Deltalink, Socio-Technical Development in the Delta: An Experimental Approach to Water Related Needs

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CRELIS RAMMELT

PhD Student Technology Dynamics & Sustainable Development

FARHAN ALIBUX

MSc Student Architecture & Building Technology

DANIEL SUTJAHJO

MSc Student Strategic Product Design

STEPHANIE WONG YEE KWAN

deltacompetition 2006

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ABSTRACT

Bangladesh is one of the poorest and densely populated deltas in the world. Due to institutional and financial limitations of the central government as well as past failures of the conventional top-down approach we suggest bottom-up strategies to increase the communities' ability to manage their own vulnerabilities. In a rural setting, these are typically the adverse effects of annual floods, contaminated drinking water, food insecurity, etc. The situation is further deteriorated by external forces such as natural disasters (cyclones or extreme floods) and market fluctuations (for example the decline of jute and textile industries). A strategy will be devised to address the provision of basic needs and to increase livelihood security in an integral way, using local knowledge and resources as a basis for development. This should combine solutions to urgent problems at the local level that could trigger long-term socio-economic development. Solutions should also have generic qualities so that they can be replicated in other areas, which might perhaps have a positive impact on the delta as a whole. Our approach is directed towards building a link between parties that are interested in improving the above-mentioned water-related issues. The goal is not to solve the problems but to provide a means to catalyse the development process. It includes two elements. First, a technological and institutional toolkit will compile the different traditional and external technologies, infrastructural solutions, organisational options into an online platform for collaboration, DeltaLink. Secondly, a strategy is outlined in which utilization of the DeltaLink platform by development professionals, NGOs and other organisations interested in participatory development in the water sector of Bangladesh is addressed.

APPROACH

TOOLKIT

TECHNOLOGICAL

INSTITUTIONAL

1 INTRODUCTION

Considerable international interest for the struggle with water was triggered with the disastrous floods of 1987 and 1988. This stimulated the design of a countrywide Flood Action Plan that would solve the problem once and for all [Haskoning 2003]. The plan would be implemented by the national government with the assistance of a large number of international donors and consultants. The total costs were estimated between 5 to 10 billion US-dollars, and the yearly maintenance costs at 200 million US-dollars. The means were made available to Bangladesh on the basis of a loan [Eerste Kamer 1995]. A central component (FAP-20), funded by the Netherlands and Germany, was directed towards a system of compartments (or polders) for averting the effects of floods and creating a secure environment for green revolution agriculture by promoting local markets for food, fertilisers, pesticides and irrigation technology.

In the period 1991 to 2000, the project was implemented in the district of Tangail, a rural flood prone region in the North of Dhaka. In figure 1 (not based on an actual region) a natural flow of the river and smaller streams is depicted. Communities are settled near the water nearby arable land. During annual floods, rivers and streams grow out of their banks, overflow and revitalize the land. FAP-20 proposed a structural intervention in the area; in essence a large embankment was built around the region and through a system of dykes and sluice gates, irrigation canals would be fed inside the embankment area (See Fig. 2). Throughout its implementation phase FAP-20 was highly controversial. Firstly, no distinction was made between disastrous floods and the more beneficial annual floods, which maintain fertility of the soil, provide water to monsoon crops, refill ground water stock and drain household waste [IFAPRM 1995, Adnan 1995].

General Information

Population: 133 million inhabitants | 926 per sq. km

Surface area: total: 144,000 sq. km | land: 133,910 sq km (93%) | water: 10,090 sq km (7%)

Climate: tropical; cool, dry winter (October to March); hot, humid summer (March to June); cool, rainy monsoon (June to October)

Terrain: mostly flat alluvial plain; hilly in southeast

This led to an increased dependency of farmers on local markets and income to buy agricultural inputs. Secondly, communities located outside the main embankment were hit harder than before its construction [Euroconsult 1995]. Thirdly, there was a significant decline in the open-water fish catches inside the cluster [Euroconsult 1995]. On a general note, FAP-20 undervalued different impacts on different groups (fisherman/farmer, poor/rich, rural/urban, etc) [IFAPRM 1995]. The intention was to develop criteria and principles from the project [TAPP 1993] but when initial confidence diminished the label was changed from demonstration to pilot project. Eventually, after considerable investment, the project was phased out and not replicated elsewhere in Bangladesh.

