Engineering: issues, challenges and opportunities for development ...

AN OVERVIEW OF ENGINEERINGciation will almost certainly be formed that will live up to the‘Without Borders’ name.EWB in the context of international development‘No other issue suffers such disparity between human importanceand its political priority’ is how former UN SecretaryGeneral Kofi Annan described the position of water and sanitationin public policy. Water and sanitation is arguably themost vital and most urgent area of attention in internationaldevelopment for engineers. EWB groups are very active inthis area. Yet, in this, as in other areas, groups are discoveringa fundamental limitation: there is a disparity between theimportance of engineering and its place in the priorities of theinternational development sector.In the 1960s and 1970s, international development donorsplaced greatest emphasis on big infrastructure projects. Themistakes made in such projects then led to a focus on small,intermediate technologies in the 1970s and 1980s. When theperception became that ‘ Africa is littered with wells and pumpsthat don’t work’, the focus in the 1980s and 1990s moved moreto the social dimensions of technology. International developmentthinking moved on to a ‘rights-based’ approach in the1990s, which led to a focus on the Millennium DevelopmentGoals, good governance and international partnerships in thelast ten years. Many of the managers and policy-makers in theinternational development sector today were educated at atime when engineering was ‘out of fashion’. Engineering andengineers have therefore been sidelined in many organizationsand projects.It is in this context that engineers began to establish their owninternational development organizations. EWB groups havebeen effective at alerting the engineering profession to thechallenge of international development. More recently, severalEWB groups are showing success at alerting the internationaldevelopment community to the importance of engineeringonce again. There are early signs that EWB groups are beginningto influence how the rest of the international development sectorthinks and works. Part of the problem has been the generallack of public understanding of what the engineer does, andwhat can be offered by different types of engineer. Understandingcontinues to improve as EWB groups now engage with aidagencies. But a key problem has been the skill set of the engineerthemselves; they have been regarded as offering technicalskills only. EWB members who interact with aid agencies aredemonstrating that a new generation of engineers is emerging– engineers who understand the social, political, economicand environmental dimensions of their work, who can engagein participatory processes and who design for capabilities (i.e.designing for what is to be achieved, rather than how it isachieved). The problems of, for example, aid agencies buildingschools without an engineer being involved, and the possibleconsequences of unsafe structures, will slowly be addressed asunderstanding and cooperation improve.It is worth noting that each EWB group can take a differentapproach to their development work. This is seen most significantly,and not surprisingly, in the different approaches ofEWB groups in developed countries and those in developingcountries. The common ground, however, is that each EWBgroup has established some way to address the problems of thecapacity of communities to absorb engineering assistance. Forexample, EWB-USA projects partner with community organizationsover many years; EWB Spain and EWB Canada employexpatriate staff in the countries where they work; and EWBAustralia works through local partner organizations identifiedduring country programme planning. By providing a forum forengineers to learn about international development, as well asby learning from their own mistakes, EWB groups are improvingthe way that international development is done overall, andthere is huge potential for enhanced cooperation in the future.EWB in the context of the engineering professionEWB groups occupy a surprising space in the engineering profession.They do not suffer from the same issues and challengesthat face engineering. EWB groups are growing, and growingfast, attracting many young people and significant (or evenequal) proportions of women to their memberships. ManyEWB members are engineering evangelists who are passionateabout their profession and who become role models for theirpeers, their juniors and their elders; they are also able to communicateengineering very effectively to the public. Despitethe huge number of engineering organizations, the institutionalframeworks that guide the engineering profession arenot set up to respond adequately to multi-disciplinary issuesor inter-disciplinary operations, let alone global challenges. ForEWB groups, however, these challenges are their reason forbeing, and they are able to work in a modern, inter-disciplinarymanner with ease.EWB members often have a strong iconoclastic attitude, butfind welcoming and supportive homes in engineering professionalinstitutions. Engineering institutions frequently look toEWB groups for their energy and enthusiasm, and provide tremendoussupport in terms of ‘voice’ and credibility in particular;they are able to offer strong platforms for advocacy insideand outside the engineering community. It is a very positivesign that traditional engineering institutions want to embraceEWB groups and their ideas. Yet, EWB groups must be carefulthat they do not become fig leaves for broader change; mostEWB groups would not need to exist if established engineeringinstitutions were responding meaningfully – or indeed at all –to poverty and suffering.Whilst many countries report declines in their numbers ofengineers, membership of EWB groups has grown very rapidly.161