DP 3: Trade rather than aid? … toward development

After criticism of aid in my previous blog entry it would sound logical, that trading with “developing” countries would help them more. Those who care about human dignity and not putting anyone in situation of dependency,  could also have a good conscious, as this market based solution would mean you work for it, you give something for the money, you do not have to beg for it. Would that be a solution if now everyone started to buy products coming from the South? No. Not only because of the high CO2 footprint of the transport, which is also significant though, and at the end it reflects the negative effects of climate change on people in “developing” countries. But because only trading fairly would help.

“Developing” countries have the right too to have fair conditions to trade, which means only the same conditions as “developed” countries.  Today’s situation is not fair. As mentioned in the Development Perspectives class (1), “South” countries face high tariff barriers when they try to export to the “North”. To have a feeling, this can be twice as much as the amount they receive in aid and is four times higher than the other way round. Additionally, rich countries subsidy their agriculture so much, that they overproduce and dump the surpluses on the international market, this again undermines the price policy of poor countries. Furthermore, many countries tie their aid to the condition to reduce income tax in the “developing” country. Is this fair?

Susan George (2) adds, that poor countries need hard currency to pay back their debt, for that they have to increase their export . As poor countries have very similar products to export and all poor countries need hard currency, they all do the same, therefore the large quantity on the world market causes a price fall. This is getting the poor countries into a spiral of producing more and more while getting less and less hard currency for it. This not only affects their ability to pay back the debt, but also endangers the everyday life of the farmers. The only winners of this situation are the big processing companies (Susan George: “Unilevers and Nestles of this world”), which make advantage (and a lot of profit) of the low world market price.

Unfortunately, earlier GATT and now WTO have not been able to solve the problem, but made it even worse. Some global trade agreements were pushed on to poor countries undermining local laws and constitutions. “If for example, health or environmental protections get in the way of the trade agreement, then they often have to be revoked or changed in favor of trade agreements “(3)  The WTO has been criticized for not allowing enough public participation, while being very welcoming to large corporations.

A sad example for this is the breast milk case in 1996 in Guatemala. “Guatemala took efforts to help reduce infant mortality, in accordance with the World Health Organization’s guidelines, and to counter aggressive marketing by baby food companies aimed at convincing mothers their products are superior to the more nutritious and disease-protecting breast milk for their babies. The result? The affected corporations managed to take this to GATT (the predecessor to the WTO) and get a reversal of the law amidst the threat of sanctions. Profits prevailed.”(3) More sadly, it ended up in child deaths because mixing dirty water with “the” formula causes infant diarrhea and the baby dies. Please watch the following video (Free trade – The Price paid) by Lori Wallach, Director of Global Trade Watch, where she explains the problem (0:29-2:10) (4)

Pinche aquí para ver el vídeo

Concluding, trade itself does not solve the problem and international agreements do not help in general. We, all of us, have to act toward a fairer way. This concept led the certification institutions like fairtrade or Transfair. Even if they still could be improved, the idea of paying a fair price to the producers in poor countries – instead of doing charity – is to be followed.  We have to act in a responsible way, showing this with our purchases: give advantage to fair trade product than to multinationals.

References:
(1) Leda Stott (2011): class presentation “Rules of the game – Trade”, IMSD, EOI
(2) Susan George: How do we tackle the crisis of global debt on http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Fix-the-Global-Debt-Crisis-516926355
(3) Anup Shah: The WTO and Free Trade on  http://www.globalissues.org/print/article/42:
(4) Lori Wallach (2007) Free trade-The price paid, video and transcript on http://www.globalissues.org/video/730/lori-wallach-free-trade-the-price-paid-part-two#Transcript

Gerber Uses the WTO to Suppress Laws that Promote Breastfeeding on http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/15-gerber-uses-the-wto-to-suppress-laws-that-promote-breastfeeding/

The Ten Worst Corporations of 1996- Gerber: Threatening Guatemala on http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/mm1296.04.html#corp7

Comments Off on DP 3: Trade rather than aid? … toward development / 03 Jan 2012 por Ildiko Heim
IMSD /

DP# 3. Existentialist dilemma

To growth or not to growth. This seems to be the question that guides the current social debate. As it is obvious, there is no agreement on the answer. The civil society tends to look profit with disfavor. As a response of an increasing inequality and poverty, as well as the abuses committed by some corporations, there is a more fequent trend that “demonized” the profit making. The private sector claims that is through the generation of wealth that is possible to achieve development.

