Social Innovation Links Engineers Worldwide

An integral view of engineering is desirable, so all engineer from everywhere can be included to the world wide body of knowledge and share the joy of practice and progress. Current status leads to dull expectations on how engineers can relate, with most discussions echoing lopsided reports, e.g. on technological determination or how one size should fit all. Acquisition of a global view of engineering is not yet possible, as such necessitate practical understanding and recognition of (still) foreign ways to represent data and information. Current, dominant and singular definitions lead to reduced analyses of achievement, in turn further narrowing definitions and thus leading to (international) research unaligned with the multifaceted local realities and needs. Contextual issues like orality and relationality are not yet recognized as informing understanding. Especially the almost exclusive discursive way of communicating within the engineering professions and the hegemony of western thinking seem to be huge barriers for inclusion of all engineers, worldwide.

Social Innovation involves the engendering of innovative activities and services that are motivated by the goal of meeting a social need and that are predominantly developed and diffused through organisations whose primary purposes are social (Mulgan, Tucker, Ali, & Sanders, 2007). The essence of social innovation is the creation of new, innovative solutions for social good. The term social innovation signifies a relative new approach for solving major problems while ensuring that stakeholders are equal partners and that wheels are not reinvented.

Social innovation allows transformation of the positivist, technical, western dominated sciences to encapsulate the important information of culture and context, and thus to include deemed intangible and unquantifiable results of interventions, like social capital. Engineering is an engine of progress for humanity, as it methodologically devised a world-of-things to interact with the world-of-humans. Social innovation augments engineering to address issues affecting us all.

Social Innovation provides an inclusive and intrinsic multidisciplinary approach for sustainable progress for all engineers. It invokes innovations in engineering sensitive of human relationships, and has effects in education, management, development cooperation, and co-creation in general. As such social innovation is instrumental to lead the way, enhance and facilitate local capacity development, and thus opens new venues for innovations and growth of knowledge, and mutual beneficial collaboration.

Stability Enhancement

No doubt the prominent partners responsible for stability of societies are Politics, Business, and Academics. At community level this translates in the incorporation of all stakeholders in the process of innovation, and thus change. The Macha case shows that such can be done successfully, with careful balanced results in tangible progress.

When now contemplating the national and regional levels, imbalances become obvious. Political structures are often vibrant, and consequences of dis-balance are well seen. Business is often explicitly encouraged, although, if I may say so, only recognized when it is structured in a 'Western manner'. However, where is the voice of the Academics?

Here in Port Elizabeth it is clear that South Africa boasts a developed academia. I am surrounded by people and documents with knowledge involving South Africa Country Studies on this, that, and the other. As I am not necessary studying (only) South Africa, when I toss those studies aside, a next pile of documents come into view. These are the cases in Europe and the USA... Oeps, that is not what I am looking for, I was hoping to get the ones from the African hinterlands. They appear not to exist. Normally then one sais “Let's call someone”. But which professor to call in Angola? Or which one in the Congo? Or which journal to dive into to get information on Zambia, or Zimbabwe, or Malawi?

For peaceful and wholesome progress the balance of the essential social partners is crucial. Already at the start of my stay in South Africa it is more then clear that such balance is missing for most of our northern neighbours and regions.

The academia of a country produces its future leaders. See Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, an acclaimed academic with a doctorate in quantum chemistry. Likewise, Africa needs nationals to research and develop thesis and solutions addressing local, national, and regional challenges. Such is the bread and butter of academic institutions. Thus, not only do academic institutions need to quadruple or more in size, to allow for the huge influx of young people in view of current population demographics, it also needs to show tangible results in research, utilizing and building out indigenous knowledge to assure local relevance, and contribute to the partnership for national and regional stabilities and holistically embedded national progress.

