The complexity of project management in sustainable development

 

The complexity of project management in sustainable development 

The second month revealed the diversity and complexity of project management in the development sector. First of all, I had my first “quarterlies”, a conference/seminar that takes place four times a year in which interns from all of EduCARE India’s centres get together and discuss their achievements but also the challenges they encounter in their various, often multifaceted projects.  

Our Team from 7 countries

 

During this quarterly event we learned about COMPLEX PROJECT MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES, and on the kinds of THINKING one adopts in his/her everyday work in development. E.g. we had to determine which thinking style we use, i.e. we had to think about thinking, such as whether we’re an analyst, follower, learner, creator, inventor or talker & leader. I judged myself to be a learner, because one gains so many soft skills as well as knowledge about the development sector while living and working in the communities on ground. Also, one almost inevitably becomes a LEARNER because development work is so multifaceted- It involves building rapport and knowledge exchange with local authorities at the governmental level, regarding my waste management project this meant meeting the district coordinator on sanitation and waste management(Please see blog for June “The challenge but also massive opportunity of inducing sustainability and environmental conservation in rural India”) as well as doing field trips to work-related settings, such as visiting the unsanitary landfill/dumpsite in Dharamshala, a nearby town of our centre in Naddi.  

The unsanitary landfill in the nearby town Dharamshala to which also most waste from Naddi goes. It is my responsibility to have no more waste reach this DUMPSITE.

Development work also involves ONLINE RESEARCH, in my case on the INDIAN CONTEXT, on GOOD PRACTICE SITES and on factors to consider when planning and implementing such a project. Furthermore, the multifaceted nature of development domains such as solid waste management does not stop with the various stakeholders involved. In order for it to be encompassing and sustainable it must involve APPLIED RESEARCH that covers all types of groups or beneficiaries, in my case in the village of Naddi this means including parties as diverse as market food stands, grocery shops, laundry services, restaurants, hairdressers, households and hotels.   

A “Chai” Tea Break after the ‘household’ survey with this local lady

A 1 ½ hour interview with one of the very few female hotel managers in the village

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT thus is crucial and this is where health and education kick in, a crucial desired output of many development projects, including mine. For my project community engagement, e.g. includes holding workshops on sustainable waste practices on the grounds of reduce, reuse, recycle as well as doing a community cleanup with the entire village that also involves an educational component. Furthermore, probably most importantly, it also means collecting data of the entire village on waste behaviours and views as well as on their appraisal of the current waste management in place(or lack of thereof). Hence, attaining LOCAL OWNERSHIP, will likely achieve greater satisfaction among the community and thus also achieve greater sustainability. For my project to be sustainable and to have the most comprehensive and lasting impact I need to consider and incorporate all stakeholders, e.g. through doing surveys with all stakeholders such as the ones listed above. It also implies collaborating with project managers from other development domains of the organization. In my case, this e.g. means collecting soft plastic for the participants of the Young Women’s Association which they use to make cushions and pillows. Through doing this, the women can use waste as a resource and don’t have to spend money on purchasing new cushions but instead reuse existing waste material to make something new. In other words, waste is no longer wasted but given a new purpose. 

Thus, THINKING BIG is crucial. THINKING SYSTEMS and DESIGN is important. THINKING COMPLEX is essential. The more comprehensive, the more planned, the more researched and the more encompassing a development project is, the greater its likelihood of success- It is key to SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.

Malte Rose

Asst Program Coordinator

(Volunteer-Intern)

SWASH Village

EduCARE India NGO

A SWASH intern in Naddi

I joined Educare India in may 2016, for 3 months. After finishing my studies in waste engineering, I planned to work with this NGO on waste management.

The adventure started in Naddi. Hopefully, someone was already working on waste management. That helped me to have a quick Induction. Thanks to that, we directly did activities related to SWASH :

- School workshop: we went to the governmental school in Cheni to do some workshops on waste. We played some games to raise their awareness. Each time, the workshop was a success and the kids were really engaged and involved.