I am aware of the risk that generalizations, like I made before, have.  They hide the nuances and complexities of each point of view. However, they help to illustrate that, once again, we are looking to the wrong direction. In fact, the problem relies on the question, not on the answer. This situation outlines a practical reflection, more ethical than moral. The issue is on the how.

The debate should not be centered on whether one is, in general, in favor of growth or against it. The questions should focus on the specific policies to increase growth. It is true that economic growth is a necessary stage in the development process. But, some of these policies that pretend to promote growth can also increase poverty, while others can reduce it. Some growth strategies may be good for the environment; others may not be.

At the end, we want to live in a society that assures all freedoms that allow us to live the life that we desire. This means a society that assures economic opportunities, political liberties and democracy, and enabling conditions of good health and basic education. And it is through the instrument of policies that it is possible or not to build this kind of society. So, are our current policies promoting a sustainable growth and increasing the living standards for all today and tomorrow? What is happening with the benefits of growth? Is the distribution equitable? Does it create a society with more social justice and solidarity?

 

The citizens’ concerns and demands should be focus more on how business is being doing than on a judgment of the fact of making profit. Of course, both issues are related; an ethical business not only has a profit- making goal.

It is on the how that I make the ethical claim, from and for a practical perspective of economics and business. In fact, ethical concerns could be related to economic efficiency values, competitiveness, growth and, at the same time, to satisfy all basic needs, foster capabilities and promote people’s freedoms in an equitable way .The invisible hand of the market rests on very visible hands, such as decision and actions of governments, policy makers, companies and citizens.

Ps: I don’t want to finish without telling you about a great initiative that ilustrates how is possible to incorporates (practical) ethical values into the market dynnamic. The Health Impact Fund -HIF. This is a proposed new way of paying for pharmaceutical innovation that provides a market-based solution to problems concerning the development and distribution of medicines. The aim of the project is to create the incentives for the research and development of new pharmaceutical products that reduce the global burden of desease. The mechanisms is simple: all the pharmaceutical could have the option to register new medicines in the Fund.  By this, a firm agrees to provide its drug at cost anywhere it is needed, and in exchange for foregoing the normal profits from drug sales, the firm is rewarded based on the HIF’s assessment of the actual global health impact of the drug. The Fund wants to solve the lack of access to medicine that poor people face.

This initiative was created by a team of researchers, experts and practitioners in various areas. The team is divided into an Advisory Board, a Scientific Advisory Committee and Scientific Advisory Committee. some of the members are Kenneth J. Arrow, Noam Chomsky, Amartya Sen, Tomas Pogge and Peter Singer.

For more information see:

www.yale.edu/macmillan/igh/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_Impact_Fund

 

Comments Off on DP# 3. Existentialist dilemma / 03 Jan 2012 por Diana Patricia Sanchez Barajas
IMSD /

DP#3: The role of a development journalism

As a journalist, I always try to ask to myself, which should be the role of communicators in achieving the developing process of their country? Sometimes, I really get stuck and frustrated when I see that journalists from Peru and all around the world do not seem to share the same goals or give equal value to the profession.

Nowadays with the advent of blogs and social networks (like Facebook or Twitter) everyone can be a journalist (just have to start publishing). With this scenario, something contradictory seems to happen: many times people find that the most prominent and interesting news and opinions are found in the social networks, while in the daily and printing newspapers we could only get gossips and great trivialization of the news. This is the only alternative from the oldest newspapers to catch attention of lost and confused readers?

 

So my profession is on a real risk? Something in my mind tells me not. I really have to convince to myself that today there is a huge challenge for journalists who dedicate to write about development topics. As Julian Parr said in the Skype conference we had in class, the most important challenge “is to convince editors that news about environment and sustainability issues can be (if journalists effort themselves) more powerful, convincing and attractive than gossips news”.

Of course, the choice for this kind of journalism is to appeal to creativity, viralization and use as many communications tools as possible, like doing BTL social media, social mobilization, lead environmental communications campaigns, and so on.

 And what is development journalism?

Taking into account the ideas mentioned above, I would like to refer to an interesting article from The Guardian named “What is development journalism?”[1].  In the report Sue George, the author, asks: “development journalism is more than investigative journalism in a poor country?”. The question really called my attention, so then I found a quote mentioned by Liz Ford, editor of the Katine website (site for the Guardian’s Ugandan development project), who ensures “that development journalism means getting behind the cliches of starving children and getting people to tell their own stories”.

