South African Roundabout HIV/AIDS Initiative - Case Study Example

Project management MP 3703 Assignment CASE 2 South Africa case 2 3 Executive Summary The developed countries infrastructure is a key factor for poverty alleviation in these countries. Hence the engineers have an essential role to play in this effort.. Many African nations do not have clean water and adequate sanitation. As a result productivity is severely reduced impacting on poverty alleviation efforts. Another major contributory factor to poverty among the African nations is The HIV/AIDS epidemic. Communities need to be made aware of risk factors and consequences of HIV/AIDS. An engineering initiative in the form of the “Power-Play” or “Play-Pump” provides a solution for clean water and HIV/AIDS information dissemination. This engineering initiative consists of a roundabout, powered by the play power of children on top of an existing water borehole. Water gets pumped out to be stored in a tank that is screened with billboards promoting HIV/AIDS awareness to the communities. Fig. 1: Children at play turning a Roundabout1 2. Introduction The “Power-Play” or “Play-pump” has many advantages over other energy sources. It is clean, renewable source of energy, as it runs on the play power of children. Daily information appears on the screen in the same language of the targeted community to provide comprehensive awareness on any particular concern, which in this case is HIV/AIDS. This is an effective advertising medium as there is an absence of conventional media in many of the African communities. 3. Aims of the Project This project aims to: Establish Stakeholders categories. How to manage and control the many people involved in the project and the project itself. The steps required in making the necessary decisions. Save the time of women and young girls spent in the collection of water from wells at long distance. 4. Stakeholders The stake holders consist of any individual or organization or government that stands to benefits from the initiative of this project or affects any stage of the project by either a positive or negative influence. In other words stake holders in this program are any individual, or groups of individuals, or institutions with any kind of interest in the project. The primary stakeholders consist of those persons, groups or institutions that receive positive affects from the programs or alternately receive negative affects from the program. Stakeholders are persons, groups or institutions with interests in a project or program. Primary stakeholders are those ultimately affected, either positively or negatively. Positive affects from the project provide benefits to the stakeholders by reducing the impact of the issues of concerns. A project could also have negative impact on some of the stakeholders. For instance some stakeholders may be forced to give up land for the project and their cooperation with the project may not be voluntary, but forced on them. Secondary stakeholders are the intermediaries in the aid delivery process. This definition of stakeholders includes both winners and losers, with the winners being those involved in the decision making processes and benefiting from it, while the losers being those not involved in the decision-making processes and losing from it. 5. Stakeholder Map From the stakeholder map figure 3, the stakeholders from the roundabout play-pump consist of affected family units in the village; children, women and young girls in the village; the village leaders; the materials suppliers; the commercial advertisers; and the South African government. From the description of stakeholders, it becomes clear that affected families in the village, children, women and young girls of the village and the village leaders are the primary stake holders, while the material suppliers, the commercial advertisers and the government of South Africa. This is because the primary benefits that accrue from the roundabout play-pump project are received by the affected families in the village, children, women and girls of the village, and the village leaders. The material suppliers, commercial suppliers and the South African government derive only secondary benefits. It must be noted here that there is no negative impact from this project In the project decision making processes, however all stakeholders irrespective of the level of benefits need to be included. Fig. 3: Stakeholder Map 6. Stake Holder Management Sheet Table – 1 Stake holder Management Sheet Stakeholder Name Stakeholder Type Influence Level Interest Level Support Level Required Action 1-Affected Families Individuals High High Green Build Interest 2-Children, Women & young girls Individuals High High Green Build Interest 3-Village Leaders Individuals High High Green Build Interest 4-Materials Suppliers Sector High Low Red Keep Informed 5-Commercial Advertisers Sector High Low Red Keep Informed 6-Government Government Medium Medium Orange Monitor Fig. 4: Influence and Interest Chart The interest levels of the various stake holders in the roundabout play-pump project vary depending on the impact that the project has on them. In the case of the affected families in the village, the children, girls and women of the village and the village leaders the impact is high. In the case of the affected families the impact of the project comes from the availability of a clean water source and better sanitation, thereby improving the health of the family. In the case of the women and girls of the village, they do not have to go in search of water for the family