Workshops in Cheni's Primary School

- Trash collection: Once a week, we organized a waste picking for Naddi's shopkeepers. This project, established by previous interns, ran for a long time. We took over the project. That consists in collecting the waste bin from each shopkeeper involved , carrying it with a truck and empty the bins in a bigger waste bin that will be collected by the municipality.

Bins used to collect the waste 

This part is not the easiest or the cleanest but sometimes it is funny. One time we arrived at the big bin but we were not able to do anything because of the monkey family who had lunch around the bin. We waited, in the truck, in front of the bin, that monkeys finished their lunch. 

Despite this fast Induction, it was very difficult to focus. There is too much to do ! You would like to do everything, but 3 months are not enough, you need to focus if you want to get things done. So you list the ideas and organize it with a priority level. After speaking with the organisation, we agreed to focus on the soft plastic issue. This waste is produced a lot and its collection and treatment are often neglected. The aim is to collect soft plastic from our house and one shopkeeper (start little but think big), clean it well and store it in hygienic conditions. The next step is to find a way to resell, reuse or recycle it. 

After collecting the soft plastic, we built a washing machine that could clean more soft plastic and faster.

Our DIY soft plastic washing machine!

The biggest part was to find the best "process" to clean the soft plastic efficiently and ecofriendly. That's mean using less water, a natural soap...

After we need to store it, waiting for something to do with the soft plastic. Some centers store the soft plastic in a cloth to create a cushion. I chose to store it in plastic bottles because it is costless and it is a way to reuse plastic bottles. if we don't find a solution rapidly to reuse this soft plastic, we can put the plastic bottles together and create a sofa!

Plastic bottle filled with soft plastic and sofa model 

Sofa, cushions or other products from soft plastic could be resell. If it is working, the project could be take over by the community because they could create money with this waste. Here is an idea to develop a local soft plastic recycling sector !

Working with Educare India made me think differently about the waste issue, with new problems and new perspectives that I had never think about before. I am happy to come back to my country with a new vision of the waste issue, it could be useful for my future job!

Coralie Rambaud - France 

SWASH Project Manager in Naddi

Three months in India

Who am I ?

I am a french student in engineering school where I am studying environmental sciences.

Why did I choose India ?

I had to do an internship in a foreign country. I wanted to find a country completly different from France, with an other culture, an other language and other life conditions. That’s why I chose India, the second most populous country in the world, the 7th largest country in the world.

My arrival in India 

I started my trip with the capital, New Delhi , because I arrived at New Delhi airport from France. The first thing and the most difficult one when I came out of the airport was the heat (47°C). Then, the second thing was the most suprising one : the taximen. About 10 taximen came after me saying that the metro was broken. I stayed 3 days in Delhi where I could visit several temples, discover the old Delhi with its little streets, the diveristy of food and the amazing traffic.

Street of my hotel

Visit of the Lotus Temple in Delhi

My arrival in the centre

My center is located in Harike, Punjab. When I arrived, I discovered that Harike was a little village and was completly different than New Delhi. Indeed, the landscape is not the same, Harike is situated in the countryside and surrounded by wetlands. I also discovered the house of interns and I was pleasantly surprised because the centre was spacious and the rooms were nice.

The Harike centre

Harike, view from a roof

What are my projects ?

I am SWASH project manager and the field which interested me in particular is the waste

management. Moreover, the main problem in Harike about the waste is the soft plastics issue. Indeed, there are trashpickers who pick up all the trash (plastic bottles, glass, metal…) in the street except soft plastics. That’s why, we can find in the street a lot of soft plastics (in particular plastic bags).

Soft plastics area in Harike

Thus, the main goal of my different projects is to reduce the use of soft plastics or to reuse them.

The first project is the creation of cushion in soft plastics.

We implemented this project only in the intern house for the moment. Indeed, we collect our soft plastics (plastic bags, food packages…), then we wash them and we use them to cram the cushions (the cushions are made by tailors).