 Another idea that impressed me is that development journalism is not making people into victims by treating them without dignity or sensationalizing their lives. “This usually comes through perceiving them as less important, intelligent or significant than someone in the developed world (…) Development journalism asks questions – of ordinary people, not just of officials. It considers reader, writer and written-about to be equal in their humanity. It doesn’t patronise but asks the reader to put themselves in the place of people whose lives seem very different from theirs”, says the author. Indeed, her ideas are brilliant.

I decided to write about this issue because, seriously, I want to advocate myself to development journalism in my country or abroad. Despite all the challenges and obstacles I can find on the path, that’s my purpose. The reason is simple. Like the article mentions: “Development journalism gives soul to media, it gives it a human face.”

Comments Off on DP#3: The role of a development journalism / 02 Jan 2012 por Iana Malaga Newton
Uncategorized /

Energy Planning: Green house against greenhouse(gas)

While economic downturn is still conditioning progress towards a better wellbeing almost worldwide, the energy challenge is increasingly at the core of the public concern and national planning: first because it is, without any doubt, one of the main causes of the problems looming modern society; second it also could be the wished trigger to invert the trends.

In EU and overall in Italy this consideration is easily verifiable: while GDP troubles and consumption (energy included) tends to decline or stick, investment in renewable energy is astonishingly booming.

Data shows Italy among the biggest investors in the last couple, overall in the PV sector, which finds the capacity installed exponentially enlarged: from 2010 added a +203% and the trend has continued along 2011, bringing the country among the world leaders: solar PV installations summ a total capacity installed of 12.4GW a we speak, according to GSE.

Although that’s great news it will not suffice to fix the tendency. While the production side is giving is favourable contribution, additional effort is needed from the demand side. What integrates the two parties in a whole successful strategy is efficiency. Efficiency to produce, efficiency to distribute, efficiency to consume.

As further investments are hard to be put in place from impoverished public administrations and households, while consumers life style choices require long time to assimilate the culture of limitation, the solution is once again offered by nature:  a visionary an innovative solution which does not require either any extra cost or a new invention; it simply require to observe how nature run on sunlight:  the concept of passive house minimise strongly energy consumption while assuring the same comfort on heating and cooling a building. In terms of energy-efficiency is the most effective way of ensuring high results with low cost, while providing health and durability to our buildings. International standard consider a performance of ≤ 15kWh/(m²yr) regarding specific space heating and cooling demand, and ≤ 120kWh/(m²yr) about total specific primary energy demand.

That means great energy saving if we consider that in Italy, only residential buildings energy demand accounts for 22.5% of total.

The Passive-On project has been promoted and coordinated by the end-use Efficiency Research Group of Politecnico di Milano to drive Italy on the direction of northern countries, where this concept of design is well diffused, but large scale dissemination of the idea looks difficult to reach. Actually passive energy mechanisms better fit with cold climate, which requires high consumption of energy for heating. While the design spreads in the northern region of Italy, in the rest of the peninsula the concept struggles to kick off, as it seems harder to adapt houses in order to fulfill saving standard when it comes to refrigeration systems. Moreover, Italy holds also a wide range of antique residential buildings, which makes them very valuable in term of beauty, art, and history, but reforms become tougher and more expensive.

To give response to such concerns, the Italian energy agency ENEA recently promoted a project (“progetto greenery”) which has the potential to assure further energy consumption saving by creating literally wall and roof gardens. According to the project, if citizens embrace providing a green cover to an house, it could lead a minus 9,0-48 kWh/m2 per year on what concerns building’s cooling, which means a potential of around 20% reduction in passive houses designed in hotter climate. More efficiency, less demand, less necessity to increase generation, finally more saving and health for everyone.

As international political negotiations and economic systems around the world are failing to go green, the burden of the change is again on us, on every single household: people have still the potential to move the world on.