Zimtale

The last five days I have been in Harare, Zimbabwe. It has been an invigorating experience. Of course, we are all aware of the difficulties the country has, is, and still might be(en) going through. I witnessed snapshots of developments as a regular guest – and sometimes resident - in 'Zim' since 2000. This visit I have been meeting with intoxicating self-reliant Africans, emanating presence and strength. It seems hardship and persecution bring forth a generation of staunch believers, with faith in their future, emerging and ready to progress.

Does the rapidly connecting and shrinking world play a role? Obviously IT does build bridges to even the most locked out places, as I have been experiencing technology doing in rural Zambia the past nine years. This week I have met a subset of urban people who know what is going on in the world, whom are keen to build their families, their country, and want to be a gift to the world. Undoubtedly, there is much suffering, maybe more here then there, as anywhere. And a few days only limits one's abilities to experience, and allows for witnessing of just some fragments of existence.

Yes, it can be inundating for an alien. I have been walking through Harare center for many hours on two separate days, and did not see a Caucasoid. I went in shops, met people, had a talk in the streets, and we all happily acknowledged each other presence while passing by, each person continuing on in their respective ways. Little sign of dependency, less begging in the center of Harare then in the center of Atlanta-GA, and no over-the-top servitude; It was like living water on my purged soul.

I met with leaders in academia, unashamedly calling for Afrocentric funding and research and development, eager to exchange ideas on innovations, ready to leap-frog and 'go-for-it'. I met people whom recognized opportunities, and accommodated personal challenges.

What a stark contrast with Harare International Airport this morning, virtually empty with a small amount of flights, a sign of isolation and stifled exchange. I saw crumbling physical infrastructure in places, new developments in others, and poignant challenges in service delivery like electricity and water. On the other hand, local trade was vibrant in the streets, and the most busy shops were those of the mobile operators, spilling over with customers onto the pavement. Asking my Zimbabwean friends what the people were doing there, their quip response was: 'getting their lines upgraded for the Internet'. Is this a new world, less travel, less infrastructure, but with much and growing Information and Communications Technology, bringing us together in new ways?

Observations, questions, thesis, superficiality, wariness? As most societies in the current world, also Zimbabwe seems to resemble a society build on the slope of an active volcano. What volcanoes are going to erupt in the world, where and when? Spilling what sort of lava? With new entrepreneurship adapting and overcoming set terms of resource limitations, a new sustainable progress, a new world order, African renaissance, or maybe just chaos? Actually, what wisdom can these so-called chaos theories, game theories, and emerging knowledge provide us in connecting the dots of this interconnected world of humans and things? Social innovation, is it being accelerated under pressure? 

I am looking forward to continue relating with Zimbabwe, ever more closely, and augment my experience in Southern Africa with experiencing how Zim's wonderful people will connect all the dots. I am preparing the grounds for that further, now as one of the students in the School for Information and Communication Technology at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

Right, I Left

It is quite entertaining - and admittedly sometimes frustrating - to hear a soft whisper and sometimes even a loud voice that evanescents “what happens when he leaves?”. As if my person holds a magic wand that makes things happen and flourish, while at the same time fatefully implying that when 'someone else' 'takes over' such magic wand will have been gone.

Those who raise the issue 'what happens when he leaves?' often appear blinded by opportunistic searchlights, that illuminate individuals instead of communities, focus on projects instead of people, and on threats instead of opportunities. Or, more worrisome, those that appear subdued by their outlook on reality encompassing virtually insurmountable mountains and unforgiving barriers, often pushing persons in various stages of inertness or, alternatively, rage.

From the outset, per definition, one should aim to be involved where vision flourishes, as without a vision people perish. A vision must instil hope, talk about humans, and inspire associates and stakeholders to excel. Equally, one should only commit in situations where leadership can mention names of those whom are growing, and are being mentored to 'take over'; Names of real people that are prone to excel their predecessors, who bear the promise of expanding capabilities, whom are able to sustain, augment, mature, and expand (parts of) the vision. Including names of those whom will not hesitate to outsource, change, discard, insource, or do whatever is needed to sustain progress and the organisational health.