Washing of the waste

One cushion filled up with soft plastics

The second project is the reusable bags project.

To reuse soft plastics is a good idea but it would be better if we manage to stop the use of soft plastics and in particular plastic bags. Thus, this project is to make cloth bags to replace the plastic ones.

First, we picked up fabric scraps for free thanks to different tailors. Then, we found some women in the community who agreed to make bags with these fabric scraps. In exchange, we gave english courses to women who want it. For the ones who did not want English lessons (and made most of the bags), no compensation was asked as they said they were happy to sew the bags.

Thus, we managed to create 34 bags for the moment. The challenge now is to make sure that the community will use and reuse these bags.

Should we sell these bags ? Should we give these bags ? Should we work directly with the shopkeepers ?

Some of the reusable bags

Paralelly to these projects, I try to find some creations to do with plastics and I managed to make two things :

Pompoms in plastic bags

Bloom in plastic bottles (7 bottles)

Holidays and weekends

Some pictures of our weekends and visits 

Golden Temple, Amritsar

The Indo-Pakistani border

The wetland, Harike

Taj-Mahal, Agra

Gauthier Guerrar - France

SWASH Project Manager in Harike

Learning to learn

When I came to India with Debora, I did not know a lot about the culture and what to expect from Indians and their country. As a SWASH intern, many people in my country told me that India is very dirty with trash everywhere on the streets and that people do not respect the environment. However, I did not want to come here with assumptions and I was sure of one thing: this experience would change me and open my mind.

The beginning in the village was intense. We wanted to change everything as we had thousands of ideas to improve what we were observing - people burning their trash as well as throwing packaging on the floor, open drains where trash was floating, some trash in the fields and the cows eating it. I thought that the community were unconscious and we would have a lot of work just to make them realize what they were doing. We stayed for a week in a homestay during Induction. We shared all our evenings with the family, playing with the kids, learning Hindi, eating like crazy and of course discovering them. Thanks to these links that we’ve kept, I got a good opportunity to observe the way they are living and relate it to our SWASH project. We saw how they deal with water and trash, thus introducing us to the trash-picker of the village and helping us understand the different systems in India.

As an intern, you also travel a lot! We already went to Pushkar, Jaisalmer, Jodphur and Agra and there are still so many cities to discover. Everywhere you go, you can observe the habits and the ways of dealing with the waste in the different cities; people cleaning the open drainage, bins in the corners, men and women brooming in front of their doors - because their house has to be clean even if it means throwing everything in the streets - and even poor people collecting the trash such as hard plastic, glass, cardboards to sell it and earn money. You also see good habits like using reusable plates and glasses instead of plastic items, washing them in the shop without anyone thinking it’s unhygienic. These concrete examples made us picture the whole trash system outside of our small village and also gave us some ideas to develop, even if it is more difficult to initiate change in their way of thinking. Travelling is also a good way to understand how Indian people think as it is easier to meet English speaking Indians that we can communicate with, which is not always easy in our village with our poor Hindi. 

The more I meet and talk with people and the more I realize that they hate trash on the street and having to burn it because they feel it’s harming them as well as others. They would love to have a clean village and good health. Before globalization, they were using leaves and biodegradable materials to pack and transport items whereas now plastic is everywhere and in huge quantities. It is really hard to create a system and adapt it, especially in such a big and populated country! But the government started a campaign, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, to clean the country and it will take time but you can already see the impact on big cities. This can be a tool and a way to sensitize people in the village even if they already know that plastic is bad and have implemented their own system.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi cleaning the road to launch the campaign Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

After 3 months here, I realize how the assumptions I heard were wrong and that Indian people are every bit as smart as us. It is not because trash is everywhere that they do not care but they do not have other alternatives for now. It is exactly like in our Western countries some decades ago and honestly, do you really know what your trash becomes after the garbage man takes it from your house? We are here to help them develop a sustainable system but, since it will take time, we need to find alternatives in the meanwhile. EduCARE India's interns have many ideas such as reducing the plastic coming into the village, recycling soft plastic by filling sofas or pillows and still more innovation is to come. I still have so much more to learn from all the research we do on the Internet and in the field. I realize I did not know much when I arrived here and you could say I still know nothing but I’m learning every day and Indians opened my mind so much and most importantly, they taught me how to listen to people.