 

Comments Off on Energy Planning: Green house against greenhouse(gas) / 02 Jan 2012 por Francesco Mazzeo
IMSD /

Energy planning: The case of “ESCO”

Energy saving is one of the key factors in reducing the environmental impact of the society. In this blog I will discuss one of the energy efficiency proposals that, in my point, can be the turning point in the Spanish economy. According to the 31 measures proposed by the IDAE (2008) 2008-2012, perhaps the most surprised me, was the impulse for the development of Energy Service Companies (ESCO) (Empresas de Servicios energéticos ESE, in Spanish) to optimize energy management and customer facilities. This decision was reinforced in the statement of the government, so controversial because the government announced the reduction of the speed from 120 km/h to 110 km/h (elpais, 2011). In that statement the government also announced that it would allocate 600 million euros to promote the implementation and support of these businesses. From my point of view such measure can really change the energy Spanish situation for several reasons:

1) The main reason is the primary function of those companies. These companies face any action required by any company or facility to reduce the energy consumption. The ESCOs provide a wide variety of service. In fact, all services whose goals are to reduce the energy consumption and / or costing savings for a facility or building, are included in the scope of the services that an ESCO (Garrigues, 2010) can provide. For instance, ESCOs include different services such as building temperature control, to other more complex technological measures with a greater investment, such as installing renewable energy sources inside the company.

Figure 1: Different services of the ESCO

Source: Bleyl (2009)

2) In second term, the goal for business creation, and I am not saying that it is bad obviously, it is the economic profit. Companies often engage in a particular sector and they strive for the excellence in this sector. For this reason for many companies, it is extremely difficult to be adequately informed about which investments (and which is the rate of return) should do in order to reduce their energy consumption. It is much more convenient (and efficient) economically and socially, to hire an expert company (which seeks excellence in the field of energy efficiency and saving) to design, install, monitor and ultimately manage any project, whose purpose is to reduce the energy consumption. It is important to point out that:

1. The company does not pay to ESCO, but ESCO optimizes the power plant management and recovers the investment through the energy savings achieved in the medium-long term.
2. ESCO is responsible to assume the technical risk and cost of the project.

Figure 2. Energy Performance contracting

So, not only the costs for the customers are the same but also, as result, the customers are advised by experienced professionals that will reduce the cost of their bills. Both considerations are important incentives for the customer-company (GARRIGUES, 2010). So, definitely, ESCO maximizes the customers’ profit.

3) The application of the ESCOs is not limited to private companies with high consumption but also to hospitals, shopping centers, universities and colleges, sports facilities, large business centers, office buildings or public administration facilities (Garrigues, 2010). Although these services can be developed in smaller facilities, such as single family residences, the investment costs are high. Therefore, the application in residences is possible as long as different family residences or neighborhood hire a service as a group.

Source: Energyservicecoalition (2012)

Lastly, in my view, the creation and promotion of these new companies will boost the economy through the creation of specialized companies and the supply of skilled jobs. It also allows to improve the economic and cost efficiency in the energy reduction and saving. However a question arise me, is it really possible to reduce the investment costs? or is it possible to group different residences to hire a service? My logic says that it is possible but in practice … We’ll see.

References:

Bleyl, Jan W. (2009) Bleyl, Jan W. Integrated Energy Contracting (IEC). A new Model to Combine Energy Efficiency and (Renewable) Energy Supply. IEA dsm Task XVI Discussion Paper download available from www.ieadsm.org

Elpais (2011). 04/03/2011. Retrieved: 02/01/2012 from: http://www.elpais.com/articulo/economia/medidas/ahorro/energia/elpepueco/20110304elpepueco_15/Tes

Energyservicecoalition (2012). Retrieved: 02/01/2012 from:http://www.energyservicescoalition.org/resources/whatis.htm

GARRIGUES (2010). GARRIGUES MEDIO AMBIENTE (Garrigues Medio Ambiente, Consultoría Técnica y de Gestión Integrada  del Medio Ambiente, S. L.). Dirección General de Industria, Energía y Minas de la Comunidad de Madrid. Guía sobre empresas  de servicios energéticos (ese).

IDAE (2008). Instituto de Diversificación y Ahorro de la Energia. Retrieved: 01/01/2012 from: http://www.idae.es/index.php/id.397/relcategoria.1154/relmenu.11/lang.uk/mod.pags/mem.detalle

 

 

Comments Off on Energy planning: The case of “ESCO” / 02 Jan 2012 por Carlos Cerdan Infantes
IMSD /

DP 3: Gender inequality versus Religion

In my previous blog, I analysed the relationship between religion and development considering the human development indicator. In that blog, it could be inferred that the index of human development is, or appears to be, negatively related to the religiosity of the country. In Cerdan (2011) I ended the blog stating that it is impossible to draw a real conclusion without considering other factors or indicators such as social cohesion. In this blog I will try to do a step forward. I will evaluate the three different forms of incidence of the religion on gender equality, and the relationship between a key indicator to equality, development and social cohesion such as gender inequality.

