Community Empowerment
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. - Ancient Chinese Proverb
Engagement
During my time with World Vision Kenya (WVK) working in Mtito Andei, we engaged the community many times. We met with many Community Based Organizations (CBOs) to conduct trainings and to listen to community needs. One of the most memorable community engagement efforts involved conducting an Appreciative Inquiry (AI) session with representatives from several local CBOs who worked with WVK’s larger CBO partner, Baraka. The goal of the meeting was to help each CBO develop a SMART strategic plan for the future and Monitoring and Evaluation (M+E) metrics to measure progress. At the beginning of the meeting, the groups began talking about their problems with pained expressions on their faces. They looked stressed and uncertain about how to tackle the many challenges that lay ahead. My training as an undergraduate engineering/math major had only taught me to focus on PROBLEM-SOLVING and this approach made the most sense to me. To have to lead an AI session that focused on previous SUCCESS first was quite a paradigm shift. The community member were also uneasy about the approach at first. After the first few accomplishments were written down, excitement began to build. CBO leaders began to compete for a chance to speak up and showcase their accomplishments. At the end of the AI session, one community leader stood up to comment about what had just happened. He said it was easy to focus on all of the problems that they still had ahead of them (and that they were significant), but that it was also important to remember how far they had come. They were much better off now, financially and as a community, than they were when they first started working together years ago (with support from WVK). This experience helped to infuse fresh energy into their strategic plans and by the end of the day, the community members seemed to glow with excitement and renewed hope for the future. They took turns thanking us profusely for engaging them. We had this experience several times during AI sessions in the field and have continued to use it at Walla Walla University with equally great effect. Here is a report from that meeting along with a video taken immediately after the AI session.
When I began my internship at Walla Walla University (WWU), I was asked to engage the students to help bolster enrollment in the GHEE (Global Humanitarian Engineering Emphasis) program. I spoke at colloquiums and freshman engineering classes but didn’t have a big breakthrough until I engaged students directly at large campus club rally (Welcome Back Bash). I setup a photo booth and other props to attract students but the strategy that worked the best was simply talking to students. I encouraged them to fill out an application on the spot and was able to recruit over 16 students at that one event alone (followed by 3 more later). This was a significant achievement since we were only expecting to get about 10 applications for the year. The following gallery of photo booth photos from the event are also featured on to the GHEE webpage.
Community engagement is a key aspect of the work that Engineers Without Borders (EWB) does. This idea of partnering with the community (as opposed to Paternalism), was a core theme of EWB’s 2016 International Summit. It’s a key component of the community development work that EWB does and is something that we heavily emphasize in the GHEE curriculum. One of the first things that EWB members do on project trips, is to sit down and engage the community. Here are pictures and videos of the WWU-EWB team engaging with community members during our solar energy project implementation trip to Japura, Peru.
Organization
My organization skills have improved si gnificantly since the start of the MGCD program. International travel and development work requires a lot of organizing. I have learned how to break down tasks into manageable pieces and how to organize groups of people around specific tasks to fulfill a larger mission.
As my role with EWB has expanded, I’ve had to learn to adapt to taking on more responsibility. This means more delegation and coordination. I’ve learned to organize my work in cloud-based storage space for easier accessibility from multiple devices. By organizing files in this way, it is easy to share files and edit them in real-time with other members of the project team. This flexibility is also important in the world of international travel.
One of the most useful tools that has helped me plan my field work is the detailed implementation plan (DIP) and logical framework (LogFrame). I was able to modify this template to develop a strategic plan for the GHEE program at Walla Walla University. Having a detailed schedule is also helpful, even though we were never able to stick exactly with a plan in the field.
Throughout my internship at Walla Walla University I learned to use Microsoft Outlook to organize my email communication and to arrange meetings with other personnel on campus. I laid out my schedule on the calendar and this helped me stay organized.
Civil Society Building
Civil society building is an important aspect of development work because the industry is becoming increasingly dependent on strategic partnerships. In my work with World Vision Kenya (WVK) in Mtito Andei, we encouraged CBOs to partner with larger organizations to leverage their resources. We conducted an organizational self-assessment (OSA) for a growing women’s group to help them identify partners and a strategy moving forward. This was followed by several rounds of trainings to build their capacity. One of the trainings focused on identifying potential partners. We supplied them with a list of potential partners that were identified locally from asking WVK employees, government workers and other CBOs. We also brainstormed with them to see if they could identify other partners. Here's a picture from that training.
Throughout my internship at Walla Walla University (WWU), I have kept in touch with potential partners to seek out collaborative opportunities for EWB. For the international projects in Japura, Peru, EWB has partnered with multiple civil society actors including ADRA Peru, the local Municipality, the local Community and even the Boeing Corporation (for Funding).