In this intervention, people participated merely as labour for the construction of the infrastructure. Former Dutch Minister of International Co-operation mentions how little came out of researching alternatives presented by the local people, which might be attributed to the existing socio-political structure of the area [Eerste Kamer 1995]. As a promising alternative, Haskoning mentions the successful farmers' initiative of temporary small-scale dam systems in the South of Bangladesh [Haskoning 2003]. The structural character of FAP-20 however undervalued such traditional coping strategies and non-structural measures (flood proof shelters, drinking water, food storage, canal dredging, etc) [IFAPRM 1995]. The Dutch FAP-20 team leader dismissed the dredging-only option saying the world's fleet would have to be deployed in Bangladesh to make a difference [Amesz 1996].

A Bangladesh Water Development Board document states that the option of no flood control for Tangail need not be discussed with the people (quote in [Adnan 1992]) and at the same time, bilateral and multilateral aid programmes will not go against the sovereignty of nation states [Eerste Kamer 1995]. On the other hand, many NGOs in the area have taken on the task of lobbying against the top-down character of the project. Their involvement however remains restricted to criticism and little alternatives are proposed.

COMMUNITY RIVER/STREAM ARABLE LAND Figure 1 Before FAP-20 COMMUNITY RIVER/STREAM ARABLE LAND DAM Figure 2 After FAP-20

This example raises the following questions: would less-structural solutions on a smaller scale have been more successful to address peoples’ priorities? Could urgent issues be tackled on the short-term by also taking into account longer-term social and institutional processes? We should develop and examine novel approaches, whereby interventions will be based on the priorities of local people. This requires a new type of experiment in which the end result is not known beforehand. It will be the outcome of a process that blends external advice from scientists and development experts with local traditional knowledge.

2 OBJECTIVES

Development should be oriented towards the development of people and towards basic human needs. Societal development is seen as a lengthy process that has to come from within. Otherwise it will restrain disadvantaged or excluded communities in their autonomy to choose their own development paths.

2.1 Internal and external factors

The dynamics of development are strongly influenced by specific local cultural, historical and social factors but also by the involvement of various external actors. This involvement has the tendency to be one-sided and to be of a short-term nature, and has little reservation as to one’s role in someone else’s development. Outside influences can therefore sometimes facilitate but also frustrate the process. Participation is not only the involvement of local communities in projects but the concept is also defined as the involvement of development organisations, consultancies and international funding organisations that participate in the development process of local communities. This requires a clarification of our own objectives and stakes in the process (whether ideological, scientific, financial, etc). Technologies and infrastructures play a role in meeting basic human needs. As opposed to ‘technology transfer’, we believe that external interventions and local traditional technologies and infrastructures should be integrated. The exact form should be designed by the people themselves, reflecting their priorities.

Current development theory and practice can be considered ‘closed’. More open approaches invite local knowledge and are highly flexible over time. As a consequence, in this paper we will not formulate the actual solutions ourselves, but propose an approach in the form of a toolkit and a strategy. The exact form in which different societies address these needs varies. When technological and institutional choices for managing the basic needs of a community are mainly defined by themselves, they are likely to be more successful on the long-term. This idea is not new, as we have already seen ideas on

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Project with many focal points and requiring extensive support, finances and periods time.

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Many smaller projects running simultaneously and requiring fewer resources and less time. Better suitable for pilot projects.

participation and bottom-up development emerge in the 70s, and sustainability in the 80s, but we would like to bring it further and see if we can conceive and create an approach that will allow the local people to solve their water-related problems in the delta areas. This implies that the system should be planned locally, manageable with locally available knowledge and resources, monitored and evaluated by local people (as opposed to by externally defined criteria from international development organisations and banks).

2.2 Top-down and bottom-up approaches

Bangladesh’s institutional capacity is as of yet insufficient to facilitate large-scale interventions in infrastructure, communications network, power and water supply, etc. At this stage, a centralized effort to develop the delta area in Bangladesh thus has a small chance of success. A more feasible option is to start on a smaller scale. In a way, the limitation of the Bangladeshi administration offers an opportunity for bottom-up initiatives since most rural communities not only have to depend on their own resources but also are relatively autonomous in doing so (See Figure 3).

Bottom-up interventions will have to start on a smaller scale, which might however have little effect in the rest of the region and only work in a specific local context. Another drawback might be that water management interventions might simply not work on a small scale and have to be addressed on a lager-scale, at the level of river systems for example. Ultimately, an approach will have to be devised in which both top-down and bottom-up methods are linked. Such approaches start with communication, knowledge sharing, and trust between planners and communities (See Figure 4).