Contrary to what the more modern country anticipated, worship and religious practice are not been relegated the private sphere, but rather the trend seems to be just the opposite. In recent years, according to UNRISD (2007), the presence of religion is increasing worldwide in the new most powerful countries. But, what influence does this have on gender equality, and particularly in women rights?

UNRISD (2007) stresses that Religion can be public made in three different ways, the state level (for instance theocratic states, state religions or state-established churches) at the level of Political society (for instance European Christian Democrats, Islamist Political Parties), and at lower level; in the Civil Society.

In religious states, women tend to focus on household tasks or reproduction due to misinterpretation of the sacred books. According to my view, considering the direct impact on gender equality, a religious state, that applies religious laws or imposes religious beliefs on the population, has a large impact on gender equality. As a Tomalin (2007) states, within this field, it is important to point out the particular fundamentalists states where the man and women’s roles are tied to their biology and to use a strict form of biological determinism to constrain women’s freedom and activites.

The second form arises when religion is not influenced directly in the state but it is represented by certain political parties. It allows people to choose if they really want a religious political party or not. However, it is also true that an absolute majority of religious parties tend to enforce laws or religious beliefs limiting the rights and ideas of other religions. In this case, although gender inequalities can be overt, are not imposed directly.

Finally, the last form of religion representation is through civil society. Singh (2011) states that this form of application represents the secularization between state and religion. From my point of view, this is the form to reduce the impact of religion on gender inequality. The community can decide what it wants and what beliefs it has. It allows to use the religion from the ethical point of view not limiting of gender equality inside the community. It avoids the imposition and gives the option of choice. Of course, the result depends of the community but, for instance, it is different a law prohibiting women from driving that to let woman choice if they want to drive or not.

On the other hand, in order to compare which is the quantitative connection between religion and gender inequality, the indicator of Gender Inequality Index (GII) has been included. UNDP (2011) states that too often, women and girls are discriminated against in health, education and the labour market — with negative repercussions for their freedoms. For these reasons, the indicators included in the index are Maternal Mortality, adolescent fertility, Parliamentary representation, Educational Attainment (Women and men with at least secondary education) and Labour force participation.

Figure 1. Components of the Gender Inequality Index

Source: (UNDP, 2011)

The index shows that the higher values, the more inequality between genders. In the analysis has been included more than 91 countries belonging to each of the categories assigned by the (Very high Human Development, High Human Development, Medium Human Development and Low Human Development).

Figure 2. Relation between Gender Inequality Index (GII) and Religion Porcentage

Source: Own elaboration

According with the figure, maybe religion causes, or at least does not reduce, the gender inequality. In the same manner as the human development index, it is clear that it is impossible to state the real role of religion in inequality if other factors, such as the difference between religions or religious interpretations, are not considered. It is clear that a religion in a country is not interpreted in the same way as in another, and therefore inequalities should not be assigned exclusively to religion but a set of values and cultural factors. Possibly, the religion has an influence but from my point of view, it is not so much the influence of religion as belief and practice, but which is the interpretation of the most influential.

References:

Cerdan, C, (2011). Retrieved: 25/12/2011 from  http://www.eoi.es/blogs/carloscerdan/2011/12/04/dp2-religion-and-development-are-they-compatible/

Singh, G et al (2011). Gurharpal, Singh, Heather Marquette, Namawu Alhassan Alolo. Political Science, Religion and Development: A literature Review. Religions and Development Research program 2011.

Tomalin, E (2007). Religions and Development. Research Programme. Gender Studies Approaches to the Relationships between Religion and Development. Departament of Theology and Religious Studies. University of Leeds.

UNDP ( 2011). United Nations Development Programme. Retrieved: 28/12/2011 from http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/gii/

UNRISD (2007). Religion, Politics and Gender Equality. United Nations Reserach Institute for Social. Retrieved: 30/12/2011 from Development. http://www.unrisd.org/research/gd/religionandgender

 

 

Comments Off on DP 3: Gender inequality versus Religion / 02 Jan 2012 por Carlos Cerdan Infantes
IMSD /

Project managment: Project “TUR.GRATE 2″, for a development of sustainable tourism.

For the Project Managment blog I’ve choosen a huge example of intra-national project, between Italy and other Mediterranean’s countries; I think that this project could explain the tools and the difficoulty that we’ve seen during the class of this subject. I’ve tried to resume in brief the aim and the main part (or issues) of the project’s coordination steps, but however I understand that is really difficoult to explain the project in all its parts, and if you would go deeply, you will find in the end the whole document that explain better all the different stages that has been faced from the public administrations involved.