My answer to these evanescent sounds? “Look carefully. Since April 2010 I have not been leading Macha Works, nor did make decisions, and neither was involved in any management meeting.” As with all people, my roles change constantly, and will keep on doing so, as dynamic transformation engenders such change, in this case empowering local talent endowed with growing authority.

Instead of focus on the here and now, since April 2010 I have been observing and facilitating realignment of contacts and relationships. Result of the local team's examinations arrived in the form of  external audit reviews. They have been favourable for two consecutive years. Overall budgets grew with 20% and local income surged with 400%. I am not amazed; The right leadership at the right time sustains progress and realigns priorities.

Those were the good times. Since early 2012 there were bad times, induced by circumstances that were outside of the local leader's realms of influence. Thus after time of remarkable growth, now there were times of pruning, testing through fire, with weaker parts being blown over by the storms of life. Also a period of seeing fruits of the right relationships, and testing of seatbelts whom are provided by real friends. During April and May I was requested to help, to fire-fight, to prevent loss of assets, destruction of achievements and personnel benefits, and assure adherence to the stipulations of the environment. I am glad I could still recognize the institution, knew where to look, what to invoke, and where to apply antidote. Just for a short while though and from a relative distance, not being engrossed, only doing the necessary job, while engendering components for the next mentoring phase.

I never stopped – and will never stop - to observe, to study, and to volunteer where I can. However, I did not return. I left Macha Works April 2010, and now, after quenching some major fires, obviously being affected by fall out, now pruning even my shade; I bodily left for academic peer-to-peer interaction on our findings on social innovations and systems, and to expand its thesis. Without a doubt, on the ground, the vision-carrying local talents are getting it right!

What is left is encouragement and cheering-on: “Aim right, and move on!”

Seasonal Change

My days in April and May have been filled with operational activities based upon methodological analysis of very complex realities, as they exist in cross cultural interactions and rural Africa. These months I came into play to provide for crisis management due to a whole array of challenges following two unprecedented delays in release of projects funding. These delays effectively took the wind out of the sails of Macha Works. However, after two months of purposeful and focused interventions, the organisation is alive and back in local hands. It has been a rare privilege to provide guidance in such challenging situations, ably supported by backstopping through discussions with experts in fields of accountancy, diplomacy, economy, management, ethnography, development, engineering, etc.

Of course, not everyone has access to such high quality soundboards, nor access to experts or an ability to take an extra-personal perspective. In rural Africa, the affects of these voids add significantly to the workload and social strains. Such is exasperated by the pressure cooker situation in which crisis management takes place, which severely limits one's ability to interact with most stakeholders, or anybody else in that manner.

Without a doubt, in the specific context and culture of resource limited environments in rural Africa - with highly oral and relational communities - the strenuous work of a crisis manager is little understood. This gives multiple views on realities in the relational web of local, national and international relationships. Actually, crisis management involves work that goes against the grain of the individual whom is confronted with individual loss and hurt, and as such seemingly feeds a collective atrophy and self-destructiveness of hurting groups in society. In rural Africa this all is further amplified due to a limited knowledge base in management techniques and organisational concepts, and by gossip run wild.

The relational society links challenges and achievements to people, with little recognition of existence or benefit of institutional entities. Thus management actions are primarily related to the manager' person with little regards for the (legal) entity being managed (for).

With the aim for Macha Works for the locally embedded empowerment of the local person, and having gone through a challenging, interesting, but also depleting, chapter of crisis management, it now feels that I have reached the end of my season at Macha. The dream has shown capability of being reality, and the entity has proven structurally sound to respond to the circumstances and environment in an appropriate manner. It is time for me to move on. However, with all onlookers I look forward to sharing opportunities of continuous learning on how local talent will grow and augment Macha Works' social model of implementation, and act according to the situation and the culture of the society they operate in, in rural Macha.  

Gratitude

New glasses on my nose, seeing the world afresh, crystal clear. For a while my glasses were scratched, off strength, and regularly popping out of their frame. What a change, what a blessing!

