Roger Singleton swapped the comfort of Sheffield's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre to improve water and sanitation for villages in remote South Pacific islands, and now the methodologies and training materials he developed have been adopted by Unicef….
Why did you go?
I'd always wanted to see international development on the front line. I agree with it as a concept and that government's should fund it, but I wanted to see how it was done and get some personal experience of operating in that environment. I thought adapting to a different style of working, without a safety net around me, would be a personal challenge.
What was arriving like?
I landed in Fiji in July 2012, on my own and in the pitch black. I'd done my research and selected an organisation linked to a service called “2 Way Development” aligned to the University of London’s Careers Group, who placed me with a local NGO. Backpack on and on my way, it was fairly daunting.
When I finally arrived at the Partners in Community Development office in Suva, what we'd agreed to work on turned out to be a pipe dream. They wanted a water program, but they had no funding, they didn't really know what one looked like and there wasn't much strategic direction or technical knowledge.
It meant my first 6 months was spent defining goals, ways of working and helping to secure grants . It felt like more of a management consultancy role. We did a few visits to villages to develop training material but mainly I was desk bound.
After a year we landed our first water project.
Can you describe the conditions you found there?
It was in a rural village called Lekutu on the Island of Vanua Levu, which has some of the least developed infrastructure in Fiji. Diarrhoea and typhoid were problems. None of the water was treated or protected. They use pit toilets or poor flush toilets and people took their water from untreated sources.
Our work there wasn't so much about water quality, it was about improving the quality of the management of the water, so it met the improved UN standards. This leads to a more sustained improvement in the quality of water over time.
What were the major challenges?
I found that it's very difficult to properly improve and leave a lasting capacity, within government, NGO’s or communities, in a short period of time. They just don't have the level of expertise, and you're not going to be there forever. I had to decide if this was either going to be a six month venture, where I'd walk away with some nice pictures of me helping out a bit in a village, or if we were actually going to build and increase capacity, which would take longer.
What was your solution?
I wanted to leave a consistent, functioning program for improvement behind. So essentially I developed a methodology where staff with minimal technical background and training could perform planning functions in communities according to the UN guidelines.
I produced a technical decision-making tool and training materials, devised reporting formats and a quality system, wrote building and maintenance instructions. Although the term “Capacity Building” is used a lot in the development industry, and some question its effectiveness, it is the only true way to leave sustainable development in a region.
Then, after we successfully used this approach in a number of pilot villages, I was approached by Unicef to implement it in other countries in the region.
What's holding back progress in places like the South Pacific islands?
Engineering is no less respected than medicine or other professions, but you get to a point where you can count the number of well-trained engineers on one hand. There are a couple within government ministries. But mainly development is held back not by lack of resources, but how they are implemented. There is a lot of short term thinking in development. In truth a country really develops when an economy is functioning well, and the government is providing good services. Development should be aligned to creating this capacity to deliver locally, like with the water program. Private industry has also helped within the last few years, things like road building and mining employing and training local staff
Do you think engineers are getting more involved in international development?
Engineers will become increasingly required for international development work, because within NGOs' project work they are moving away from the subsistence style to a more strategic intervention approach, which needs more engineers by its nature. Products and systems to provide sustainable programs will, and need to become more common place. Technology is also having a much larger impact now and engineers are well trained to engage with the solutions on offer.
Engineers think in a particular way and are extremely good at identifying problems. Once they've identified the problem, they are good at putting the systems into place to deal with it, which makes them well placed to undertake this type of work.
Were you left satisfied by the trip?
I achieved what I wanted to achieve out there, a functioning program that is operating by itself with local staff. The UN's global reach is truly impressive and they plan to transplant the methodology to lots of different places. Unicef are going to adopt it as part of its global strategy. It's being used elsewhere in Fiji and Vanuatu. I'm also working to make it available in an e-learning platform to enable support for capacity building to be present within organisations that have internet access 24/7.