In short, we believe that both top-down and bottom-up approaches have their own particular limitations. We propose an approach that directly addresses the tension between local priorities and external interventions (whether top-down or bottom-up). (See Figure 5) For small communities to have the ability to control their own development, an initial focus on basic needs is inevitable. “Equal before the law and free though they are in theory to dispose of their lives, individuals are yet, in practice, only so equal and free when they are sure of their means of

subsistence” [ILO 1925]. In this work we will focus on the following water related needs:

• Access to fresh drinking water

• Protection against negative effects of floods • Secured fisheries and agriculture for food supply

TOP-DOWN GOVERNANCE (GOVERNMENT, CORPORATE) BOTTOM-UP GOVERNANCE (NGO’S, INDIVIDUALS) NATIONAL GOVERNMENT DISTRICT SUB-DISTRICT VILLAGE UNION VILLAGE PARA WAT E R M ANAGE M E N T AGRI CUL T U RAL M ANAGEM E N T M E DI CAL M ANAG E M E N T SMA L L SC A L E M E DI ACAL M A NAGEM E N T SMA L L SC A L E AGRI CUL T U RAL M A NAG E M E N T S M NAL L S C AL E WAT E R M A NAGE M E N T

3 WATER RELATED PROBLEMS IN BANGLADESH

Bangladesh is in many ways what is perceived as a typical developing country; it is predominantly agrarian, highly in debt, and with a huge disparity between rich and poori_{. Additionally, Bangladesh faces}

problems of over-populationii _{and is located in one of the wettest regions}

of the world (See Figure 6). Despite that, Bangladesh achieved two noticeable successes [Ahmed 2005]: First, due to extensive use of groundwater, facilitated by easy availability of prolific aquifers and low-tech affordable installations (mainly through shallow hand tube wells), more than 97% of the population have access to drinking water. Secondly, increased irrigation coverage with groundwater up to 70% contributed in making the country self-reliant in rice production (the staple food in Bangladesh). These ‘successes’ are still very vulnerable as will become clear in the following paragraphs.

3.1 Drinking water

With the detection of naturally occurring arsenic in shallow groundwater a few years ago a new disaster has emerged. Two-thirds of the tube wells installed over the last thirty years turn out to contain arsenic concentrations above the permissible levels set by the World Health Organization [WHO 2000]. Estimates tell that over 56 million people are exposed [BGS/DPHE 2001]. Over 400,000 casualties are likely to occur in the near future if nothing changes [Ahmed 2002] but the figure might be considerably worse when taking into account the arsenic intake from agricultural products irrigated with contaminated water [Huq 2004].

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It has been described as one of the biggest environmental calamities of the last decades and as the worst mass poisoning in history [Smith 2000]. Yet, despite the large sums of money made available by UNICEF, World Bank and others to the Bangladeshi government, little has been spent until now. Some successes have been achieved in geological, chemical, health and technical research. While these activities are obviously very important to clarify the many uncertainties of this issue, its urgent character requires a more pragmatic approach focusing on the implementation of infrastructures and institutions. The pace of such activities does not match the extent and severity of the problem [Chakraborty 2002b, Ahmed 2005]. Due to their socio-economic position the problem is particularly serious for the rural population. Considering the generally urban-focused policies of the central government it becomes clear that these communities have to rely on their own resources to address the problem. (See Figure 7)

3.2 Flood protection

The delta lies fenced by the Bay of Bengal in the south and by India in the north, east and west, and a small boundary with Burma. Bangladesh has a tropical and subtropical climate. It has been subject to climatic extremities and has three main seasons: the monsoon or wet season from late May to early October, the 'cold' winter season from mid October to the end of February, and the 'hot' dry season from mid March to mid May.

Considerable international interest was triggered with the disastrous floods of '87 and '88. After her plane stranded at the airport during the floods, Danielle Mitterand, wife of the French president, returned to France in shock and reported to her husband who took up the issue and promoted a large-scale approach that would solve the problem once and for all [Haskoning 2003]. This resulted in the earlier mentioned Flood Action Plan. As said a distinction has to be made between disastrous floods and annual floods. With such large-scale structural interventions, very little attention has been paid to different impacts on different groups (man/women, poor/rich, rural/urban, etc). Traditional coping strategies and non-structural measures have generally been undervalued (flood proof shelters, drinking water, food storage, etc) [IFAPRM 1995].

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3.3 Food safety

The famines of 1943 and 1972 are still clear in the mind of the people in Bangladesh. In 1971, at a time ravaged by floods, famine and civil war, George Harrison organized one of the most ambitious humanitarian efforts in rock music history, which produced an extraordinary contribution for UNICEF, exceeding $15 million. (See Figures 8 & 9) A familiar issue is the loss of harvests during long-term and extreme flooding, which in turn also affects food security. In the 80s green revolution agriculture increased the yields by introducing High Yielding Varieties of rice, pesticides and chemical fertilizers. While production did indeed increase, people also became more vulnerable to the fluctuation of markets for buying and selling products. Reliance on financial income has also increased, especially when Bangladesh pared down subsidies to the agricultural sector during the 1980s [BIDS/DFID 2002]. Other special concerns that emerged with these agricultural developments are land loss for homesteads and other purposes as well as the decreasing quality of the soil [BIDS/DFID 2002].

