In recent years, the actors involved in the fight against poverty have become increasingly aware of the effects of their actions. The concept of human development widens the horizons of economic development and represents a new objective for policies and action on a local and global scale. It challenges established paradigms of growth in income, top-down democratization and cultural homogenization.

The challenge of applying the human development paradigm to action on a local as well as global scale is one of the greatest challenges that the new millennium offers. Its main objective is to fight widespread poverty in countries belonging to different geographical and economic areas throughout the world.

Although opportunities for development are important, these opportunities must be accessible to everyone in a global social and economic growth process. Action must focus on the more vulnerable categories in order to create concrete ways of escaping from perverse mechanisms such as poverty traps.

The master’s degree in Human Development and Food Security, intends to take up this challenge. It aims to understand local reasons for poverty and its global roots and include the poor in this process by adopting thorough methods of research and local level analysis. It will also stress the importance of food security as a way out of chronic poverty traps.

Transformation through understanding. The course is based on providing reference frameworks and operating techniques for interpretation and understanding. The aim of the course is to increase the know-how of the actors in development policies, both technical project staff and project managers, so that intervention can be defined correctly and well-informed and knowledgeable decisions taken.

The ability to create bottom-up development strategies, distinguish between means and ends from a human development perspective without neglecting priorities in the social, economic, cultural and environmental reality that we work in, the conscience to treat populations and cultures in the same way without discrimination for effective participation in local communities and the responsibility of ensuring that the approach used is not conditioned by any ideology, are some of the skills that the Master’s in Human Development and Food Security aims to develop in a demanding interdisciplinary postgraduate course.