Camille Cristophe - France

SWASH Project Manager and Centre Project Coordinator in Gajner

Discovering India on the road

A little more than three months have passed since my arrival in India and I feel a bit more entitled to give a personal impression about this country. Unlike other visitors who may come here only with the purpose of travelling, coming to India to work means that in order to explore a bit of this vast country, there’s a lot of travelling to do in short periods of time. It’s like we live two kinds of lives: a relatively (sometimes very relatively) peaceful lives in our villages and motion-based and frenzy lives during the weekends we choose to travel. Popular destinations are in average 8-10 h of comfortable and relaxing government bus away from Harike. So, much of the knowledge I gathered about India has come on the road, a kind of window-based discovery.

First thing I believe anyone notices is the crazy driving on the roads. On the CIEEL induction course we were shown this really cool TED talk where it is argued that roads are more organized than it seems, that practically everybody and everything is allowed because spaces and boundaries are negotiated on site and at the moment. By living here, I understood how these boundaries are actually negotiated: through honking real hard and imposing your will over the others’ in a survival of the fittest style. Except for the Cow, of course. It’s unreal to see how Indian drivers slow down and stop to let the Cow cross the highway from one lane to another. Even the honking stops as if the drivers were showing their respect and bowing to it.

If you negotiate hard enough you might even be able to travel on the rooftop of a bus.

Second thing that I noticed is the amount of developmental constructions that are in place – as you would expect from a rapidly developing economy – but how every project seems at times paralyzed for a long time or just directly abandoned. There are countless buildings and roads half-built and no one seems to be working on them. Just like in many of our projects, it seems like there is a lot of excitement when the idea and the design is presented and everybody shows a lot of initial support but the hard part is to keep engagement and consistency. It’s awkwardly funny and a bit scary to see that not even the Government can materialize its projects efficiently. 

The other major thing that one notices is the crazy amount of waste that accumulates everywhere, specially concentrated in rivers, canals and open dump sites.That’s really not a cool sight.Perhaps because of my SWASH-focused thinking, I can’t avoid to see the environmental issue as one of the major problems in the development path of this country. It seems that India is following the same way as the West: economic development at the expense of the environment. Certainly directing the effort in improving social equity and infrastructure is an investment for the future and a real need of this country. However, a complete disregard for their environmental resources is putting a long-term mortgage on the society too and it should be acknowledged.

A typical open dump site in India.

Finally, one of the activities I enjoy doing to amuse these long hours of travel is looking out the window for titles and names of stuff. Indian people have a remarkable entrepreneurial spirit and a determined marketing attitude: ‘the best of (insert location), my friend!’. However, they are extremely bad at achieving orthographic rigorousness regarding company names or food menus. We’ve seen funny spelling mistakes such as “barger”, “braquette”, “crossiant” and many more. Sometimes it’s so shocking that I can’t help believing that they are doing it on purpose to give us customers a good laugh. 

Anyway, India might not be the most organized, constant and attentive to detail country but I think that most of us Westerners who visit would agree that it has a lot to teach to “our” world. It all depends on how you want to see things; what could be seen as a lack of boundaries/organization can also be seen as tolerance and freedom for example, and the lack of attention to details could also be seen as a sign of a more essentialist and less superficial approach to things. What I don’t find any “softer” or positive side to is to the environmental mess. It is always the same reaction when I see it no matter what mood I’m in. In fact, despite all the honking and the long hours spent on a bus, I find that travelling is a good remedy for helping me recover energy and motivation and to push harder my project back in Harike.

Pau Vallvé - Spain

SWASH Project Coordinator/ Project Manager in Harike