The arsenic contamination of groundwater has further deteriorated food security. Although details are unclear, arsenic is known to enter the food chain after irrigating the land with contaminated water [Huq 2004]. Bangladesh is one of the world’s major producers of open water fish. The complex delta area holds 260 species of finfish, 20 species of prawn and 20 species of fresh water turtles. The ecology of the area is largely dependent on the annual flooding. There are examples of flood control projects in the past that have been negative to the fishery sector. Infrastructures such as polders, dykes and sluices are known to have a negative impact on open water fisheries, which provides a source of free or low-cost food for the poor. These infrastructures transformed the institutional status of fish from a common pool and open access resource into a privatized resource [IFAPRM 1995].

All basic subsistence needs are intricately linked to each other and there is no possible trade off between access to fresh drinking water, protection against negative effects of floods or secured fisheries and agriculture for food supply. An approach to these issues should recognize the complex interrelation between needs.

Bottom-up interventions will have to start on a smaller scale, which might however have little effect in the rest of the region and might only work in a specific local context. Another drawback might be that water management interventions might simply not work on a small scale and has to be addressed on a lager-scale, at the level of river systems for example. Ultimately, an approach will have to be devised in which both top-down and bottom-up methods are linked. Such approaches start with communication, knowledge sharing, and trust between planners and communities.

The proposed approach is directed towards the above-mentioned water-related problems. The goal is not to solve the problems ourselves but to provide an approach to the problems. It includes two elements; First, a technological and institutional toolkit, for communicating ideas and concepts clearly on various levels, and second, a strategy, mainly addressing knowledge and empowerment through it.

4 THE BANGLADESH DELTALINK™

The development toolkit we propose is a digital online platform for delta area development information sharing, as well as for collaboration and communication between development institutions (See Figure 10). Users of the toolkit can consult the database for technologies, solutions, projects and precedents regarding the development problem they need to solve. The toolkit also allows users to add new or modified data about a project so that the database can grow more comprehensive. Because the online platform is realized to help develop delta areas by means of linking institutions with each other as well as with technological solutions it has been named DeltaLink™.

Delta development problems can be found all over the world. From industrialised nations like the United States to the developing Ganges-delta of Bangladesh. However, research on solving development problems is not always made on-site. Research and practice may also be disconnected by their location. Research done at universities, government and non-governmental institutions needs to be widely accessible. The DeltaLink™ project aims to bridge the gap between research and practice; this will enable the local institutions attempting to solve a problem to link existing local knowledge to a world-wide stock of ideas and solutions.

In this specific case the toolkit will be developed with only Bangladesh’s delta in mind. The toolkit’s interface will thus make a distinction between projects native to Bangladesh and technologies and processes originating from abroad. To start with, a small network of like-minded Bangladeshi NGO’s will be given the responsibility to add their project information to the online database and manage internal communication. By updating their project information, institutions as well as individuals all over the world can be kept up-to-date about the development of the projects. By making the platform freely accessible for viewing all project information can also be consulted by non-participating institutions and if interested they can get in contact with the participating NGOs and perhaps join the collaboration effort. By joining WE L C O M E T O

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the effort NGOs can share their knowledge with other parties all over the world.

4.1 The Dynamic Database

The database will be the core of the toolkit. It is the central node where all participating members can store their project information. Aside the NGOs project information it will also come with a vast technological database that contains plans, products and ideas to solve technical issues and information on how to acquire these. The three main types of data for the database are the project data, the technological data and the institutional data.

4.2 Project Data

The main goal of the project data is to help other institutions gather knowledge for their own endeavours. This means that the information in the database must be comprehensive enough to enable that while still be flexible to local priorities, but data should at least include:

• Project Description; a simple document describing the main points of the project, what was it for, for whom and why?

• Required Resources; what natural and material resources were required to start and (if completed) finalize the project.

• Project Costs; what did the project cost in finances and labour? What financial and material gifts were there, if any?

• Media; these may include pictures, video and sound that might help elaborate the details of the project. Other media are also detailed plans that were used in construction projects.

• Maintenance; what steps were taken to ensure the longevity of the project and where lie the responsibilities.

• Opinions; what are people’s opinions about the project, these should be both the opinions of the public (end users/beneficiaries) as well as the institution ten realized it.

• Contact Information; who can be contacted about the project and how.

