Community Engagement Plan - Building Shopping Centre for Saudi Arabian Street Venders - Report Example

Community Engagement Plan: Building Shopping Centre for Saudi Arabian Street Venders Name Institution Course Date Community Engagement Plan: Building Shopping Centre for Saudi Arabian Street Venders Street Vending Overview Street vending is a popular activity in most developing countries. Saudi Arabia is one of the countries where street vending is a common activity in all the cities and towns. Unlike in most developed countries where street vending is not commonplace, street vending is a popular economic activity that hundreds of thousands of Saudi people depend on as a source of livelihood. Most streets in Saudi Arabia, such as Riyadh and Jeddah are flooded with street vending stalls and venders on the move with their products on the streets. A study conducted recently found that Riyadh and Jeddah collectively made a whopping SR380 million every year from street vending (Saudi Gazette 2016). Vegetable venders, for instance, earn up to SR144 million annually (Saudi Gazette 2016). This implies that street vending is a big employer in Saudi Arabia and generates a lot of revenue to the local authorities of different municipalities throughout Saudi Arabia. Despite the contribution of street vending to the Saudi economy in terms of employment creation and revenue generation, street venders work in unhealthy and unsafe condition, something that needs to be changed in all the municipalities throughout Saudi Arabia. Studies indicate that Saudi Arabian street venders face myriads of challenges that need to be addressed. The first major problem faced by street venders has to do with health and safety challenges (Saudi Gazette 2016). The majority of street venders work outside in the open. This poses health and safety challenges considering that not only are the venders exposed to strong sun, but also their goods. This results in health risk as some venders have been found to develop health problems because of long exposure to strong sunlight. Besides, the street venders and their products are also exposed to rainfall and cold, which poses health and safety issues to the street venders. For instance, it has been noted that, during rainy seasons, Saudi Arabian street venders are forced to keep moving from one place to another in search for a shelter, where they can protect themselves and their goods. However, getting shelters are never easy and this affects their health and the safety of their products. Street venders in Saudi Arabian cities and towns also face the challenge of inadequate access to clean water and sanitation. Like any other business person, street venders require clean water and toilets near to their workplace. Unfortunately, studies indicate that street venders in most Saudi Arabian municipalities have inadequate access to clean water and toilets and this makes doing business not just a big challenge, but also exposes them to health risks (Saudi Gazette 2016). Additionally, street venders face the challenge of poor waste disposal and sanitation. Provision of good waste removal and sanitation is important for maintaining proper hygiene. Unfortunately, the fact that street venders experiences insufficient sanitation and waste removal because of lack of proper vending process exposes them to risk of unhygienic market condition, which not only exposes to health risk but also undermines the sales made by venders. Additionally, lack of a centralized business place often results in a situation where street venders have to do business even in undesignated places and this often results in running battles and arrests by the local authorities. In fact, there are a lot of venders who have been arrested for doing business in undesignated place. However, lack of a centralized business centre, where street venders can do their business is the main reason that forces some to do business in undesignated areas. Change Initiative and Its Aim To address the challenges that street venders face as highlighted above, change is necessary. The change that is required is to build a shopping centre for street venders. As indicated above, Saudi Arabian street venders are facing a serious challenge when it comes to where to conduct business. Therefore, the best approach to address the problem is to construct a shopping centre where the venders would be able to sell their products. The Saudi Arabia government needs to address the problems facing the street venders by building a shopping centre fitted with clean water and good sanitation. This would ensure that street venders no longer have to do business under direct sunlight or keeping looking for shelter whenever it rains as it is currently. Besides, building a shopping centre for the street venders will ensure that the venders have a centralized place where buyers can get them easily. Change Theory Applicable To the Change Initiative There are a number of change theories that help to explain why change in necessary and how best to manage change. However, Kurt Lewin’s three-stage change model is the one applicable to the change required in the creating a shopping centre for the street venders in Saudi Arabia. The three-stage change model was developed in 1740s by Kurt Lewin describing the three critical stages that are necessary in managing change in any given setting, including unfreeze-change-refreeze (Burnes 2004, p. 977). Unfreeze is the first stage in change management and involves preparing the stakeholders and the organization to accept the intended change. According to Lewin, unfreezing stage is important because it ensures that the people who will be affected by the change are informed of the intended change and the reasons why the existing way of doing things cannot be allowed to continue anymore. For instance, before beginning to put up a shopping centre for the street venders, the first thing will be to ensure that all the stakeholders that will be affected by the project are informed of the intended change and why Saudi Arabia cannot allow street venders to continue operating the way they have been. This would be important as it would make all the stakeholders and the venders themselves understand the value of the change to them and to the local authorities, thus helping minimize resistance to the intended change. The second stage in change management is the change itself. According to Lewin, after identifying the uncertainties created in the unfreeze stage; the next thing is to begin addressing the issues so as to ensure smooth implementation of the proposed change (Burnes 2004, p. 982). The last stage is the refreeze stage that involves developing the organization chart, and job descriptions among other tools to help those involved in implementing the change. Stakeholders Who Will Be Key to Engagement The