1.2 Community Engagement Plan

1.2 Community Engagement Plan

By Yuzki Wang

Purpose of the engagement is to : Identify long term community objectives and priorities the essential needs for community planning, thus, to achieve the best solution and preferred construction.

Develop innovative and collaborative strategies to achieve project objectives and establish a connection between the community and the project throughout the lifetime of the project.

Community stakeholder’s identification: The Baghere community is identified into 8 groups: Surrounding residents: Residents that live within a 1km radius from the Baghere Women’s house. The project has a more significant impact on residents within this area, both social and environmental wise, due to the close distance (risks such as construction noise and traffic congestion) Baghere female community: Women in Baghere. As the project aims to engage local female member to participate in the construction process. The female community is critical in the process of promoting gender equity and supporting women self-development and empowerment. Residents of Baghere: Residents excluding the female community, including men, children, elders, and minority. The Baghere women’s house should not be restricted to women only. Local religious groups: Islam, Christian and animist. In Senegal, Religion has a significant impact on local architecture such as Mosques and churches. Religious not only is a force for unity, but it is also crucial to the movement for gender equality and human rights. Racial, ethical, cultural groups: Ethnic conflict has been a common phenomenon in Senegal. It is essential to listen to different cultural groups in the local community to understand their ethical identity and to develop an architectural solution that can resolve ethical conflict. Local volunteer: Humanitarian Sector often involves a fair amount of local volunteer workforce. These volunteers are often unskilled, and therefore training and upskilling are critical to eliminating potential social and construction risks. Visitors to Baghere: The Women's House has the potential to bring social value through tourism aspects. Although Visitors are not important stakeholders compares to others, their feedbacks are valuable for post-construction development. Local trades and business: In our proposal, the Women’s House design also aims to advocate local business and trades through weekend farmers’ market and various workshops. Trades and Business are also not important stakeholders in this project, but they will play an important role later on during the operation phase.

Table 1 Community Engagement strategies – 5 Levels of Engagement

To inform:

Provide equitable and objective information to assist understanding the context of the project, opportunities and/or alternatives

To Consult:

Obtain community reaction and comment on project, opportunities and/or alternatives

To Involve:

Work with the community throughout the process to ensure that user requirement and concerns are understood

To Collaborate:

Partner with the community in every aspect of the process to identify the best solution and development the preferred alternative

To empower:

Place the final decision-making in the hands of the public. Created by Y.Wang, (2021).

Table 2 4 Phases of engagement at the Baghere Women’s House project

Phase Purpose Activities

Mapping Phase Understand the local geographical, cultural, ethical context. Understand community needs. - Inform project details to community (month 1) - Local community survey (month 1) - Community focus group (month 2-3) - Government consultation session (month 2-3) - Community public meeting (month 2-3) - design team meeting (month 4-5) - development of local context mapping (month 6)

Project Design Phase Engagement with the communities to develop a design alternative that satisfy the best interest - community focus group (month 1-3) - consultation session with government officials (month 3) - public survey (month 1-3) - design team meeting (month 4-8) - develop final design (month 6-11) - inform community of final design (month 12)

Project Construction Phase Collaborate with the communities on project construction - construction, building safety workshops (month 1-12) - collection of feedback (month 1-24) - public meeting between volunteers and local communities (month 2-24) - consultation session with government officials (month 2-24) - construction (month 1-24)

Building Establish substantial

Operation building operation,

Phase maintenance and development Created by Yuzki Wang (2021) Time frame 6 months

1 year (12 months)

2 years (24 months)

Community engagement plan: Table 3 Detail strategies plan of Baghere community engagement towards the Women’s House Project

Project Phase Community Engagement Method of engagement Stakeholders activity objective

Mapping Phase Surrounding residents

Baghere female community To Consult Conduct survey and focus groups among surrounding residents to understand their best interest towards the project To Consult Conduct survey and focus groups among Baghere female community to understand their best interest of the project and to identity and priorities their needs

Resident of Baghere

To Consult Conduct survey among Baghere residents to understand their best interest towards the project Local government To Consult Arrange consultation session with local of Baghere government to understand limitation under local regulation and standards Faith based groups To Consult Arrange public meeting with local religious groups to understand their best interest towards the project

Project design Phase

Project Construction Phase Racial, Ethical, cultural Group To Consult Arrange public meeting with local religious groups to understand their best interest towards the project

Local Voluntary groups

To inform Inform voluntary groups about the project through media Neighbourhood To inform Inform Neighbourhood village residents about the village residents project through media Visitors to Baghere To inform Inform visitors to Baghere about the project through media

Local trades and businesses

Surrounding residents Baghere female community Resident of Baghere

To Consult Conduct survey and arrange public meeting with local trades association to understand their best interest towards the project. To Involve Arrange multiple focus group session with surrounding residents to work on project design To Involve Arrange multiple focus group session with Baghere female community to work on project design To Involve Arrange multiple focus group session with Resident of Baghere to work on project design Local government To Involve Arrange consultation session with local of Baghere government of Baghere to identify design limitation Faith based groups To Consult Conduct survey to place the project design into appropriate religious context

Racial, Ethical, cultural Group To Consult Conduct survey to place the project design into appropriate racial, ethical, cultural context.

Local Voluntary groups

To Consult Conduct survey to understand local voluntary groups’ capabilities Neighbourhood To inform Inform neighbourhood village residents about the village residents final design through media Visitors to Baghere To inform Inform Visitors to Baghere about the final design through media

Local trades and businesses To inform Inform local trades and businesses about the final design through media

Surrounding residents To Collaborate Arrange construction and building safety workshop, collect feedback on construction, and engage the surrounding residents in participating the construction process

Baghere female community

Resident of Baghere

To Collaborate Arrange construction and building safety workshop, collect feedback on construction, and engage the female community in participating the construction process To Collaborate Arrange construction and building safety workshop, collect feedback on construction, and engage the Resident of Baghere in participating the construction process Local government To Collaborate Arrange regular consultations and meetings to of Baghere ensure the construction is appropriate under local laws and regulations Faith based groups To Involve Collect feedback on project construction from religious aspect

Racial, Ethical, cultural Group Local Voluntary groups To Involve Collect feedback on project construction from racial, ethical, cultural aspects To Collaborate Arrange construction and building safety workshop, collect feedback on construction, conduct regular meeting with local residents to improve collaboration and communication, and

engage the voluntary groups in participating the construction process Neighbourhood To inform Inform neighbourhood village residents about the village residents construction through media Visitors to Baghere To inform Inform Visitors to Baghere about the construction through media

Local trades and businesses To Collaborate Arrange meeting and workshop to collaborate with local trades and businesses

Building Operation Phase Surrounding residents Baghere female community To empower Community has the final decision making on building operation, development and maintenance.

To empower

Resident of Baghere To empower

Local government To Consult Arrange regular meetings to ensure sufficient and of Baghere appropriate support from local government Faith based groups To Consult Arrange regular meetings to ensure sufficient and appropriate support from religious groups

Racial, Ethical, cultural Group To Consult Arrange regular meetings to ensure sufficient and appropriate support from racial, ethical and cultural groups

Local Voluntary groups

To Involve To have regular volunteer operate and maintenance the building Neighbourhood To inform Inform neighbourhood village residents about the village residents building through media Visitors to Baghere To inform Inform Visitors to Baghere about the building through media

Local trades and businesses To Consult Arrange regular meetings to ensure sufficient and appropriate support from local trades and businesses

Created by Y. Wang, (2021).