The Diploma programme allows applicants to build their expertise and their CV through a longer-term, coherent learning journey. The result is a solid professional qualification for project management in the field of sustainable development.

The Diploma can be obtained after completing three of the five certification programmes in project management topics offered by ITCILO (available online and face-to-face) and completing a personal capstone project. The Diploma is awarded by the ITCILO as a recognition of competences acquired through advanced executive training.

The diploma programme is addressed to professionals who already are pursuing or intending to take up a career in international organizations, public and private institutions and NGOs working in the area of development cooperation.

The Diploma for Development Cooperation Specialist contributes to the professionalization of development cooperation management functions in the workplace. It is conceived to be practical, useful and applied to the realities of professionals active in the field of development cooperation.

By achieving the Diploma for Development Cooperation Specialist, successful candidates will:

• Have gained a complete body of knowledge on programme and project cycle management
• Have learned, practiced and demonstrated their capacities to use  the tools and techniques to perform the design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and financial management of development cooperation interventions
• Have learned, practiced and demonstrated capacities in management and analysis that support the governance of development cooperation interventions, such as leadership, knowledge management, organisational development and change management, or management impactful communities of practice
• Be able to demonstrate the achievement through a recognised certification from  ITCILO
• Be part of a growing network of development cooperation practitioners and managers to serve as an ongoing platform for exchange

Participants need to complete three of the five certification programmes, even in different languages, offered in the context of Management of Development Cooperation, within a 5-year period and complete a personal capstone project in order to earn the Diploma. 

Once any three of the five courses are successfully completed, the candidate becomes eligible to carry out a capstone project. This is the final building block for the Diploma for Development Cooperation Specialist.

Through the capstone project, participants will specialize and implement their knowledge and skills in an applied practical project related piece of work. It could be a project inception report, a M&E manual, or an impact evaluation. Alternatively, they can propose an applied research oriented paper that investigates a single, cutting-edge topic of their choice. The topic proposed by the candidates and approved by the ITCILO experts before it can be completed must be inherent in the courses that compose the diploma and approved by the ITCILO experts. 

The Centre is able to draw on the expertise of the ILO and sister United Nations Organisations. The ILO has been active for more than 100 years in bringing governments, employers and workers to cooperate for the promotion of decent work and social justice. This experience has resulted in a long experience and deep understanding of development cooperation. The ILO’s leading role in international cooperation on the world of work issues also means that the Centre is able to draw on a wide network of expertise within the UN system, academia and beyond.