and have more time for more productive activities like domestic or work for the women, while the girls have more time for education purposes. Furthermore the dissemination of HIV/AIDS information provides an understanding of having safe sex and reducing the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. In the case of the children they can look forward to more healthy lives just through utilizing the energy that their play efforts produce. Being the high beneficiaries of the project the affected families, the children girls and women of the village and the village leaders will have a high interest in the project and the support that can be derived from the will be high for the project. In the case of the South African government, though the benefits derived are high through a more healthy population and reduced expenditure on health programs, especially through reduced risk for HIV/AIDS for its population, the benefits are slow in accruing to them and so the interest levels remains at medium. Support from the government will be medium calling for interest maintenance efforts at the government level. In the case of the materials suppliers for the project the benefits accruing are low and so the interest levels remain low and so will be the support level for the project. In case of the commercial advertisers their interest levels will remain low as the benefits that can accrue to them from this segment of market that consists of poor villagers is low and so there will be low interest and low support for the project. Interest will have to be sustained with these stakeholders through information being provided to them. 7. Purpose of Stakeholders Analysis Stakeholder analysis is the identification of a projects key stakeholders, an assessment of their interests, and the ways in which these interests affect project risk and viability. It is linked to both institutional appraisal and social analysis: drawing on the information deriving from these approaches, but also contributing to the combining of such data in a single framework. Stakeholder analysis contributes to project design through the logical framework, and by helping to identify appropriate forms of stakeholder participation1. The exercise of a stakeholder analysis is conducted at the start of a project. By drawing out a list of the stakeholders and their interest levels in the project, it provides the means of assessing, whether the project is feasible and what are likely to be the bottlenecks and significant risk factors for the project. The stakeholder analysis thus contributes to the creation of a framework for the project to proceed to ensure the success of the project. Not all stake holders exert the same influence on the project The stake holder analysis enables identifying the important influential stake holders for the project and assists in project governance for success. The important stakeholders have to be assisted for the project to be a success and the stakeholder analysis assists in effectively bringing this about, thus making the project governance efficient. 8. Project Governance The village and its members are the key stake holders in the roundabout play-pump project. The village leaders are the most influential individuals in the village. This makes it suitable to make the village leaders as the project managers at each village level. They have the capability to create awareness among the other key stake holders in the village and maintain their level of interest in the project. The village leaders will have to be supported in their efforts of getting and maintaining the interest of the key stake holders of the affected families, children girls and women in the village, by helping them to create and maintain awareness and interest in the project. The project will have to be financially supported through government programs in the installation of the project and the support from material suppliers. Financial sustenance of the project will have to come from the commercial advertisers. For financial support from the government monitoring of fund usage will have to be put in place with the required reports reaching the government on fund utilization by the project leaders. Material suppliers will also have to be informed on the progress of the project. Commercial advertisers will have to be provided the required space on the roundabout play-pumps for them to advertise their messages and for which they pay a cost. The cost is the maintenance of the roundabout play-pumps. The benefit that the commercial advertisers derive is that their commercial messages are disseminated to the villagers. 9. Conclusion This report focuses on the South African Roundabout HIV/AIDS initiative. It explains the importance of the awareness campaign to solve the issue of poverty in African villages. It also clarifies how clean energy can be generated by the play-power of children. This is an integrated solution between the stakeholders in which one group consisting of HIV/AIDS prevention groups support the other group of poor villagers in South Africa.. The billboards disseminate information along with commercial advertisements, which benefit both parties; South African communities and the commercial advertisers. This initiative reduces the water-borne diseases like cholera and helps in the development of thriving farms. Reference / WorkSites: - ARUP Journal, 1/2003, case study 2 - http://www.worldbank.org/afr/findings/english/find218.pdf - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout_PlayPump - http://www.euforic.org/gb/stake1.htm#how Read More