Practice in Technology and Community Sustainable Development

Practice in Technology and Community Sustainable Development

Grant:
Internationalizing the Curriculum (ITC)
Academic Year:
2015 - 2016 (June 1, 2015 through May 31, 2016)
Funding Requested:
$10,000.00
Project Dates:
-
Applicant(s):
jfalfaro
Overview of the Project:
Though well intended, development projects and provisions of technological solutions have suffered dismal failure rates. In light of that, this class explores the concepts of development and technology from a community perspective. We examine ways that systems thinking can have transformative potential by having those who will use the technologies take a self-determined path to achieve positive outcomes. More than 1.4 billion people around the world live in abject poverty with income below $1.25 per day. Sanitation, potable water, clean energy services, communication and other infrastructures are not available for these populations. Often "development" is considered as the provision of these services to the communities that need them through technology implementations. However this ignores the applicability and appropriateness of the technology as well as the desires of the community. The class teaches students about available appropriate technologies and encourages the active critique and redesign of these technologies in light of community feedback. It also provides strategies for listening and empathizing with communities to define areas of need and engage in system-based solutions for those needs. It challenges the students to view Community Sustainable Development not as something to be done to communities, but as participation in a process with communities. This class also prepares for participation in a new class planned for Summer 2015: Practice in Community Sustainable Development. The summer experience will involve international travel to work on a development project alongside the student organization Sustainability Without Borders and a community in the Global South. For Summer 2015 the organization is traveling to Chaquipampa, in the district of Vinchos, in Peru. The organization is engaging in the design and deployment of a water project.
Final Report Fields
Project Objectives:
The objective of this project is to provide a structured and sound practice space for students with interest in international community development. While many students are interested in this field and leave the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE) to pursue careers in organizations like the Peace Corps, United Nations, and World Bank, the curriculum lacks a space for students to learn best field practices in the use of technology for community sustainable development, listening, community engagement, and project development.
Project Achievements:
The project delivered training for three different student teams that engaged with communities in Peru, Uganda, and China. After classroom and group experiences the students performed their travel to each location. The focus of this project was the team traveling to Peru, although he other students also benefited from the preparation period in Ann Arbor. Students in the Peru Team developed and conducted a method for contrasting the expressed needs of the community and the perceived needs of the community. A three week visit to Peru allowed them to put the method in place and identify both types of needs. The method included a technical review of the community, a wellbeing baseline assessment, and semistructured focus groups. The community identified needs that revolved around water, a scarce resource in the community. The team interviewed all households in the community (close to 50) for the baseline assessment. The community lead the team in identifying a technology intervention that would address their expressed needs (quantity of drinking water) and the perceived needs (lack of water for agricultural purposes). The team has worked throughout the summer to develop the technological intervention.
Continuation:
Yes, the project will continue through summer 2016. Students are working now to build prototypes of the technologies suggested in collaboration with the community, a new water reservoir and aquaponics gardens. The student team will travel back to Peru during Thanksgiving break to begin implementation of the technological intervention. A follow up trip may be required to fully deploy the interventions. Students plan on returning to the community 6, 12, and 18 months after implementation of the technologies to carry out wellness assessments and contrast results to the baseline. This will allow evaluation of the effectiveness of the technologies in increasing the well being of the community.
Dissemination:
A paper is being prepared by two faculty members and a PhD student who participated in the project. This paper is being presented at the Water Technologies for Emerging Regions Conference in Norman, Oklahoma, September 21st. Further, students are preparing a synthesis report throughout the fall which they will use to train a new team of students that will ensure continuity of the program. The project is also part of the Sustainability Without Borders (SWB) organization. SWB will further develop the implementation and has committed to a four year period of work with the community. SWB carries out mass meetings, invites special speakers, and disseminates their work trough Facebook and other multimedia pages. A video report on their projects is done every year and presented to the Center for Sustainable Systems Forum and their External Advisory Board.
Advice to your Colleagues:
Make sure you team up with a very good local Non-government or other organization as your support structure on the ground.
Carry out visits to the official local authorities as soon as possible to ensure that they have buy in and support for the project. Also, that you are doing things in the community that do not interfere with local authorities or break environmental and social rules.
Make sure your community leaderships understands that it is important to work with the local government and that it is not acceptable to ignore local regulations, even if the local government seems to have lacked in response to their needs.
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