project will involve a number of key stakeholders that will be involved in the engagement process. The first key stakeholders in this project will be the street venders. Street venders are key stakeholders for the proposed construction of a shopping centre because the intention will be to have them relocated to this shopping centre, which they will now call their new home. As such, they will have to be engaged to make them understand why building a shopping centre for them is necessary and how they will benefit. Second key stakeholder to be engaged is the city council. The city council is the one involved in managing street vending activities and licensing the construction of shopping centres. As such, they will have to be involved in this endeavour. Third key stakeholder to be engaged is the Saudi Arabian Department of Trade. The Department of Trade is a key stakeholder in this project because it is involved in managing trading activities, such as street vending. The last key stakeholders in this project are the residents of the cities, where the shopping centre for the street venders will be built. The residents include the people who do business in the cities other than the street venders and the shop owners. The residents are stakeholders in this project because the proposed project to construct a shopping centre for the street venders will affect them directly considering that they will have to know where the venders have been moved to, as well as benefit from reduced congestions in the city that is usually caused by street venders (Reiss 2012, p. 44). Why Engagement is Necessary Engagement is necessary for the successful implementation of this proposed project for many reasons. First, engagement is necessary as it will legalize street vending by ensuring that street venders are provided with a centralized shopping centre that meets the health and safety standards. As described earlier, street venders are experiencing many challenges that include health and safety issues. Therefore, by engaging with the key stakeholders, such as the local authorities and the Department of Trade, this will help ensure that the project is given a go ahead license. This way, the project will be implemented successfully without experiencing resistance from the local authorities since through engagement, they will be told why a shopping centre is necessary for the street venders and how this would benefit even the local authority and the Saudi Arabian economy. Engagement will also be necessary as it will ensure that the community keep the long time tradition of street vending, but in a legal and organized manner because the street venders will now be having a centralized location for doing business (Connor 2009, p. 21). Additionally, engagement with the community will be necessary as it will reduce resistance to the project by the venders and the residents. Resistance is one of the major challenges experienced when introducing change in any setting. The reasons people resist change varies and include reasons, such as fear of losing jobs, and fear of the unknown among others. Therefore, the best way to minimize resistance is to engage all the stakeholders, such as the street venders and the resistance. Engagement will provide opportunity for explaining to them why the shopping centre is necessary, how it would affect them so that they start preparing for it, and above all, how they would benefit from the new shopping centre, thus minimizing resistance. Engagement Goals The engagement has a number of goals that it intends to achieve at the end of the engagement process. The engagement seeks to ensure that all street venders get registered with the department of trade. Currently, a large number of street venders in Australia have not registered with the department of trade and this makes it difficult not just to establish their exact number, but also makes it difficult to know their situation and how best to help them. Therefore, through engagement with the department of trade, the venders would get registered so that their exact number can be known and the necessary assistance provided. Second, the engagement seeks to ensure that the long time tradition and culture of street vending is kept through a legal process (Connor 2009, p. 34). Presently, street venders often find themselves at loggerheads with the local authorities because of operating illegally on the streets. Therefore, engagement will bring both the street venders and the local authorities on board to ensure that issues are addressed and that street vending in conducted through legal processes. Third, the engagement seeks to ensure that there is community participation in the development of street vending. No project can succeed if the people expected to participate in implementing the project are not involved. Therefore, engagement is intended to ensure that the support of the community is achieved and that they are involved in the project right from the planning stage to the implementation stage. Additionally, the engagement is intended to ensure that the health and safety standards are improved for street venders. Engagement Strategies To effective engage with the community, different strategies will be employed. First, the engagement will take the form of consultation and learning. In this respect, the opinions and the views of the key stakeholders highlighted above will be sought and incorporated in the decision making process. Second, the engagement will involve the communities in all the matters pertaining to the proposed change by ensuing that they are involved in the decision making process. Additionally, the engagement will involve performing due diligence regarding the priorities, needs and attitudes of the community to ensure that their needs and priorities are factored in the decision making process. Using these engagement strategies will help reduce resistance to the project because the community will feel part of the project because of their involvement in all the matters pertaining to the planed change (Kabir 2006, p. 5). Ways of Measuring Success Whether or not the engagement process will have achieved its intended objective will be measured using certain tools. First, to know if the engagement is successful, a feedback questionnaire will be used to gather information from the various key stakeholders that were involved in the engagement process, including street venders, local authorities, Department of Trade and the residents. The feedbacks received from the stakeholders will help tell how the stakeholders feel about the proposed construction of a shopping centre for street venders, and whether they fully support it (Reiss 2012, p. 89). Second, the success of the engagement will also be determined by looking at the degree to which the community participated in the engagement process. High