa Rica
Columbia University, USA
Emory University, USA
James Cook University, Australia
TERI University, India
Trinity College Dublin and University College, Dublin, Ireland
University of Denver, USA
University of Florida, USA
University of Ibadan, Nigeria
University of Minnesota, USA
University of Waterloo, Canada
University of Winnipeg, Canada
Tsinghua University, China
Sciences Po, France
Universidad de los Andes, Columbia
Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
University of Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegal
University of Botswana, Botswana
University of California--Berkeley, USA
University of California—Davis, USA