Capacity building news – March 2009
SAICE is fully committed to the quest to enhance, develop and maintain civil engineering as a pre-requisite for sustainability. A number of programmes and initiatives are underway and this brief update lists news about some of those.
Civils Masakheni – SAICE Section 21 Company
The programmes under the banner of this initiative are included in the brochure. It is however noteworthy that further developments are taking place and that for example the Numberwise initiative is currently being considered for roll-out in schools in the RSA. Since the Africa World Soccer Cup in 2010 attracts so much attention, the name of this programme may be changed to Laduma which means goal or score.
Another exciting development is that a manual or guideline to assist graduates to develop towards achieving professional registration is nearing completion. This generic but comprehensive document will guide mentors as well and is a first of its kind.
Water and Sanitation
- The DWAF, WISA, BIGEN AFRICA and SAICE capacity building programmes for water and sanitation in SADC are being rolled out and a further step in this process is a double session of Train the Trainers in March at SAICE House in Johannesburg. A country by country roll-out is being planned once the workshops have been completed
- A manual for Operations and Maintenance concerning infrastructure, with a substantial focus on water and sanitation, has been developed by the Northern Cape Provincial Government with participation and funding from DBSA, SIDA and DWAF. SAICE and Civil Masakheni are currently assisting to get this magnificent piece of work completed and to develop a mechanism to distribute it together with training sessions across the RSA. It is however envisaged that this initiative has great potential to be rolled out across SADC as well
WFEO Capacity Building Manual
The Capacity Building committee of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations met over a period of 5 days in Brazil in December to develop a capacity building manual and compendium of programmes under the leadership of SAICE and IPENZ – New Zealand. A draft was completed by the end of 2008 and the idea is to launch this document as a guiding tool at the WFEO meetings in Kuwait at the end of 2009. This document is aimed at integrating various approaches and to communicate a common message. In addition it will list many programmes that have been developed already. It is envisaged that it will assist both funding agencies as well programme managers to have a common and better understanding of Capacity Building
Africa Engineers Forum
The AEF has been admitted as an associate member of the WFEO as well as to the World Council for Civil Engineering. This is a manifestation of the credibility of this network of Institutions from SADC and including Ghana. The framework or network now has its own modest website as well.
It has served its purpose well in terms of providing a platform from which to organize and facilitate communication and programmes, but it has been severely restricted from advancing since it does not have full time administrative capacity. This need has been taken to heart by the Royal Academy of Engineers in the UK and they have now succeeded to source the first 25% of the funding to establish a secretariat from the Anglo American Foundation. They are hopeful that they would soon find further donors. Unfortunately an attempt in February 2009 to get the UK DfID interested failed. It was quite disconcerting and disappointing to learn once more that the ways and means for capacity building were not well understood. A striking example is the failure of a recent application for funding the Local Authority Councillor Programme for enhancing informed decision making. The organization that was approached is active in promoting PPP’s but could not understand that an informed Local Authority Councillor was a pre-requisite to successful PPP’s.
General Conditions of Contract and other procurement guides
The SAICE GCC 2009 and is nearing completion and it is intended that this document be offered to other SADC Institutions as well. It covers the construction of civil engineering, mechanical and electrical works and it is a well trusted and tried document, which has been around in various formats for over 40 years. Various other documents are currently under construction and it is hoped that all of these will serve integration and common approaches in the growing cross-border economic activities in the SADC.
Province to Province Cooperation
An initiative is underway in terms of an agreement between the RSA Gauteng Province and the DRC Katanga Province. This agreement is about mutual assistance and capacity building and the SAICE Local Authority Councillor Decision Making Programme is currently being updated and reworked to be included in this initiative.
UNESCO
A copy of a chapter for a publication of UNESCO that was compiled by Dawie Botha is attached
The need for capacity building for sustainability is greater than ever and the economic downturn is not helping at this stage. It is however clear that the cooperation of the various role players and stakeholders in SADC and beyond is making a real difference. We have to persevere and will keep contributing towards a better future for all we serve.
Compiled by Eng David Botha Pr Eng
SAICE Executive Director and AEF secretariat
AEF news
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Capacity Building - Deliver or Die
INTRODUCTION
Since the WFEO with the substantial support from the USA and in particular also ASCE and ICE embarked on the venture to “Build Capacity” a member of issues became evident:
- There are vast differences in how the developing world perceives and experience capacity building and what it means
- There are vast differences in how the developed world perceives and experiences capacity building and what it means
- There are vast differences in how the geographic regions perceives and experiences capacity building and what it means
- There is an over supply of organizations and entities that would like to do “good”
- There is a total lack of integration of effort in terms of capacity building
- There is a measure of paternalism and of turf protection
- There are substantial political barriers between engineering organizations
- Delivery on ideas for capacity building vanishes as quickly as the realities become evident and often ends up in talking about talks and talking in itself often seems to be the only outcome of hugely expensive get-togethers
- The initiators of ideas and the providers of resources like funding are not finding one another and ultimately many if not MOST valuable programmes and initiatives are sitting on shelves or in files, for-ever
- If funding becomes available for capacity building, substantial red tape, stop-start approaches and strings attached are the order of the day
- The principle of “teach a man to fish” is by far not enough since linger term sustainability of that principle is more often than not, not taken into account.
(I am pleased to see that Russell Jones added the several steps to the fishing story as suggested by me at one of the meetings!)
- The nature of the WFEO efforts are based on voluntary input, but volunteerism only goes so far as what will be allowed by an employer, organization or individual. The lack of continuity of members of the CCB is ample evidence of this fact and it is counter-productive since we have to keep repeating the stories.
It is clear, that we have to either DELIVER or DIE as CCB. We simply cannot expect the “party” to go on. Personal sacrifices for some of the members are too much, especially where the support structures for participation vary enormously. A Sam Kundishora and a David Botha have vastly different support in terms of funding their participation, let alone execute the resolutions taken. And then one just have to compare the support structure differences they have with when one comes from say the USA and from say Zambia.
It is however clear; that the challenges are not only at the WFEO, but are evident in all the organizations which attempt to tackle capacity building. What exacerbates the problem is, that the smaller players have to access and play every game as hard as the big players in the hope that somewhere, somehow they will strike “gold”.
SOLUTIONS SUGGESTED
Without further be-labouring the points made, I would like to suggest that the way forward for the CCB MUST in future be according to a well designed plan of action, with clear goals, responsibilities and deadlines.
Some solid relations have been established, we have to MOVE now. We have talked enough and I have recognized that my colleagues at the New Delhi CCB are of the same minds although they voiced their opinion less audibly than I am doing.
For further information, please contact SAICE.