The Project “TUR.GRATE 2″ is intended to formalize a set of interventions to promote, enhance and better use of natural and cultural resources of the project areas and, consequently, to strengthen, in terms of sustainability, competitiveness of tourist destinations Adriatic involved. The objective is to ensure continuity and stability to the processes of sustainable development of the area, and triggered in part already been tried with success, in the first edition of the project Tur.Grate.

The activities are structured into 9 work packages, which include:
1. The coordination and management of the project entrusted to the City of Mesa (Lead partner of the initiative);
2. The implementation of measures of information, communication and capitalization intended to arouse the interest of the public and stakeholders in the cultural and natural values ​​and make them aware of the importance of action to safeguard cultural identities.
3. The Creation of a shared aggregate cross-border public-private management of the tourism product planning, through the creation of several regional meetings of animation, both across borders and, at the regional level, aimed at involving all players in the tourism industry;
4. The installation and start-up of 7 service centers, which will be able to provide qualified and diverse tourist services to improve the living standards of the communities involved and the installation of signage to identify and promote tourism and local services and resources trans-frontier;
5. The implementation of common tools to improve agro-food products and crafts, with special attention to the typical production chain in the target areas. These tools are: – an analysis of local products and cross-border exchange of information between partners; – redefinition of the basket of local products that characterize the target areas – for a study of “Life Cycle Assessment” (LCA) for each selected product, – completion of the management of a collective mark trans-frontier for selected products (agro-food products and traditional crafts);
6. The improvement of the tourism and services through: – the identification of accommodation pilot, accompanied by a process of
registration / certification label / EMAS – the planning and subsequent testing of an innovative software designed to streamline and qualify the network of public tourist services;
7. The promotion of cultural heritage through a series of concrete actions for the protection of heritage and cultural resources (rural, artistic and archaeological);
8. The promotion of sustainable and alternative tourism through the creation of new thematic tourism products;
9. The implementation of a program of cultural events (art galleries with contextual restoration workshops, dance and music performance, cultural exchange events to promote the historical origins and traditions).
TURGRATE2 intends to overcome the local dimension of territorial development policies
tourism and enable the creation of a network of international cooperation for
development of a methodological approach for the management of the shared cultural heritage
and natural.

This project is very interesting under the point of view of project management because it requires an high-profile organization between countries and parts involved.

It’s an extremely hard task to coordinate and manage the different countries and steps of the project; to do so, it was necessary a really good work plan.

The work plan

Another important step in developing project proposal is the construction of the work plan.

A well-structured work plan should help a project to organize its activities, having a clear and detailed understanding of the actions listed, their duration, their dependencies and their sequence applying a crossborder approach.

In the Application Form, all projects are asked to describe their activities specifying also the involvement of the partners. The work plan defined in the Programme’s Application Form is structured in different Work Packages (WPs). Each Work Package enables the project to break down its work in actions, easily grouped according to WP’s focus.

There are three pre-defined Work Packages in the Application Form. The following sub-paragraphs will give to the project partners useful information in order to elaborate two of them: the “Project management and coordination” work package and the “Communication and dissemination” work package.

The project management needed a defined structures and meetings to work and to lead the project to being feasible.

Management structures

Since the project developing phase, the partnership should agree on the decision making process and (if possible) should envisage a project’s decision making body such as a project’s steering committee, or management board, or an advisory group.

Irrespective of its name, such a committee, which should guarantee an adequate representation of all partners, will be the main decision making body during the entire project lifetime and thus it will oversee strategic planning, coordination, monitoring, evaluation and achievement of outputs/results.

The role and the responsibility among the partners should be agreed on and clearly defined by the partners all together. It is recommended that the coordination and management procedures remain as transparent and simple as possible.

As we can see in the picture above, the “web” project’s structure is really broad and needs a huge coordination among the parts (see http://www.adriaticipacbc.org/download/Programme_Management_and_Control_Manual.pdf to have a complete outlook), and that’s why I’ve choosen this example of coordination and project managment, that’s a great instance to understand what we’ve learned in class, the logics of the planning and the different steps to adopt when we need to set up a huge project like this one.

I hope it could be useful even for the reader of my blog.

