Selected projects

Linking inclusive green growth and the informal economy: relationship between small scale farming and informal vending in South Africa (2019) | View pdf

Abstract: With help from international agencies like the World Bank and OECD, the ‘inclusive green growth’ agenda has entered many national development plans since the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development. It is difficult to envision a model of an inclusive green economy without some overlapping elements with the informal economy, which supports about two-thirds of the world’s labor. And yet, there has been sparse discussion and empirical evidence on the linkages between the two. In order to investigate some aspects of this relationship and test the hypothesis that informal economic activities can contribute towards achieving inclusive green growth in developing countries, this research combines a literature overview with an exploratory case study on fresh produce vending at Warwick Junction (Durban, South Africa), all with a particular focus on how urban informal markets can provide and expand business opportunities for small-scale farmers in the region.

While the majority of the fresh produce vendors at Warwick Junction relies on formal producers and distribution centers, the purposive stratified sampling methodology in this study led to the identification of several cases in which vendors work directly with family-operated farms or loosely organized community cooperatives in neighboring towns. The results highlight examples of symbiotic linkages in this overlooked local food system that can increase employment opportunities and lower growth barriers for emergent farmers, who are important actors in developing a green economy based on sustainable agriculture practices. Lastly, findings are translated into recommendations for the eThekwini Municipality to act within the recently authorized Inner-City Local Area Plan, which offers guidelines for more inclusive and sustainable urban regeneration in the city of Durban.

Economic and social integration of informal communities in Buenos Aires Province (2019) | View full report [collaborative project]

The report is based on the study of three neighborhoods known as CC8 (Costa Esperanza, Costa del Lago, 8 de Mayo) located in San Martin Municipality of the Buenos Aires Province. The year long research focused on the following key topic areas which were selected in consultation with the Province’s Organisation for Social and Urban Integration (Organismo Provincial de Integración Social y Urbana) – namely: Informal/ local economies and livelihood generation; regularization of land markets; infrastructure provision; public spaces; and institutional design for better urban management. Our team worked on the local economic development framework to propose a set of strategies that could strengthen the base of the informal sectors in the neighbourhoods as well as connecting it into the formal economic networks. The research process included reviewing academic foundation of urban informality and popular economy, case studies, collaboration with the local territory teams, and one week of field work to get to know the CC8 communities.

Recommendations:

The poor image of these neighbourhoods as “trash dumping ground” needs to be turned around by celebrating waste collection, recycling, and new products from recycled materials as essential features of a modern and ecologically smart society. In regenerating the area, it will be important to valorize the role of cooperatives as a socially progressive as well as an economically efficient organizational form. The point is to celebrate cooperatives rather than treating them as a second-best option to large private firms. Cooperatives can be effective at both increasing residents’ incomes and expanding their opportunities in organizational management and administration, as well as promoting community participation. Our proposal - the economic development framework and Launchpad - outlines a plan that operationalizes the integration of spatial development, financing mechanisms, partnership networks, and local capacity building, as they apply to the key sectors in the communities such as waste management, retail, and childcare services.

The State of Maternal Health and Infant Care in Warwick Junction Markets, Durban (2018)

This case study was the first step in understanding the conditions experienced by new mothers and infants who, by the necessity of work, have to spend most of their days at the markets. The purpose of the survey was to paint a picture of the baseline at these informal markets and compare it to the ‘ideal conditions’ as recommended by international health organizations. The findings have major implications for city officials because the informal markets at Warwick Junction are more complex than a simple trading site. Highlighting the challenges and hazards faced by women and children calls attention to the dimensions of public health and safety within this public space. However, the case studies were able to identify certain positive factors that became prominent due to the lack of resources, and the most important being the supporting network that were created between trading neighbours.

Question:

• What are the current challenges for working mothers in terms of taking care of their pregnancy/children at the market?

• What are the current existing amenities & support structure that are available to support maternal health in each market in Warwick Junction?

Methodology:

We interviewed 9 women from 5 different markets within the Warwick Junction complex. The translator was briefed on the research and questionnaire, then all conversations were conducted in Zulu. The interview questions were designed to ask about the 5 dimensions of maternal & infant health: nutrition, safety, sleep/stimulation, sanitation, agency/support. Observations about the immediate surrounding environment were recorded by pictures, and details about the public amenities were noted down on a map.

Results & Discussion:

The most major concern was safety because Warwick Junction is a public space with heavy foot traffic. Regarding nutrition and sleeping, most women shared the same attitude that they must be flexible because it was too difficult to form a regular eating/sleeping pattern for the children when the days are so widely varied. Breastfeeding was a sensitive subject but it seemed that the decision to breastfeed or not was due to the mother’s personal opinion, not due to constraints at the markets.

One issue that was not heavily commented on in interviews but is quite concerning when compared to health care standards and recommendations is the lack of access to water and sanitation for the children. From the spatial survey, there was an obvious lack of clean water in public toilets, which was confirmed by the fact that most vendors bring a small amount of water from home to drink for the whole day. On a positive note, when the mothers do need to go fetch water or attend to other tasks, they could rely on trading neighbours to help with the kids. The neighbours had varying opinion about breast feeding and diaper changing at the stalls, but overall they do agree that the city planners should address the sanitation and safety concerns to create a healthier environment for children.

Identification, Evaluation, and Selection of Products and Practices for the Post-Harvest Sector: Evidence from Decision Makers in Tanzania (2017) | View full report [collaborative project]

In Tanzania, a range of donors, international and local organizations are involved in making better products and practices accessible to farmers for post-harvest crop storage. In the chain or decision making, the mid-level coordinators at local offices are the actors who ultimately frame the set of options available to farmers; thus we wanted to understand their identification, evaluation, and selection processes involved in the organization’s post-harvest sector programming. We also focus on their relationships with other decision makers – the individuals within international or non-governmental, grant-making, or implementing organizations who have the ability to influence the adoption and spread of certain technologies in this region.