The Zambezi river shows off its might. I watch in awe from atop the gorge at rapid seventeen. Unstoppable, majestic and fierce. Waters turned white, flipping passing rafters. Every second, massive, fresh, H2O, steaming wet life flows. We struggled a bit with water, as the site's water pump engineering failed functioning to quench human demands. However, nature's flow continues unabated, grinding the gorge.

Wow, a Taita falcon sped by. Elusive, stealthy, purposeful. Crafty bunch of feathers in full control. Through the airquarium it goes where it wants. I tried so last Thursday, in an obtrusive metal airplane. Clumsy, however, I did feel privileged and full of gratitude.

Kids squeal, jumping in a refreshing pool. Air at a temperature that cannot be sensed. Clouds shading a piercing sun. Air filled to the brink by the orchestra of nature, performing an enthralling masterpiece.

Easter. Bursting my seams with gratitude.

Discourse on Innovation vs. Discourse on Control

It is in the reflection of great writings that one can link literate utterances to observations that were lacking words in which to describe them. In the absence of specialist bookstores in a range of over a thousand kilometers, only recently I am empowered to access good books, on Kindle and with Visa Electron downloaded through the internet. A world has opened to me, with a refreshing rain of well wrought wordings.

Each book brings me both balance and unbalance, relieve and stress. I try to recognize and puzzle with thinking patterns, especially those shown by psychiatristic daredevils like Freire or Fanon, or in structural seminal methodological textbooks like Sachs or Collins. Then I augment them with thoughts from inspirational writings on culture, anthropology, theology, humanism, and mysticism.

Has all be told, has all be understood? Certainly not! Context and cultures change, emerge and seemingly do repeat. I just aim to assemble theory to support progress, sustainably, helpfully, inclusively, unitingly, and lovingly. Progress needs new insights and theories of dynamics. Thus I relish my everyday school, which provides a healthy meal of theory and practise.

Oh, what a world of fortunate joy and unfortunate hurt! Through it I can understand cynicism when sharing my experience out of Africa. At the other hand, I feel for a Rwandan friend who shared his hurt feelings after a presentation on Rwanda's impressive achievements in the role out of ICTs. It was the question from the audience that stabbed, which could be summarized like “You are giving a positive presentation about Rwandan developments. Are you giving the complete picture? Could you please expand on what is going wrong?”.

It is Fanon whom for me encapsulated the issue of us as the recipient being confused by the myriad signs of the [developed] world, so one never knows where he/she is out of line. Fanon explains how the subject is always presumed guilty, and how she/he in turn considers such judgement as a kind of curse, a sword of Damocles. This resonates with my own observations. We live in a dual and segregated world, with those being developed living in a world of foreign judgements stating 'you are guilty'.

For its donors, Macha Works creates impressive and often highly detailed reports. Such is rather unique from a rural African environment that is used to share its relationships, not its information. Recently I noticed a comment “I do trust that goods have been purchased, but how can you prove they have been used for the intended purpose?”. This is example of a known cascade of precepts:

1. when money goes to Africa, Africans will divert it;

2. when money is not diverted, reports will be cooked;

3. when reports are not cooked, the utilization will benefit the boss (only);

4. when use is not for the boss (only), then it is just a matter of time (for it to collapse).

For every step, a recipient in Africa is considered guilty unless proven otherwise, conform consistent cynicism.

The paradox of the wish for breakthrough and innovation and a situation of pervasive fear and urge for control fuels a spiral that almost encourages inertia or wrong doings. When one is labeled questionable from the start, it is most luring to confirm such judgment. It is draining to be distrusted, even before one starts. No wonder that Fanon observes “[the person being developed] is made to feel inferior, but by no means convinced of his inferiority. He patiently waits for the [the person doing development] to let down his guard and then jumps on him”. This is in line with Leautier's observation that such change can come with high speed in Africa.

