Social Impact Assessment Report - Essay Example

Social Impact Assessment Report Introduction Social impacts reports critically evaluates on a pending project’s social, economic and environmental effects taking into account the advocated measures to manage, evade and alleviate the foreseeable impacts of the project. A cost-benefit analysis will determine if the impacts are positive or negative. If the cost equals the benefits, then the project is not worth commencing although achievement of intangible benefits such as awareness creation is almost certain. The department of higher education has made the ratification processes easier and further reduced approval time frameworks for the social impacts assessment reports. The streamlined social impact assessment procedures emphases on high risks impacts and use results oriented procedures to manage the impacts of the project. These guidelines help the advocates to socially assess their projects, embrace a risk- based methodology to social impact assessment and focus on the results to welcome constructive solutions and take advantage of the social opportunities and reduce hazardous impacts that may emerge from the project. The emphasis is on building a relationship between advocates, stakeholders and groups of interest directly affected by the project. The relevant stakeholders thus informed of their expected roles in the development and implementation of the SIA (Becker & Vanclay, 2006). Description of the social environment This segment elaborates on the social environment of the people directly or indirectly affected by the course of the project. Factors considered include socio-economic position, ecological conditions of these people as well as theirsocial organization. The Middle East is located 18 km north of Horr desert and its major population is made of a generation aged between 16-35 years. The population of the older generation aged between 55 and above is quite small. Despite such a young population, the Middle East town consists of fewer learning institutions prompting most children to drop out at early stages while those who progress get frustrated later due to limited resources available academically. Due to this, unemployment rate is high and in the previous year was at 60% and the dependency ration of the young on old is high too. The main income generating activity in this town is mining of oil but the human resource necessary to drive the industry to a global level lacks despite the ready availability of the cheap labor from the unskilled. Social scope of the study The social scope studytackles issues related to the construction of the Middle East institutional studies. The population of this town majorly earns their living selling Carmel skin, milk and subsistence farming although yields are poor due to the harsh conditions. When Sheikh came along to issue a grant, the government welcomed the idea. It pledged to supply, offer maintenance services, and welcomed the public to take a participative role in decision-making processes. The public although worry of being displaced, the ministry of land promised to come up with an appropriate settlement procedure. The government would acquire land, settle the displaced, give them little capital to set up their homes and give an approval for the project to begin. The budget Project Amount in million dollars Reasons Accommodation facilities 180 Spacious hostels to accommodate native and international students. Medical facilities 100 A modern facility to ensure a healthy student population Online library 140 This facilitates extensive research programs among students and lecturers Computers 60 Keeping of student records by support staff Office furniture 60 Cafeteria 25 To save students time of seeking food outside the institution Support staff 50 Help in maintenance of the institution facilities Fleet services 10 Used for tours and workshops among students and lecturers Swimming pool 20 For leisure considering the harsh weather conditions The sheikh offered a grant of 750 million of which 100mn meant for construction of a building, which I propose an administration block of the Institute of the Middle East studies. Apart from setting up the structure, the institution should embrace the modern technology employed by learning institutions all over the world and efficiently run their institutions. Within the 100mn budget, this building should have a modern research center with latest computers models and soft wares for its students. The pristine offices of heads of departments equipped with wireless internet connections. This helps the staff and students to be techno-savvy. The institution’s staff will find it easy to keep records of the institutions and incur small costs in operational expenditure. The academic staff should use the internet and intranet to create a domain whereby students can log in the institutions’ website and access their results, get the latest news from their administration and even engage the administration office on relevant issues concerning their fields of study via a student portal. With the construction of such a state-of the- art erection, many will admire consequently motivated to join one of their best learning institutions in their capital. The remaining amount could be used in construction of infrastructure like cafeterias, online library with books too, offices of the non-teaching staff, office furniture,conference rooms, health facility, among others. The incumbent government also has a duty of sponsoring 10 students each year after graduating on a merit able basis table 2 summarizes number of students who will benefit from the government within the different disciplines. STUDIES Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Number of students sponsored Scholarship award criteria Introduction Detailed studies Research & Discoveries Islamic Basics of Arab language Arab language II Bachelor Thesis 3 Financial background of students and merit in performance History Tradition of Islam Islamic law Arabic Arabic literature Diplomacy International relations 3 Arab morphology Arab stylistic devices Classical Arabic policy Petroleum Math Earth science Grand viva Chemistry Energy resources Gas retailing 4 Communication skills Math III Pipeline engineering Stakeholders and their roles Some stakeholders regarded active and likely to feel the impact by the outcomes of the project. Five primary stakeholders are project managers, sponsor, project team, customer and functional management. The foundation