4.3 Technological Data

This part of database focuses mainly on technological solutions without a precedent in Bangladesh, but traditional technological practices are included as well. It is in this section that institutions, like universities, other research organizations and (local and international) development organisations can place their projects. For example; a new product design for cheap and easy water purification could be in the list. Interested NGOs can opt to utilize these technologies, adapt them to local conditions, or critically review their suitability in the context of their projects. This data set allows institutions not directly involved in a certain region to come in contact with the local development institutions and can start a bilateral or multilateral co-operation. A situation emerges where development organisations can experiment with new concepts and share experiences regarding implementation issues. Both the external institutions can experiment with their ideas or technologies and the local institutions can gain from these interactions and in essence create new hybrid knowledge from local and external knowledge.

• Technology Description; a simple document describing the main points of the technology, what was it for, for whom and how can it be used?

• Required Resources; what natural and material resources are required to implement the technology.

• Costs; what will the technology cost in finances, investment and maintenance costs and labour?

• Digital Media; these may include pictures, video and sound that might help elaborate the details of the technology. Other media are also detailed plans that are required for implementation. (See Figure 11)

• Maintenance; what steps need to be taken to ensure the longevity of the solution and where lie the responsibilities.

• Opinions; are there any reviews or precedents of the technology that can prove its functionality and sustainability?

• Contact Information; who can be contacted about the technology and how.

The DataLink™ collection of technologies and process knowledge is ver growing. A main driving force behind the inception of the database items is the inclusion of new technologies and concepts together with existing knowledge from local sources. New developments should always be considered together with local knowledge on solving a specific issue. Experimentation stands central in the DataLink™ program. New concepts should be explored and tried, but only in close cooperation with all parties, both internal and external, involved.

High-Tech, Low-Tech, No-Tech

Solutions can come in many forms each with their own complexity and requirements. In order to rapidly distinguish these properties the technologies have should be categorized into three levels of complexity; namely high-tech, low-tech and no-tech. On the short term the low-tech or no-tech solutions will be implemented more easily since they are less area specific and more malleable to local conditions. High-tech options usually have specific requirements, such as institutional structures, and will therefore take more time to realize.

4.4 Institutional Data

Inceptions cannot occur without proper institutional support and human capacities. Projects that have been realized were always aided by some form of institutional framework and human effort. It is an important aspect of the DataLink™ program to provide information on these institutions together with the projects. Supplying not only the technical knowledge, but also the institutional knowledge will empower the NGOs to do more by working together.

Participatory Action Research

A key criticism to participatory approaches in general remains that groups are formed within the local community in order to meet predetermined objectives; at best they might participate in a more or less joint analysis, leading to the formation of new local institutions that will eventually take over control of local decision-making. Paulo Freire describes the arrangements of western development institutions for so-called participation as relations of teacher and pupil. Such relations are based on what he calls pseudo-participation because they are oriented towards concerns that are external. The teacher tries to keep control because he truly believes he knows best [Freire 1972]. A truly participatory development process cannot be generated spontaneously, given the existing power relations at all levels and the deep-rooted dependency relationships [Wignaraja 1984]. Participatory Action Research as a form of Rural Appraisal works directly with local capacities to bring about changes in power relations [Pretty 1995]. Problems might still arise when outsiders interfere and try formalizing local organizations without properly understanding the local power structures. This has often occurred when the informal familial, gender, professional arrangements could not be openly shared with outsiders and the actual decisions are taken behind the scenes. For this reason we have suggested the view that participation can be defined as the involvement of development organization, consultancies, international funding organizations that participate in the development process of local communities.

Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation Systems

An important institutional tool for shaping participation on the local level will be a joint Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation (PME) System.

SURFACE SOIL SUB SURFACE SOIL, ARSENIC RETAINING IMPERMEABLE CLAY LAYER. WATER BARRIER DEEP SOIL. CLEAN GROUND WATER

A) Rain water collection, inconsistent, dry and wet seasons

B) River water, requires additional treatment for use

C) Shallow well; water polluted by surface soil

D) Sub-Surface well, contains arsenic

E) Deep well, drinkable but insufficient supply for land irrigation

A B C D E

Especially in the first phases of a program a PME-system tends to be based on intuitive notions. This is believed to be one of the safest available options because there are large differences between a PME-system based on external criteria and one that finds its quality in the internal dynamics of the development process itself. Only in that way it can become a ‘professional’ tool for the organization. Based on own priorities, ‘measurable’ criteria can be chosen and activities monitored and evaluated. Learning about the development process and its objectives will lead to a dynamic set of criteria that ideally supports a development process that is well understood by its participants, because it reflects primarily their own rationality.