I will continue to aim to engender an atmosphere of hope, trust, faith and forgiveness. Raise 'can-do' leadership, with creative, innovative attitude, ready to explore. And sustain entities that aim for the stars, leapfrogging vigorously, not necessarily avoiding difficulties, mistakes, or even failure. Such needs focus on Discourse on Innovation, one that I gladly envision.

The Man with the Key

Undoubtedly one of the most significant person in rural areas is The-man-with-the-key. Who holds the key holds access to resources. In my experience there is often only one key to a door. And thus when at a door the issue is 'who has got the Key?'.

Conveniently, on most of our doors the key number is scratched in the wood above the lock. So when the key is really lost, with most mortice locks in the country being of the same low-cost supplier, one can relatively easy source an other one. The number also helps when The-man-with-the-key has got a whole bunch of keys, so one can match the key with the door, and does not have to test them all.

The challenge lies in to match The-man-with-the-key with the door, to be able to pass through it. Of course, the person is somewhere, and one has just to find her/him. The person could be at home, could have left 'for town' and handed the key over to someone else, or might be in the fields.

This weekend it took almost 24 hours to find The-man-with-the-key to open a power cabinet that supplies the internet equipment of our Internet Service Provider. The person's phone was off, and a pursuit was launched via people in his vicinity to track him down. This morning I was chartered to drive to his house about 5 kilometers away, where the LinkNet associate hunted him down. He was busy in his fields. Thus found, The-man-with-the-keys was instantly available, got his keys and we drove him to the equipment cabinet. With the door opened, after some investigation, a power fuse was found off. Resetting the fuse restored the internet feed. Then we brought The-man-with-the-key back home so he could continue his day.

Anecdotal evidence suggest that, on average, it takes about one hour to get a door opened. This process includes a number of phone calls and travels and searches to meet up with The-man-with-the-key. Then, of course, after access has been secured and the work done, the reverse process takes place to facilitate the return of the key.

Fanon states that, in an environment like this, a person must constantly aware of his image, jealously protecting his position. Such can be witnessed in the daily dance around access to resources. And The-man-with-the-key holds one of the major keys to that!

Taking it Personal

In the culture of rural Africa juridical personalities appear not to exist. This is a discovery that got me reeling the last weeks. It is again proof that even after 11 years full of overflowing days in rural Africa, one continues to stumble upon new and fundamental truths every day. How could I not have seen this before? And, now understood, how to integrate this knowledge in wise mentoring?

Currently Macha Works is in the middle of a program called 'Pruning for Growth'. This program was initiated when during January and February two major expansion and donor commitments did not materialize; follow up Universal Service Funding expansion support for LinkNet, anticipated since May 2010, and delay in reimbursement for a large, executed target-based-funding building project.

With financial sustainability under attack, and thoughtful of the aim for long term sustainable progress, while avoiding particularism, Macha Works management took the only possible and tough decision to lay off all staff per 1 March. A growing contingency of volunteering staff continue activities in March, while the process towards rebuilding of the organisation takes off.

All this goes 'according to the management-handbook' and is a clear pass in the exam of local talent to sustainably operate an organisation in rural Africa, even under 'pressure cooker' circumstances! A signal that did not land on deaf ears and positivity exited most cooperating partners.

However, in the rural area the message is not easily digested. Some former staff and community members did start a hunt for 'the person who did this'. As Macha Works is community owned and run by Local Talent, a twister of attention focusing on the 'who'-question wanders through the area. It aims to uproot the local individuals seen as liable. Outside of the cyclone most remains at peace. Still, the magnitude of the difficulties for the individuals involved attains levels that startle me. Thus we forcefully entered a new phase of local talent training and mentoring, and discoveries.

One such discovery is that the concept of a legal entity, with a legal name and rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities, and liabilities under law, is not readily understood in the local culture and context. When I probe community members, local leadership, and even district dignitaries, they confirm this finding. Some even compassionately welcome me in the community of those endowed with this knowledge from experience.

