"International Development" specialization

Today, Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia are home to a large number of international and local development organizations. These organizations cooperate with state institutions and local communities to provide assistance in many areas of people’s life. Unfortunately, such international organizations often come to the region with a baggage of already established (mostly Western) forms of development knowledge that may not fit local cultural, social, economic, and political realities. This is one of the reasons why many such projects fail. International organizations need anthropologists who have both a good understanding of global development concepts and practices, as well as deep knowledge of the local socio-cultural context. Our program is going to prepare development specialists, who can work as cultural brokers between local communities and donors.