 

References:

http://www.adriaticipacbc.org/download/Programme_Management_and_Control_Manual.pdf

http://www.adriaticipacbc.org/index.asp?page=interna&level=news_detail&idcontent=536

http://www.europuglia.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5036:progetto-turgrate-2-per-uno-sviluppo-turistico-sostenibile&catid=103:cbc-ipa-adriatico&Itemid=219

Comments Off on Project managment: Project “TUR.GRATE 2″, for a development of sustainable tourism. / 02 Jan 2012 por Luca Palma
IMSD /

Project Management: “Multiple Criteria Analysis as Decision Aid for a Brazilian Software Company”

This blog will present an application of multiple criteria methodology in order to build a model to support decision making in portfolio management of a Brazilian Software Company.

Before going into this case example let’s see the meaning of Multiple-Criteria methodology and Portfolio Management in the IT field:

Multiple-Criteria methods are mechanisms applied in decision making practices. It considers that there are various conflicting criteria that need to be evaluated in order to reach a decision, typical criteria involved in project management are cost, time, quality and performance. Therefore this method will structure criteria and demonstrate ways to solve problems, planning and reach decisions through balancing them and evaluate its outcome.

Portfolio Management in information technology firms is the application of a management system for ongoing and future projects. This management system allows the measurement and objective evaluation of investment scenarios inside a project such as budget oversight and risk.

 

The research on how to build a model using multiple criteria began in the project management office of a Brazilian software company, where its project management team started to define the company goals, problems and weaknesses inside their portfolio management.

 

Its company goal was to evaluate the competitive advantage of new software products, however the firm was lacking in a mechanism to evaluate the success of them. This was a major problem because developing new software requires large investments. Therefore the firm was in need of a tool to aid its project management team decision makers to understand the degree of competitiveness and innovation of new products and to indicate points for change in requirements when necessary; to evaluate project achievement in relation to strategic objectives for the new software generation.

 

Hence the multiple criteria model developed inside the company was able to evaluate the new software project development criteria and how it could be measured in relation the company goals. In addition it explained the criteria that should be taken into account in the selection process, as well as possible ways to improve new software competitive advantage.

 

In the Brazilian Software company case utilizing multiple criteria analysis have enabled them to get the criteria inside the project selection process visualized and at same time improved new and current software project proposal with better measurement of its expected performance.

With this knowledge, the Brazilian software company project team could identify points for improvement in the scope of new software development and connect it with the speed development of new features.

The Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis in this case has not only helped this company to create an practical evaluation methodology but it also turned a successful aid tool for situations where the company´s project decision makers needed to improve their understand of a situation and act  appropriately by balancing criteria and its effect.

This is an interesting case because it shows how multiple criteria methodology in decision making analysis can be an effective tool to help projects to be evaluated and achieve its goals.

It also shows how adaptable this methodology is in relation to various degree of project complexity. In our International Master in Sustainable Development course, we have seen Multiple Criteria Analysis for Decision Making inside other subjects such as: environmental economics and accounting, as an economic and evaluation tool and as tool for monitoring and evaluation inside development projects. This demonstrates how useful and flexible this methodology can be and how it can allow technical knowledge to be transferred from one field to another.

 

References:

de Oliveira Lacerda, R.T.,  Ensslin, L., Ensslin,  S.R.  “A CASE STUDY ABOUT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT AND MULTICRITERIA DECISION AIDING”. (2010). Magazine Industrial Management. Federal Technology University of Paraná, Brazil.  ISSN 1808-0448 / v. 06, n. 01: p. 01-29.

Gwo-Hshiung Tzeng, Jih-Jeng Huang. (2011). Multiple Attribute Decision Making: Methods and Applications”. ISBN: 1439861579.

http://ebooksfreedownload.org/2011/08/multiple-attribute-decision-making-methods-and-applications.html

Jeffery, M., & Leliveld, I. (2004). Best Practices in IT Portfolio Management. MIT Sloan Management Review. 45 (3), 41.

http://sloanreview.mit.edu/the-magazine/articles/2004/spring/45309/best-practices-in-it-portfolio-managemen

 

 

5 comentarios / 02 Jan 2012 por Patricia Perez Costa
IMSD /

Solar cooling system in Italy – Energy planning

For this blog I’ve chosen a developing project of ENEA (Italian center of research and development for saving energy), that uses the Concentrated Solar Power technology to cool in summertime; thus with the development of this technology we could reduce pollution and have an efficient energy system available for the thermal climate systems in the factories and households.

The solar-cooling system developed at the ENEA Research Center Casaccia (Italy) apply one of the most promising technologies for thermal climate, and could become a model energy efficient reference for the climate in central and southern Europe and the Mediterranean basin. The climate allows for the absorption solar energy and a saving of primary energy estimated at around 50%. This technology has become attractive being driven by thermal energy at temperatures compatible with commercial solar panels and the fact that the refrigerants used do not create problems for the environment.