Legal bodies in rural Africa seem to be a scarce and often bewildering artifact. It appears that, apart from the clergy that esoterically represent God, there are two entities that do exist in rural areas: the People and the Government. As such, anything that is not 'people' thus per definition is 'government'. One signal of such classification is that writing, necessary in the operations of corporate legal bodies, signals the separation of such bodies from people; People utilize orality and government literacy. Entities that utilize writings are thus seen to be necessarily part of government. Albeit the continuous review of an institute's government recognition, registration, and interaction.

On the other hand, it seems that a community owned entity like Macha Works, is seen necessarily having all rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities, and liabilities connected to a person. And thus, when the entity goes through a challenging period, the community searches for the person whom should have the full responsibility. That is quite tough for institutional leaders, whom have to watch two fronts at once, one rational/institutional and one relational/personal!

There is much to learn, and understand, and to educate, both for local talents, for communities, and, of course, for me. Never a dull moment!

ICT4R (Information and Communications Technologies for Relationships)

It is a rare honor to be present at the Information and Community Technology for Development (ICTD 2012) conference in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. What a privilege it is to be 10.000 miles from home and share unique papers from rural Zambia, for the first time presenting facts on the locality of traffic in a rural African village and how technology could facilitate local African content generation!

When taking in this conference, mulling over its significance, I wonder how to harness the significant sacrifices made by all that are present, both in body and spirit. Here we sit in the shadow of overarching, imposing sky scrapers, in facilities that give me and my two neighbors already a combined internet bandwidth that equals the total of all available bandwidth in the country of Zambia.

I attend presentations of reports on (research) projects in developing countries, many in Asia and Africa, while being part of an interesting mix of passionate persons from both 'the North' and 'the South'. Of course, presentations entice the ubiquitous questions about sustainability and academic rigor. However, David Kobia's opening remarks on the 'D' in ICT4D - the academic space for most participants at this conference - still ring in my ears. He blamed the the ‘D’ - that stands for Development - to polarize and sustain cognitive dissonance between the institutional (western) organizations that seem to seek to bring technologies to marginalized environments, while such environments call for encouragement of locally relevant expressions of technology. His position was earlier posed by Erik Hersman in “the subtle condescension of 'ICT4D'” which did invoke an insightful discussion that was well summarized by Linda Raftree.

There is clearly an Elephant in the Room that is called 'Who Says?'. Whom is talking from which cultural and contextual perspective, and under which authority? In my view, one should pose tough questions to any ICT4D activity that is not guided by, and embedded in, local culture and context. Activities that are clearly designed and planned from a western industrialized culture, with solutions emerging from western individualistic and hedonistic thought, and implementation done according to western rational planning, cannot be considered for just verdicts of 'success or fail' as per western evaluation. It is presumptuous to think that a foreigner from foreign lands offering foreign things in an other context and culture can be effective. Then academic research appears as a take-away text written in academic English appropriating local culture for private, foreign profit. The local community remains objectified and exploited, with real and potentially disturbing social consequences.

In fact, we all undergo development. It is a human and extremely complex endeavor, heavily depending on relationships. Any form of communication involved is constantly changing and emergent. Undoubtedly, doing review on technology from within, and to the benefit of people in severely resource restrained environments, is challenging. However, as culture is the context in which things happen; out of context, even information and communications technologies can lack significance.

My daily experience in the rural Africa is that cross cultural knowledge is hard to come by. Its apprehension takes much effort and time, and, when known, its consequences often baffles foreign people involved. Although ICT4D practitioners can argue that integrated technologies have a logic of their own that are not affected by culture, the objective dimension of technologies, including Information and Communications Technologies, do have totally different meanings that different local human cultures read into them. Thus, in any presentation of ICT4D activity, a multidisciplinary, ethnographic description of the context and culture is imperative, as ICT4D is a subset of ICT4R, Information and Communications Technologies for Relationships, which can only be researched as a complete human experience.