In the summer of 2016, I had the honor of contributing to a major civil society building event hosted by Southern Adventist University – the TEAMS (Transforming and Educating Ambassadors for Missions and Service) forum. Walla Walla University was asked to contribute by designing the logo for the new TEAMS forum and by providing guest speakers. I gave a presentation about “Mango Tree Time” along with other presenters from WWU. Mango tree time is the idea of spending time “under the shade of the mango tree” in order to get to know the community better rather than assuming we understand their problems, as many civil society actors have done in the past.
Advocacy
Advocacy is a key component of development work. During my time in Mtito Andei, Kenya I worked with World Vision on a number of advocacy campaigns. We worked hard to gather community leaders and local political members for a child rights advocacy campaign. Here are 3 pieces of evidence from that advocacy campaign.
Ever since attending EWB’s 2016 International Summit, I’ve become very passionate about advocating for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are a set of 17 goals agreed upon by over 193 out of 196 countries of the world at the United Nations in 2015. This agreement was a historic first and even beat the Millennium Develop Goals (MDGs), when 189 countries agreed to a very similar set of goals. I have integrated the SDGs into my recruitment efforts for the GHEE and EWB programs and have pushed to have them integrated into the GHEE curriculum.
Governance Building
The key focus during my time in Mtito Andei, Kenya working with World Vision was empowering community based organizations (CBO). Governance building is important to empower CBOs to be successful. One of the initiatives that I was most impressed with was a 2-day training we did with a group of local CBOs where we showed them how to start their own Village Saving and Loan Associations (VSLA). This unique and innovative financial resiliency tool is probably the most powerful economic empowerment mechanism I have ever seen – much more successful than micro-lending programs. The key to the success of the VSLA was proper governance and clearly defined bylaws. Here is detailed report form those meetings.
The main speakers at the VSLA training were leaders from a successful women’s group called Muuo Wa Sombe CBO. We also helped this CBO (Muuo Wa Sombe) to build their capacity further with a 3 day training that included an organizational self-assessment (OSA), Proposal Writing Training, Budget, Book-keeping, procurement and internal controls training.
At Wall Walla University, I’ve been helping the EWB club build up their governance capacity by assisting student project teams and mentoring student leaders. I recently created an advertisement to help the club advertise for new positions.
Every infrastructure project completed by EWB requires governance building. Communities must be trained how to maintain and repair an infrastructure installation to ensure the long-term sustainability of each project. For the water system in Pampa Chiri, Peru, EWB helped form a water committee. For the current Solar Energy project in Peru, we met with local leaders to establish an electrical committee with specific roles and specialized training to ensure the long-term maintenance and sustainability of the power systems after we leave. Here's a photo from our first meeting with the electrical committee in Japura, Peru.
Policy Analysis
Policy analysis is one of the most important aspects to consider in the arena of poverty alleviation. Often times the poor are mired in poverty traps created by bad policies. I’m particularly interested in food policy because of my interest in world hunger – so much, in fact, that I’ve taken up independent study on the topic of world hunger. I’ve read many books on the subject including;
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The Last Hunger Season by Roger Thurow
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Enough – Why the World’s Poor are Starving in an Age of Plenty by Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman
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Hunger – An Unnatural History by Sharman Apt Russell
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World Hunger – Twelve Myths by Frances Moore Lappe, Joseph Collins and Peter Rosset (with Luis Esparza)
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The Atlas of World Hunger by Thomas J. Bassett and Alex Winter-Nelson
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The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2015 by the FAO (U.N. Agency)
My interest in food policy and policy impacting poverty in general have also lead me to read other policy related books. I’m interested in trying to understand as best as possible why millions of people perish every year from completely preventable causes. My independent interest of the subject has lead me to read the following books as well:
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The End of Poverty by Jeffrey D. Sachs
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Out of Poverty by Paul Polak
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The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier (One of my favorites – read it twice and did a book report)
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The White Man’s Burden by William Easterly
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The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz
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Dead Aid – Why AID is not Working and How There is a Better Way For Africa by Dambisa Moyo
These books have helped me understand extreme poverty and the policies that keep billions of people down but it is only the beginning and I look forward to reading more on the subject.
The documentary Poverty, Inc. has also been very insightful. Having conducted several debates with Walla Walla University students from both sides of the debate (Pro-AID vs Anti-AID) has helped further my understanding of the connection between policy and poverty.
In one of my MGCD classes, I was asked to analyze policy in Tanzania and write up an analysis of the policy. I chose to study extractive industry legislation that had been recently passed (in 2015) after the discovery of significant oil and natural gas off the coast. Here is my position paper and Power Point on the topic.
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Extracting Conflict of Interest from Extractive Industry Legislation in Tanzania
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Power Point used in Presentation
The EWB solar energy project in Japura, Peru has several partners. One of the key lessons that were learning from working with these partners is the importance of analyzing policies - especially government institutional policies. We have had some challenges working with the local government because of certain policies that make it difficult for other partners to operate. Next time we will be sure to take this into consideration and negotiating in advance before signing a contract.
