Contemporary Developing Countries: Entrepreneurial Solutions to Intractable Problems (at FAS)

This course will provide a framework (and multiple lenses) through which to think about the salient economic and social problems of the five billion people of the developing world, and to work in a team setting toward identifying entrepreneurial solutions to such problems. Case study discussions will cover challenges and solutions in fields as diverse as health, education, technology, urban planning, and arts and the humanities. The modules themselves will be team-taught by faculty from engineering, the arts, urban design, healthcare and business. The course will embrace a bias toward action by enabling students to understand the potential of individual agency in addressing these problems. All students will participate in the development of a business plan or grant proposal to tackle their chosen problem in a specific developing country/region, emphasizing the importance of contextualizing the entrepreneurial intervention. The student-team will ideally be comprised of students with diverse backgrounds from across the University.

No prerequisites. Jointly offered at Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) as SW47, Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) as DEV-338, Harvard  T. H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH) as GHP-568, Harvard Medical School as IND 520, Harvard Graduate School of Design (DES) as SES 5375, and Harvard Law School (HLS) as 2543.

Classes will be held on Harvard University Cambridge campus in Sever Hall room 113.

Offered jointly with the Business School as 1266, the School of Public Health as GHP 568, the Kennedy School as PED-338, the Law School as HLS 2543 and the Graduate School of Education as A-819.

HBS: Fall; Q1Q2; 3 credits

NO AUDITORS. The course is designed around active participation and the completion of a final group project.