Training and Education of CBOs and NGOs

Knowledge is the cornerstone of every institution and will determine the success of an operation. The education and training of both NGOs and community-based organisations (CBOs) in an important first step to take before every intervention. External organizations must never assume that their approach is the best. I all cases local knowledge should be gathered and explored as a basis for intervention.

Operation and Maintenance Schemes

After implementation the operational and maintenance responsibilities should be divided and controlled. Initially this will be done by the NGO but over time this responsibility should be transferred to the CBO. Incidental evaluations to maintain operation should be done to ensure the durability of the project.

Organizational Groups

Organizational groups, such as water users groups, farmers’ cooperatives, women micro-credit groups are needed to shape participation and usually have the ability to gather a larger force for extended responsibilities. They also work as platforms for discussion and control of projects. Eventually, these might take the form of CBOs and take over the responsibility and management of projects from NGOs.

4.5 The Online Interface

The interface is a website that links the users to the database. It will be divided into a full access and read-only access manner. Institutions collaborating with the DeltaLink™ project have full access to the system and can add, edit and remove information from the system(See Figure 12). All other parties, individuals as well as outside institutions can access all the information but not edit or remove anything. This allows the information to be beneficiary for everybody while still being able to maintain its reliability. Institutions (NGOs, CBOs, universities and research groups) that are not yet part of the collaboration effort can apply to do so, so that the DeltaLink™ can grow over time by giving them full access as well (See Figures 12 to 15).

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The opening screen; the main access point to the website. Provides options for normal access (2), which enabled any viewer to look at the contents but not change it. Logging on (1) will grant full access so that participating groups may add, change or remove any information from the database. The main page could also provide direct links for any new or important information.

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FAB 20 SEARCH ;FLOOD PROTECTION ;AGRICULTURE …EDUCATION …DRINKING WATER ;INFRASTRUCTURE …CULTURAL ;FLOOD PROTECTION …INSTITUTIONS        

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The main option screen where interested parties may look for specific information via the menus (3) or search (4) for them. All relevant information will be displayed in the main map screen (5). As more information on projects will be added over time the map will fill up and it will be required to zoom into certain areas to view all the links. By clinking any of the coloured icons you will jump to that specific project and get all its information.

The project screens show some information on the project (6) and images (if added to the database) will scroll in the main picture window(7). Related projects are linked below the main project picture (8) by clicking these you can jump to those projects. If one would require more information the icons (9) in the project description will take you to them.

The map window can also be used during floods and other delta related calamities for information dispersal. This allows institutions to react more quickly on eventual problems. Icons (10) will relate the urgency of the problem, red could be serious flooding while yellow could be an area where the next floods are expected. The map could be integrated with global flood warning systems or satellite imagery (11), something like Google Earth™.

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JUTE HOUSING PROJECT Location: Rangpur

After the collapse of the world jute-market, one of Bangladesh’s exports, NGO’s turned toward exploring the possibilities of using jute as a more sustainable building material. And even using the jute as way of keeping loose sand together, this enabled them to use the jute/sand hybrids as artificial hills for flood safe housing.

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5 KNOWLEDGE DOMAIN & STRATEGY

‘An individual poor person is an isolated island by himself or herself. IT can end that isolation overnight.’ Prof Muhammad Yunus

The above optimistic vision should be put into perspective. Development is for the largest part a social process which takes time. IT as a technology could trigger this social process with the right strategy. The toolkit can be seen as a ‘knowledge domain’ as described by theorists of knowledge management. A knowledge domain consists of relevant data, information, articulated knowledge, such as handbooks or manuals, and a list of key people and groups with tacit knowledge based on long-term work experiences. These are precisely the kinds of things that we aim to implement in the toolkit and we will therefore adopt knowledge management strategies in developing it. (See Figure 16)

5.1 The Knowledge Domain

Generally there are two ways of developing a knowledge domain. First, you can let knowledge develop from an existing knowledge domain,iii

that is, increase the depth and/or scope of the knowledge. Second, you can create a new knowledge domain, that is, create new data, new information, and new tacit and explicit knowledge at the individual and collective levels. This domain in turn can be developed in depth and scope. In knowledge management literature, we can distinguish two core knowledge processes: knowledge creation and knowledge transfer.iv

LOCAL INSTITUTIONS INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

STRONGER SOCIAL PARTICIPATION

IMPLEMENTING SMALL SCALE AND LOCALIZED SHORT TERM SOLUTION

BUILDING TRUST & POSITIVE REPUTATION FORMING C.B.O. IMPRO VED TO OL KIT SHOR T TERM STRATE G Y LON G TERM ST RATE G Y RESTRUC TURI ZING C.B. O.