The system mainly consists of: a solar field (100 m2) consists of evacuated tube panels, that can develop a power ranging from 13.9 kW in winter to 56.6 kW in summer; two storage tanks for solar heat transfer fluid and one for cold water to users, a single-stage absorption machine for water-lithium bromide (YAZAKY, 70 kW, supply hot water at 88 ° C), a cooling tower for heat rejection of the machine cooling, reinstatement of a boiler, which compensates for the lack of any solar radiation. During the summer cooling need is created by the cold cycle absorption refrigerator car, driven mainly by the heat supplied by the solar field, warming up in the winter the heat is transferred directly into the distribution system of the building.
The control system (SIEMENS-Desigo) detects mainly the parameters operation of the solar field (temperature of the water produced from the field Sun, temperature of the fluid storage tanks, water temperature the absorption refrigeration machine) and acts on the circulation pumps and emergency systems, as well as interface with the refrigeration unit compressive and the boiler to control the power of the same. The system control of the sensors were connected to make the measurement regular monitoring of all relevant parameters of system.

The results of dynamic simulation studies (with ID TRNSYS) made the building showed that the maximum cooling load is about 59 kW, while the heating is about 64 kW, assuming as air ventilation due solely to the infiltration, and that the design choices considered to produce, for the climate of Rome, the minimum turnaround time achievable in the absence of contributions from the State (10 years).

In the last years we’ve seen the spreading of air conditioning system in the households and factories, this factor has increased the energy consumptions of each country. With this system we should have an important reduction of CO2 production and a virtuous circle of production/usage of energy, available for air cooling; it’s a huge advantage in term of pollution’s reduction and production of clean energy.

Source:

http://www.enea.it/it/Ricerca_sviluppo/documenti/efficienza-energetica/scheda-solarcooling

Comments Off on Solar cooling system in Italy – Energy planning / 02 Jan 2012 por Luca Palma
IMSD /

DP4.- Cradle to Cradle: Sustainable development through fractal geometry

William McDonough and Michael Braungart were aware of the necessity of the creation of a framework to help them in the evaluation of the impact of projects, products and materials that companies are using in order to verify that they are healthy and eco-intelligent designed.

Therefore, in 1992 they formulated the Hannover Principles. It is a list of nine subject areas “to provide a platform upon which designers can consider how to adapt their work to sustainable ends” and “should be seen as a living document committed to the transformation and growth in the understanding of our interdependence with nature, so that they may adapt as our knowledge of the world evolves.”

The concept of sustainable development has been illustrated with the Triple Bottom Line needs. Here we can see the three circles that represent: people, planet and profits. The intersection between them is the area where there is consensus among corporate and societal, and this consensus has to be sustainable.

Taking into account the Hannover Principles and the Triple Bottom line, McDonough and Braungart developed in 2002 “The Cradle to Cradle Design Framework”. It is symbolized by a fractal equilateral triangle that integrates economy, ecology, equity and needs. In order to help companies to implement the Cradle to Cradle framework, and verify that they are using safe materials that can be disassembled and recycled as technical nutrients or composted as biological nutrients they developed the Cradle to Cradle® certification.

This web is useful to check: how the certification works, the criteria, the process, the certified products… http://www.mbdc.com/detail.aspx?linkid=2&sublink=8

 

Why is the C2C Framework fractal?

I have to start saying that Fractal is gorgeous! Is the tidy in the middle of the chaos, when you did not expect to find it.

We can find fractal geometry everywhere in the universe. If we are talking about environment, people and economy, we can find fractal geometry in all this areas. In the environment we can find it on trees, snowflakes or river networks; in the people we can find it on the circulatory system or even in the human behavior; in economics the fractal behavior of the price fluctuation has been study recently. Therefore, if people, planet and profit are driven by this incredible geometry, the combination of them cannot be fully understood without fractal as well.

 

Pinche aquí para ver el vídeo

This Fractal triangle help us to exanimate the questions of sustainable development as it shows us us how ecology, economy and equity have linked values and how each design decision has an impact on all three. Each fractal peace has to be a 100% good in order to be a good designed and have balance in the equation. So, what we have to do is to move around the fractal inquiring how a new design can generate value in each category.

 

1 comentario / 01 Jan 2012 por Aitana Leret Garcia
IMSD /