engagement will indicate success while low engagement will signal lack of success. Engagement Models to be used for Planning the Engagement Strategy The engagement models intended for use in planning the engagement strategy are the continuous improving model 1999 and the Kolb learning Cycle 1984. Continuous improving model 1999 is one of the models that will be used in the engagement process. Continuous improving model is a model that focuses on an ongoing improvement of products, services or processes. The model is based on three-step model including plan, do, check and act cycle (Bessant et al. 2001, p. 67). The continuous improving model will be used in the engagement process as it will ensure that the engagement process to ensure proper planning for the change, implement the change, and successfully implement the change. The model will ensure help in ensuring that there is an ongoing improvement in the engagement process so as to ensure successful implementation of the proposed project of constructing a shopping centre for the street vendors (Hashagen 2012, p. 3). The other model to be used for planning the engagement strategy is the Kolb learning Cycle 1984 model. Kolb’s Learning Cycle is a model that maintains that people learn from life experiences daily. The theory maintains that learning is a process that follows a pattern or cycle with four stages, including experience, reflection, conceptualizes and planning stages (Kolb 2014, p. 73). This theory will be helpful in the planning of the engagement strategy as it will enables the use of learning experience to come up with a engagement strategy that will ensure that all the stakeholders buy in to the proposed project. Tools to be used in Engagement Process To ensure successful engagement, the following tools will be used. Asset mapping is one of the tools that will be used to facilitate the engagement process with the community. Asset mapping will be used to gather information about the strengths and resources that are available for the street venders and help in coming up with a solution to the issues facing this community (Hashagen 2012, p. 8). By identifying the community’s strengths and resources and showing them on an asset map, this would enable the government build on these assets so as to solve the needs of the community. Focus group is another tool that will be used in the engagement process. In this respect, focus group, especially those drawn from street vendors to give their opinions about the planned building of a shopping centre for the street venders. The feedback received from the focus group will help in the engagement planning process. Lastly, questionnaire will be used as a tool for gathering information from the stakeholders, including residents, street venders, local authority and the Department of Trade regarding the planned construction of a shopping centre for the street venders. The questionnaire will have a number of questions regarding the project so that the stakeholders that will be affected by the project can provide their views and concerns that can be considered in the event that the project get approved for implementation. Resources Needed The proposed building of a shopping centre for street venders will require various resources to ensure its successful implementation. First, to implement the project successfully, human capital will be needed. This includes the architectures, surveyors, and constructor to build the shopping centre. There will also be a need for field experts to perform due diligence on the project. Because the project will face social issues, there will be a need to have social activities to sensitive the community on the need to have a shopping centre put up for the street venders. Additionally, the engagement will require community associations and community figureheads whose work will be to represent the community in the engagement process considering that not everyone will be engaged, rather their representatives. Potential Risks Although the plan to build a shopping centre will be of immense benefit to street venders and the community as a whole, there are a number of challenges that are likely to be encountered. First, finding the space for building the shopping centre is expected to be a challenge. Besides, even if a space if found for building the shopping centre, the space might not be enough to accommodate all street venders that currently stands at hundreds of thousands and keep swelling. The other risk has to do with future street venders. As the street vending increasingly becoming a popular business activity in Saudi Arabia, there is likelihood that there would be more people venturing in street vending, which will pose a huge challenge. Additionally, non-corporation is a potential risk that the project faces. There is a likelihood of some stakeholders refusing to co-operate or resisting the change altogether and this might affect the implementation of this project (Connor 2009, p. 56). Lastly, price controls is a likely risk that might be encountered in the process of implementing the change. Social and Political Issues Associated With the Change The project is likely to be affected by certain social and political issues. The main political issue is that some politicians might hijack the project so as to please the electorates and this might create political issues around the project. For instance, a section of politicians might oppose the project and argue that the project will not benefit their people. Socially, the project might be opposed by a section on the community that might feel that it would result in loss of jobs to those street venders who might not get a pace in the shopping centre. References Bessant, J., Caffyn, S., & Gallagher, M 2001, “An evolutionary model of continuous improvement behaviour,” Technovation, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 67–77. Burnes, B 2004, “Kurt Lewin and the planned approach to change: A re-appraisal,” Journal of Management Studies, vol. 41, no. 6, pp. 977-1002. Connor, A 2009, 18 rules of community engagement. Happy About, London. Hashagen, S 2012, Models of community engagement. Scottish Community Development Centre, pp. 1-12, viewed 24 October 2016 http://www.lcsansw.org.au/documents/item/463 Kabir, H 2006, Citizen and community engagement models and examples, viewed 24 October 2016 http://carleton.ca/cure/fr/wp-content/uploads/HumayunsfinaNPIlOct2006.pdf Kolb, D. A 2014, Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. Sidney: Pearson Education Limited. Reiss, M 2012, Change management. BoD – Books on Demand, New York. Saudi Gazette 2016, “Street vendors in Riyadh, Jeddah make SR380 million a year: Study.” Saudi Gazette 18 January, viewed 24 October 2016 http://saudigazette.com.sa/saudi-arabia/street-vendors-in-riyadh-jeddah-make-sr380-million-a-year-study/ Read More