GATHERING KNOWLEDGE & POWER

Knowledge Creation

The target of a process for knowledge creation is to enhance the potential of creating innovations. According to Nonaka and others, such knowledge creation processes typically take place in five steps in a group of limited size.v

• Sharing tacit knowledge • Creating concepts • Justifying concepts • Building a prototype • Cross-levelling knowledge • Knowledge Transfer Knowlege Transfer

Knowledge transfer with external partners is also important; strategic partnerships provide mutual access to other groups’ knowledge.vi

Research and training agreements with universities and other research institutions provide the domain with access to recent research knowledge.vii _{In terms of learning from the outside, concrete learning}

targets are needed for the relationship.

5.2 Strategic Scope

DeltaLink™ is a project aimed at catalysing the first two steps of knowledge creation; first, knowledge domain members start by identifying collective tacit knowledge based on working with local communities, and observation and analysis of traditional knowledge at technological and process levels.

Second; members then continue by attempting to make these shared experiences explicit, through agreeing on proper, just, and accurate descriptions of their experiences. These descriptions in turn are used in a brainstorming fashion to develop new product and service concepts based on their experiences.viii _{This phase will also be supported by the}

DeltaLink™ platform.

Further, we outline a strategy to not only facilitate knowledge transfer from external parties such as universities and other research institutions,

but also to ensure there is a balancing flow from traditional knowledge. Technically the tapping of traditional knowledge should be seen as a ‘transfer’, but due to the weight of this word in development circles we shall not refer to it as such. Rather we shall say that traditional knowledge is a key source of the new knowledge domain. In a sense traditional knowledge from one area in Bangladesh can be transferred to other areas by means of the DeltaLink™.

5.3 DeltaLink™ Strategy

At the outset approximately twenty local NGOs will be selected based on shared ideals and values, and proven skills and capacities; they will be granted the right to manage the content of the database. Ideally, one individual within each organization will function as a contact person for the project.

The important thing is to have a relatively small group of people sharing a more or less similar vision on development strategies. Their tacit knowledge concerning development work in Bangladesh and their existing communication channels with local communities are crucial, especially in the initial stages of the project.

This phase is a determining factor in the project’s success; it stands or falls by the drive of the initial group of individuals recruited in Bangladesh, as well as their ability to ‘sell’ the project. They need to be champions of the website and will initially be in charge of instructing and informing their peers on how to use it. They will also have the responsibility of building up the knowledge domain, managing the content of the DeltaLink™ database and ‘guarding’ its quality.

As a second phase, gathering and developing new relevant data sets is an important. The first tools found in the toolkit are geared to managing a community feedback program, which cover the basics of conducting surveys, processing the acquired information, and analyzing the results. Existing processes of development project implementation should be continued as usual but coupled with field research and evaluation by local communities.

By offering a tool to document traditional local knowledge, the risk of it getting lost is reduced, and the resulting development concepts are more likely to be sustainable because they fit local priorities. Insights into lifestyles, norms, the use of technology, strong and weak social ties, habit reinforcing and weakening behaviour and so on lead to entirely new areas of knowledge and ultimately, to more appropriate solutions. However simply gathering data is not enough; creating new information, and new tacit and explicit, individual and social knowledge, is necessary. Therefore, methods of publishing results of evaluator programs on the DeltaLink™ website will be taught, initially to the contact persons and colleagues; this constitutes basic computer and communications training by a member of a small task group.

The creation of this task group must happen before the DeltaLink™ project gets going. The purpose of this group is to act as custodian for the knowledge domain, nurturing the sharing and creation of practices and knowledge that is key to the achievement of both development and organisational objectives. This task-group not only moderates the site, it’s function is also to organise workshops, meetings, and seminars; workshops typically identify what are called ‘knowledge gaps’ that will need to be further explored in existing work practices. This increases the depth of knowledge in the domain

In other cases, unaffiliated NGOs will be invited to join the DeltaLink™ project. These newcomers bring new work experiences, explicit procedures, information and data to the party. This enlarges the network of NGOs, and thus the scope of shared knowledge in the domain.

The task group could eventually also provide training and conduct field research; immersion gives radical new insights into tacit traditional knowledge, which sometimes changes the definition of the whole development problem at hand.

Finally, members of the task group act as a contact and spokesman to not only the partner NGOs, but also external sources. DeltaLink™ will be strategically partnered with selected companies, research institutions, universities or other external organisations. These partners

provide technological and institutional knowledge that can provide a unique platform for building up new knowledge, products, and services internally. Their shared knowledge will be accessible through the website.

In return, these parties will be at the forefront of the development process in Bangladesh, with access to a great deal of previously unknown, original data, and previously untapped local knowledge.

