Engineering Change with Engineers Without Borders
Amir Allana (EngSci 1T2) and Amanda Giang (EngSci 1T1) Head to Africa
by Amir Allana and Amanda Giang
Imagine you are on a sailboat, bobbing in the ocean. The cool wind is blowing; the slopping of the water against the side of the boat is the only sound to be heard. There is not a soul in sight. You are trying to get to shore, which you can barely make out in the distance. You are an experienced sailor and you know what to do… just align your sails so that you catch the wind, and steer your boat to the beach. As you go to do so, however, you feel your boat being pulled further into the ocean. Then, suddenly, it begins to glide to the right. You don’t understand why this is happening. You are doing everything properly. What you don’t realize is that your boat is connected underwater to five other boats in the ocean. In turn they each are connected to five others. All of them are trying to get to shore in their own way, hindered by the inertia of the others.
A lot of our friends ask us about Engineers Without Borders (EWB). They know we’re dedicated to the organization. They know we’re about to head overseas with EWB for four months this summer. They’ve also heard, however, that EWB does not build structures overseas. We do not invent anything or give access to technology. Then where is the “engineer” in Engineers Without Borders? Well, is engineering about creating, or is it about solving? When examining today’s big issues--the food crisis, the energy crisis, extreme poverty--should we assume that to solve these issues, we as engineers must necessarily build and invent? Or should we consider the problem from more dimensions: where it comes from, why it’s there, and then design for the best solution?
For Engineers Without Borders, engineering is not the ability to create, but the ability to think critically. What is important is to question evidence and dig deep to find the root cause of the problem. It is the knack for understanding the relations in complex systems, where interrelated factors all play into each other. The sailor in the story above is an example of an engineer thinking the traditional way, where solutions are predictable; where the development of an efficient new way to tackle an issue will work in practice just as it would on paper. This is not the reality of the world today. The political, economical, social, and technical aspects of society are so completely interrelated that trying to work in one without consideration of the other is like sailing for shore, blind to the fact your boat is connected to a complex network of other boats.
According to the World Bank, there are over 1.2 billion people in the world living on less than $1.25 a day (the benchmark for “extreme” poverty). Most of these people are not the suffering images we see on TV, but hard-working, smart people who are stuck in the cycle of poverty, constantly looking for ways to improve their lives. They work long hours of hard labour to provide for their families, and strive to earn enough money to send their kids to school. Their hardships are a product of broken or dysfunctional systems, be it government and public services, or markets and economic systems. EWB’s approach tries to understand the problem, and act within the structures, culture, and society of Ghana, Malawi, Zambia, and Burkina Faso to provide opportunities to the world’s poorest. The idea is to do whatever is locally needed to create positive change, and to do it in a way that the change remains after we leave.
Amir: I’m super-excited to work in the Northern region of Ghana (West Africa) this summer, with EWB’s Governance and Rural Infrastructure team. Over the past decade, Ghana’s government has been in the process of decentralization. What this means is that instead of the country’s public services (water, health, education, energy) being governed from its capital, the power is shifted down to district level governments who better know the needs of their districts… theoretically. In practice though, things are not so clear-cut.
Here in Canada, different levels of government have defined responsibilities. For example, the municipal government in Toronto is responsible for garbage and local police, the Ontario provincial government heads up education and health, and the Canadian federal government does transportation and roads. In Ghana, these roles have not been defined. Also, due to complex political and donor relationships, real decision-making power is not always where it should be. EWB is working with the officials in the district government offices to support planning for infrastructure that is based on evidence. This way, critical public services such as clean water, education, and health clinics get to the communities that need it most urgently.
I feel very strongly about development, and I can describe my passion by leaving you with a short thought: while I sit comfortably at a computer in Canada, I know there are people in Ghana who’ve never had the privilege of free education or resources like Wikipedia. I know that if something even minor happened to me right now ambulances would be on the scene in 3 minutes and I’d be taken care of. A pregnant woman suffering complications in Saboba (a community in Ghana) must travel 50 km to the nearest health clinic for medical attention. These are not unsolvable problems, and they can be solved, locally… with a little push.
Follow Amir’s work over the summer! Check out his blog: www.grassrootsofghana.wordpress.com
Amanda: I’ll be spending my summer in Zambia where EWB is focused on helping small-scale farmers gain access to market opportunities. In Canada, it’s easy to take for granted a well-functioning value chain which ensures that a farmer’s crops get from the field to the grocery stores. In rural Zambia, however, these linkages between private sector enterprises and small-scale farmers often do not exist. Rural farmers are excluded from formal markets due to underdeveloped agricultural transportation, storage, and processing infrastructure, ultimately preventing them from turning their valuable crops and products into viable livelihoods. As a result, EWB supports development organizations who are trying to address these market challenges. By helping them develop their organizational capacity, EWB is fostering mutually beneficial relationships between private sector players and small-scale farmers.
Follow Amanda’s work over the summer! Check out her blog: www.zambiamanda.tumblr.com
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