Social Marketing
Social marketing is a powerful form of marketing that aims to change people’s behavior. During my time in Mtito Andei, Kenya working with World Vision, I worked with local stakeholders to conduct a child rights advocacy and social marketing campaign. The World Vision Kenya (WVK) team had extensive experience putting on these types of events so I mostly watched and learned as they recited catchy songs and poems with social marketing messages embedded into them. I was very impressed by how well behaved the children were throughout the event. Here is a schedule of the events that day and a video of the children reciting their social marketing songs.
At Wall Walla University, we’ve made it one of our core objectives to teach students in the GHEE program to carefully consider their behavior in the field. Cultural awareness is important as well as how they manage projects. Paternalism is a major issue in the field of the development and we want to teach students to avoid the pitfalls of paternalistic behavior. Empowerment requires that we let go of ego and allow others to lead. We’ve incorporated homework exercises with social marketing-type slogans into the curriculum to teach these lessons to students. Here are is a PowerPoint I put together about my philosophy of development.
Training, Planning, and Implementation
Training, planning and implementation are key aspects of the project based service learning (PBSL) model that we use to train global humanitarian engineers at Walla Walla University through both the GHEE program and EWB projects. I’ve had the privilege of working alongside professors and students to train, plan and implement several of these projects so far. Two outstanding projects that have required a lot of training, planning and implementation are the EWB Peru water project and solar power project. I'm currently leading a team of undergraduate engineers planning a 2 week trip to Japura, Peru where we will train locals how to maintain their water system and their new electrical system - both EWB installations. We will also guide them through implementing a fix for a section of their water system that is not functioning properly. Here’s a link with more detailed information about EWB projects;
Curriculum development for the GHEE program also required a lot of planning for proper training and implementation with students. For example, the ramp pump project for ENGR-390 (core GHEE class).
During my time in Mtito Andei, Kenya working with World Vision, my partner (Mark Mutai) and I had to plan our time very carefully. We developed an Academic Detailed Implementation Plan (ADIP) to help us plan our trainings and implementation goals. We created the following technical guides to train local CBOs (Community Based Organizations) proposal writing skills. We tried to streamline the process for the CBOs as much as possible by leaving blank spaces where they could immediately begin filling in each section of the proposal.
Activity Innovation, Design, Execution, and Budgeting.
Throughout my time as a project manager and mentor with the EWB club at Wall Walla University, we have sought to come up with innovative activities to engage students. Getting students more involved in club activities and projects can be challenging. I’ve proposed that students have more celebratory events when they achieve certain milestones on projects to encourage students - who work so hard on these projects while taking a full academic load. I’ve worked with student leaders to design and execute these events in a way that is both engaging and within budget constraints.
My work in the GHEE program also required a lot of activity innovation. Each time we teach ENGR-390 (Engineering in a Global Context), we try to incorporate a different project into the class. The class consists of interdisciplinary project teams including engineer, social work and business majors. Coming up with unique projects every year has been a challenge. In 2016, I worked as project manager on a team tasked with building a ram pump. We had a limited budget but were able to develop a working prototype capable of lifting water over 22.5 feet using only the force of gravity and flowing water. Students did a colloquium presentation and a poster about this unique ram pump project.
In one of our GCDP classes, we were asked to come up with an innovative new business idea to address a pressing local need. I worked with my partner in Africa (Atuti) to come up with an innovative business model that would target the entrepreneurial training needs of ex-convicts re-entering society.
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GCDP 515 Business Venture (180 Winners Club)
Sustainable Transition
Sustainability is a key focus of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and it’s a key focus of all EWB projects. EWB has an extensive project planning, implementation and follow-up process designed to ensuring long-term sustainability of projects. Each EWB project requires a 5-year commitment and Walla Walla University’s EWB chapter takes sustainability very seriously. During our last EWB trip to Japura Peru, we found some issues with the water project that had been installed 2 years prior. We assembled a team to repair the water system and made sure to include a member of the community on the team so they could be trained how to repair the system in the future. We are currently working on an education plan to help train the local community how to fix the water system themselves if any future issues arrive. We are also working on a sustainable transition plan for the new Solar Energy system that is under construction for the same community.
Another challenging aspect of running EWB is that student leadership changes almost every year. This can be big issue – especially if all the leaders are seniors. I have worked with professors and EWB student leaders to implement policies that will ensure a smoother transition from year to year.
During my time in Mtito Andei, Kenya working with World Vision, we thought hard about each activity that we undertook to ensure that it was sustainable and not just another charitable hand-out with no long-term impact. One of the best things we did (in my opinion) was to empower CBOs (Community Based Organizations) with proposal writing skills. To ensure that these skills would be retained and passed on, we had the CBO leaders conduct a proposal writing training in which they taught the group. I think it was perhaps the most beneficial proposal writing training we had up to that point as it pushed them to try to understand the process in-depth before teaching to others. Here are reports and videos from that training of trainers (ToT) session;