6 DISCUSSION

Instead of formulating solutions to the many water-related struggles of Bangladeshi communities, we have proposed a Technological & Institutional Toolkit and a general Strategy for using and applying the toolkit. In our analysis of the problems, it became clear that the biggest challenge was to come up with an approach that would seriously take into account the existing traditional practices and local technological knowledge. Throughout Bangladesh valuable local initiatives have been observed but these are often disregarded and overruled by external or top-down influences. Without discrediting the potential assistance of the know-how of engineers and development specialists, the challenge lies in seeing the tension between outside interventions and inside structures and in accepting that the outcome will be a mix of different knowledge domains.

The process should be based on a learning-by-doing strategy, in other words, we must first assume a process focus rather than a contents focus, and regard knowledge as dynamic rather than static. Second, our view assumes that knowledge domains are starting points rather than end states. The contents of the knowledge domains continuously change. The challenge lies in striking a balance between existing and new knowledge domains, the core-knowledge processes, and the project’s goals. Thirdly, we therefore assume that strategy means choice, and that trade-offs need to be made in allocation of resources to knowledge domains and processes. The processes that are applied to a knowledge domain impact the way that domain will change. For example, ignoring for a long time the value of traditional knowledge will ultimately lead to losing this ‘resource’ altogether.

Eventually, outside interventions tend to be of a short-term nature compared to the slow character of development processes. The ensuing risk is portrayed in the following metaphor by Nikos Kazantzakis in Zorba the Greek.

‘I remembered one morning when I discovered a cocoon in the bark of a tree, just as the butterfly was making a hole in its case and preparing to come out. I waited a while, but it was too long appearing and I was impatient. I bent over it and breathed on it to warm it. I warmed it as quickly as I could and the miracle began to happen before my eyes, faster than life. The case opened, the butterfly started slowly crawling out and I shall never forget my horror when I saw how its wings were folded back and crumpled; the wretched butterfly tried with its whole trembling body to unfold them. Bending over it, I tried to help it with my breath. In vain. It needed to be hatched out patiently and the unfolding of the wings should be a gradual process in the sun. Now it was too late. My breath had forced the butterfly to appear all crumpled, before its time. It struggled desperately and, a few seconds later, died in the palm of my hand. [Kaplan 1999].’

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Cover Image; Satellite Picture of Bangladesh by the European Space Agency, ESA © 2003

Inner Cover; Satellite Picture of Bangladesh by the European Space Agency, ESA © 2003

Page 10 & 11; Flooding of Bangladesh During 2001 World Food Program, WFP © 2001

Page 18; Bangladesh harbour region in Mongla Port Google Earth™, © 2005

NOTES

i _{The average per capita income is about 80 times less then in the} Netherlands; even when price differences are taken into account this is still 16 times less than in the Netherlands according to UNDP 2002 data. It is important to bear in mind that this national average does not say anything about the huge income gap. Rural income and expenditure inequality increased during the early 1990s. Expenditure data shows that between 1991-92 and 1995-96, the Gini coefficient in rural areas increased from 26 percent to 29 percent. In 2000, it declined to 28 percent. Inequality in income is likely to be even higher [BIDS/DFID 2002].

ii _{Bangladesh has a total area of 143,998 square kilometres (three and a} half times the Netherlands), with a population of nearly 130 million (with a 2% annual growth). A density around 900 inhabitants per square kilometres (the same density you would create by squeezing the world population in the United States only).

iii _{Existing knowledge domain means that we use the existing base as a} starting point for developing the knowledge domain. This is to remain consistent with the view that knowledge truly is in flow.

iv _{See for example T. Davenport and L. Prusak, Working Knowledge,} Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge, MA (1998).

v _{The five stage process is explained further in I. Nonaka and H.} Takeuchi, The Knowledge Creating Company, Oxford University Press, New York (1995); G. von Krogh, K. Ichijo and I. Nonaka, Enabling Knowledge Creation: How to Unlock the

Mystery of Tacit Knowledge and Unleash the Power of Innovation, Oxford University Press, New York (2000); and I. Nonaka, A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation, Organization Science 5, 337–351 (1994). See also I. Tuomi Corporate Knowledge: Theory and Practice of Intelligent Organizations, Metaxis, Helsinki (1999), and D. Leonard and S. Sensiper, The role of tacit knowledge in group innovation, California Management Review 40(3), 112–132 (1998). vi See T. Khanna, R. Gulati and N. Nohria, The dynamics of learning alliances: competition, cooperation, and relative scope, Strategic Management Journal 19, 193–210 1998).

vii W. Powell, Learning from collaboration: knowledge networks in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, California Management Review 40(Spring), 228–241 (1998).