Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
gain sufficient experience and training to be able to find a job in the commercial sec-
tor after leaving the program. However, since ARISE workers were selected among
the least advantaged people in their communities, it was very difficult, even impossi-
ble, for ARISE to provide them with sufficient education for that purpose in such a
short time. Government would be well advised to rethink the goals and implementa-
tion methods since the ARISE experience carries with it an expensive lesson about
why not to formulate impossible goals.
Not only were the employees of ARISE vulnerable to changes in government pol-
icy; the implementing agent was placed in an awkward situation as the interface be-
tween the government and the workers. The program provided a very specific service,
namely the restoration of natural capital and a revised land-use management system.
To achieve this, however, requires sustainable and reliable funding for an extended
period.
It would be of great benefit to all concerned if the program could become less de-
pendent on government funding. It was envisioned by the originators that this would
be done by linking with the commercial sector to provide goods and services to mar-
kets for which they receive a payment in return, as is done through tourism (Jahed et
al. 2006). The ARISE employees, however, had no experience in tourism, which re-
quires another kind of training and knowledge. A more logical strategy would be to
specialize in, for example, agriculture. There is much more synergy between the
training required for ecological restoration and agriculture than there is between eco-
logical restoration and tourism. One of the perceived concerns raised by the employ-
ees is that the project suffered from a lack of materials and equipment (see table 15.3).
This was the result of the agreement between the implementing agent and the gov-
ernment that a fixed percentage (70 percent) had to be spent on wages. Although such
labor-intensive production methods might not be optimal from a business point of
view, they could indeed be considered optimal when including the avoided social
costs of unemployment as benefits from the ARISE project.
In the short-term, the ARISE project was effective in starting various aspects of
ecological restoration and job creation, although it was not efficient from a business
perspective. Even though it makes sense in an area with high unemployment to
downplay efficiency and simply create more jobs, this, by no means, implies that the
working hours available should not be used productively. An innovative way should
be sought to engage proactively with the community to involve as many people as pos-
sible as cost-efficiently as possible. One way to improve productivity and to benefit
other community members than those working for ARISE was suggested by some of
the respondents, who indicated that ARISE workers could clean the streets. This
would increase overall efficiency since the same number of workers would be doing
more work. This change would also improve effectiveness because one of the goals
had been to obtain benefits for other community members.
The ARISE employees had access to limited credit facilities given that they (and
for many it was the first time in their lives) had an employment contract. While this is
potentially beneficial if used wisely to enable the employees to link up with the formal
economy, this was not the case. In reality the increased income, to some extent, but