Questions:

• How do decision makers identify, evaluate, and select different products or practices for their post-harvest programming?

• How do decision makers access product or practice information (e.g. external evaluation) that feeds into the “identify, evaluate, and select” decision process?

Methodology:

Our snowball sampling yielded 18 interviews, 7 of which fell out of the scope of the study so only 11 were used in the analysis. This study employed qualitative coding to annotate and draw connections among interview transcripts to systematically identify similarities and differences across perspectives and to understand relationships amongst factors that affect decision-making.

Results & Discussion:

Results indicate that information about different products or practices, such as affordable product types or available manufacturers, flows between donors, INGOs, and local NGOs. However, there is a power dynamic at play between the upstream decision makers (donors, INGOs) and the downstream decision makers (local NGOs) that influence the identification process. As for evaluation, many organizations still use field tests to collect performance information before presenting the menu of options to farmers. These tests have multiple purposes: to determine performance, to engage government and farmers, and to assess availability and/or the logistics of providing a product. Providing better technical performance data from the top down might not serve some of these same purposes, such as engaging stakeholders, but they could enable evaluation to be conducted at larger scales earlier in a program.

Building Resilience: Identifying Gaps & Challenges Of foreign aid funded Post-Disaster Reconstruction Programs In Rural Central Vietnam (2016) | View PDF

Floods and typhoons are two major threats to the shelter security, human health, and economic productivity in Vietnam. Currently, 70% of the 73 million people in the country live in disaster-prone areas, the majority of whom lives in the Central region. The high structural vulnerability of infrastructure in disaster-prone rural areas is a direct consequence of poverty and isolation because rural homeowners do not have adequate access to the right tools and training for proper climate adaptation.

Another reality is that 90% of the national budget for climate change adaptation strategies is funded by international donors, which influences the priorities carried out by subsequent policies and projects. Due to the complex and sensitive nature of humanitarian aid, all stakeholders should have an input in the process. However, the gap between theory and practice of “community participation” presents difficulties for effective implementation, especially with time sensitive development such as housing reconstruction.

Questions: To what extent were the selected internationally funded post-disaster reconstruction programs in rural central Vietnam designed for the development of community resilience against natural disasters & to what extent were they effective?

Methodology: After reviewing documentation by the local government to establish the severity of natural disasters in the previous years, a snowball sample of homeowners in the community were interviewed to gather contextual perspectives on climate vulnerability and the availability of resources. Six internationally funded projects that were completed between 2006-2010 were selected for a systematic review against the matrices provided by The Sphere Handbook (2011) for Shelter & Settlement Design plus the Resilience Evaluation Framework Tool developed by Charlesworth & Ahmed (2012).

Results & Discussion: None of the 6 projects in the study incorporated 100% of the key factors recommended for effective resilient-housing development. Of the 4 main program design components, all the projects sufficiently addressed the need to work with building professionals on place-based assessment and solution design, but lacking in promoting community participation and in addressing sanitation and livelihood recovery opportunities. The results suggested that the development of community resilience, especially in terms of social and economic resilience, was not a top priority for these infrastructure-centric PDR programs. The top priority was to provide safe and appropriate housing solutions to the most vulnerable members of the community, which made sense considering the donors’ demands for straightforward results and the difficulty to co-create or sustain social programs with local partners.

However, we must acknowledge that physical infrastructure is only one part of a community’s recovery process and resilience capacity. Without also investing in the human factors, these costly projects risk missing the mark on achieving true recovery and sustainability of capacity. Humanitarian aid agencies are constantly operating with a smaller budget than that required to address the scope of the problems, but being able to identify a systematic gap allows decision makers to reflect on the validity of their priorities. Further investigation is necessary to evaluate the efficacy of the dollar invested into infrastructure as compared to social programs (ideally a combination of both). The other obvious gap is the lack of collaboration with local agencies who can provide the necessary context-based consultation to make those trade-off decisions. The theoretical components for successful development aid still holds - community participation, context-driven investments, and sustainable partnerships - but even with good intentions, proper implementation is much more challenging, especially in a rushed timeline dominated by the annual seasonal cycles.

experimentation with the location-allocation model in GIS to propose a more equitable bike share system in providence, ri (2015) | View PDF

This short project was a response to the then-ongoing discussion in the Providence Office of Sustainability about implementing a bike share program. I used GIS analysis to compare the existing proposal for station distribution within the elite, affluent city center with my alternative proposal for a wider network that expands into the further, lower-income neighbourhoods using the name number of bike racks. Fully acknowledged that there are other factors included in the design proposal besides the spatial and socio-economic elements, I wanted to offer this model to stress the importance of analyzing the dimensions of mobility, accessibility, and sustainability through the lens of social equity, and to show the resulting difference.

Methodology: The canvas for analysis was built using block group level socio-economic data and public transportation network from the Providence open database as well as geocoded locations for the key activity centers such as hospitals, schools, libraries, colleges, public parks, coffee shops, and restaurants. Each type of “destination” was given a weighted demand factor and then the Location-Allocation Optimization tool was employed to select the top 40 places that serve the most people and provide the most coverage of desired destinations within 3 miles.

Result & Discussion: Even though it makes sense to place the initial set of bike stations close to college campuses and more affluent population centers where expected ridership is high, the decision should not be made without considering the built in biases and political implication of such system. The GIS model shows that instead of concentrating the stations in a few neighborhoods, spreading them out in relation to population density and the existing bus network could increase the mobility of underserved areas as well as the accessibility coverage of public infrastructure.