• Describe and outline how gender, race and other social and environmental inequality dimensions are integrated in business and development practices
• Present and assess how integration of gender, race and inequality dimensions in business and development practice are linked to sustainable development, particularly in the global south
• Discuss whether and how relevant theories of, and approaches to, gender, race and inequality analysis can inform development projects and innovative business practices aiming at sustainable development
• Critically analyze particular case studies of gender, race and inequality dimensions’ integration in business and development practices

Businesses and development organizations are increasingly embracing the task of contributing to multiple sustainable development goals toward a just and sustainable future. These include, addressing systemic disadvantages pertaining to gender, group identity (race, ethnicity), and social inequalities in their new business models, plans, strategies and innovations and, taking actions to limit climate change and improve natural ecosystems or to build resilience to vulnerable communities and societal groups. A key departing point for the course is gaining greater understanding of how business and development practices impacts communities and individuals in different ways.

Within businesses and development organizations, decision-makers, investors, employees, and other stakeholders are seeking ways to integrate and implement the social aspects of the ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance) framework; the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals); the Paris Agreement Climate Goals; and Biodiversity Goals. To achieve this integration, gaining understanding of how engagement with local communities and the natural environment can help contribute to outcomes of environmental justice, and ecological integrity becomes necessary. A failure to understand the significance of the heterogeneity of communities may potentially interfere not only with the fulfilment of policy objectives, but also with the effectiveness of business and sustainable development practices.

This course consists of three modules:

The first module covers scholarly and policy debates about the relationship between human, social, environmental, and economic development. The module covers feminist and postcolonial scholarship on development, women’s relationship to the economy and environment, and the significance of the historical legacies of race and racism in the origins of major development institutions for the legitimacy and effectiveness of these institutions today. This module will consider the intersectionality of race and gender in development, for example, through a focus on labor conditions and the attempts by business to empower disenfranchised women in the global South and its place in business and development practices.

The second module covers discussion and analysis of a series of country and regional case studies through lenses provided by theories of justice attentive to how race, gender and social and environmental inequality dimensions impact the prospects for businesses and development organizations to contribute to sustainable development. The case studies include the role of entrepreneurship, informality, community-based approaches, gender dynamics in specific economic areas like care and services; inequality in access to resources such as energy, land, water, food, survival strategies reproduction/fertility and population, ethical human relationship with the environment, cultural tensions between development practitioners and the recipients of development aid. The course aims to include examples and cases from all continents to demonstrate how diversity, community and individuality yield different approaches and opportunities for innovation across the global south.

The third module turns to sectoral and business and development practices and considers alternatives to mainstream development and investment models that purports to be more inclusive and sustainable. These include community and individual approaches though environmental justice lines. With examples of impact investments and gender-responsive impact investing and, participatory sustainable development. Such models will be analysed to consider both their implications for generating financial gains as well as sustainable green transition.