of any successful project involves meeting the expectations of these stakeholders who first arrive at a consensus on objectives of the project. Project manager must have his own expectations of the project and identify his mandate. He should report directly to the sponsor on the direction and the milestones attained in every phase of the project. Project team consists of a group of individuals who invest in their own time, expertise and exertions to the project. Project proponents, contractors and even the clients are also members of the team. Functional management comprises a managerial tier of groups, that is, managers representing different departments and first-tier supervisors. These functional managers have a long-standing influence on employees and are in charge of departmental units like, finance or public relations and not necessarily for a precise project. The sponsor has the formal mandate and in authority for this project. He provides the direction that often lacks in project managers. They could senior chief executives and these titular references bestow them with this responsibility. Finally, the customer who will enjoy the benefits of this project ultimately pays for the services rendered. Community and stakeholder engagement strategy This strategy is inclusive and an ongoing process between the proposers and groups of interests that identifies social impacts directly related to the project. This includes strategic meetings held at intervals whereby the groups of interest briefed of the project details, anticipated social impacts and the mitigation structures in place. Consulting with communities of interests to confirm social impacts and come with sound mitigation frameworks based on the feedbacks from communities of interests. Continuous review of this strategy helps to assess the value and productivity of engagement policies, procedures and tools. SWOT Analysis A SWOT analysis tool represents a model that evaluates what an organization can and cannot manage plus the possible opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are considered internal while opportunities and threats, external. Therefore, the SWOT analysis will help project determine factors that might help in realizing its objectives and the deterrent factors in achievement of desired goals. For this project, the strengths are many. One, this is a well thought idea by the Sheikh and seen as a possible solution eradicating high levels of poverty in the capital. Secondly, availability of adequate financial resources being that the government is more than willing to come in and aid in supply of materials. This further confirms cost advantages plus the insourced labor in the capital. Financial resources also offer the chance of constructing a modern facility. When buying materials in bulk due to the size of the project there is economies of scale. Some of the opportunities that might arise are entry into new markets and serve additional focus groups. Offer diverse courses that meet the needs of the students therefore their skills not going to waste. Tapping their skills and providing them with appropriate learning methodologies consistent with the market demand.The weaknesses in the project are that the institution offers a limited number of courses exactly three. This consequently biases those students willing to further their education but the desired courses are unavailable. Moreover, the existing staff may prove incompetent and fail to deliver the expected results. Poor sensitization structures of the public thus no body appreciating the significance of educating himself. The threats in such a case are entry of new learning institutions of the same pedigree who offer substitute courses. The students could be slow learners hence dragging the semester curriculum. The student population is vulnerable to political instability prompting the government to adopt adverse policies that would hamper the learning process. Political wars in the capital might cause demographic changes and this eventually changes stakeholder’s needs and preferences. Recommendations The majority of landowners are willing to get compensation to acquire the benefits of the learning institutions. The consideration here is the number of houses that are going to pave way for this new project plus the impact on social relationships and welfares to the local groups. Since the incumbent government is willing to compensate landowners and offer small financial assistance to the displaced, I suppose the project should commence. I would accept the grant and use it to change the lives of this community. This long-term project will ensure the capital is rich in human resource and compete in the global arena. The benefits outweigh the costs therefore, returns on investment expected makes the project feasible. Works cited Becker, H. & Vanclay, F. The international handbook of Social Impact Assessment. Concept and Methodological Advances. Cheltenham UK, 2006 Appendix Questionnaire A. Project manager 1. Have you ever undertaken a huge project like this before? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. What was your level of success rate? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. How viable is this project? (Please tick one of the below and give an explanation) Very viable [ ] Viable [ ] Somehow viable [ ] Irrelevant [ ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B. Sponsor 1. After completion of this project, what do you necessarily gain? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. What are your expectations? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Is the government lending you a hand? How? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- C. Beneficiaries/students 1. Of what relevance do you find this project? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. How will the project upon completion influence your perception? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- D. Project team 1. How will you support the institutions philosophy towards diversity? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. What are your goals and procedures in place in achieving them? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E. Functional team management 1. Is there a period you went beyond your call of duty to ensure completion of a job? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. What measures do you have in place to deal with issues of complacency? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Read More