1.3 Stakeholder Involvement

1.3 Stakeholder Involvement

By Yuzki Wang

In the context of the Women’s House project, this report identified 6 main groups of Stakeholders:

Communities: Communities including Local Community, Surrounding Villages and Voluntary groups. Details of the local community can be found in the Community engagement plan. Surrounding villages play a significantly important stakeholder. First, the Baghere women’s house is not limited to the Baghere community only, it also serves as a women’s centre for female residents in surrounding villages. Second, Baghere has very limited services, infrastructure and facilities. For instance, the closest hospital is a two hours drive away located at Sedhious. The construction of the women’s house will need support from the neighbouring villages. Volunteers can be local, national and international level. It also includes a built environment for students based in Senegal. (see community engagement on further details on community involvement of the project)

Organisations: Organisations involved in this project can be grouped into 3 categories: Project organisations, Nonprofit international organisations, and competition judges. Project organisations provide brief and contexts of the projects. Non-profit international organisations provide guidelines and vision of the humanitarian sector. And Competition judges help to select the winning design to be built at the selected site

Government agencies: Government agencies involved in this project can be divided into 3 levels: Local Baghere government, Sedihious region government and Republic of Senegal government. Due to the characteristic of the project, government agencies involvement was not as significant as other stakeholders. However, it is critical to consider them.

Design professionals: Design professionals including Architects, Engineers and Quantity Surveyors. Design professionals are involved in this project on a part-time basis and voluntarily. Depending on project stages, they will sometimes work individually and sometimes work as a team.

Construction labour and trades: Construction Labour in this project includes Local Residents, National Volunteers, international Volunteers and Built environment students. It is important to keep in mind that these Construction labours do not get much financial support from the project and they are often unskilled. Construction trades include Local builder, Sub-contractors and Specialist trades. These workforces are often semi-skilled to skilled. However, due to the budget limitation, local trades engagement is restricted. Onsite supervisor and project manager are also critical to this project because a Humanitarian project is associated with a considerable number of risks and constant supervision and appropriate management are required.

Material suppliers and manufactures: Material suppliers and manufactures including Construction material suppliers, Local Farmers, Local Business and Local transportation.

Figure 1 Stakeholder Mapping of the Baghere Women’s House

Drawn by Y.Wang, (2021).

The Duccio Turin’s model The Duccio Turin's model, mapped out the key actors between stakeholders, as well as their relationship across the entire project life

In this case, The project is divided into 8 main phases: 1. Project initiation Project initiation is the start of the project which entails the project’s vision and objectives. In this case, the Kaira Looro competition is the project initiation, where the project organisation (Kaira Looro) proposed a Women’s House construction to young built environment professionals/students internationally. The winner of the competition will participate in building humanitarian architecture at the proposed site at Baghere.

In this stage, there are 5 main stakeholders: Baghere community will specify their objectives and design requirements to the project organisations. The Non-profit international organisations will provide relevant support and guidelines on the humanitarian sector to the project organisations. Competition judges will partner with the project organisations to select the most appropriate design and the project organisation will be the key actor. Project organisation is the key actor in this stage because it is the decision-making actor on the winning design. The project organisation will also provide a project charter, outlining the purpose and requirements of the project.

2. Brief Once the winner’s design is selected, the project will enter a briefing stage. This stage involves a more in-depth understanding of the client’s (in this case the Baghere community) and ensures project design expressing them in a way that will ascertain compatibility between the project vision and the final building.

In this stage, there are 6 main stakeholders: The Engineer will provide structural feedback on the Architect’s design to ensure the construction is practical and the structure able to hold the potential load. The Architect will provide a schematic design including sketches, diagrams and other information to explain the concept and report the draft design and general context to the project organisation. Local Baghere government and Non-profit international organisations will support the project organisation on human right guideline and construction regulation. The project organisations will then report the design to the Baghere local community and ensure the design is culturally appropriate. Local Baghere Community will be the decision-making actor in this stage, and they will determine if the design is acceptable.

3. Building design Supposing that the concept design is accepted, the schematic design needs to develop into a detailed design. The brief needs to be reviewed and updated. Schedules of materials, interior layout plan, estimation of cost, construction program and site analysis is to be prepared during this stage. Intensive communication and coordination with the local community are also essential due to the remoteness of the site.

In this stage, there are 7 main stakeholders: Project Organisations and non-profit international organisations will provide reasonable support to the Architect to develop the detailed design. The Architect will reach out to the Baghere community to ensure they have sufficient involvement in project development. The Architect will also communicate with the local government to ensure the construction will not exceed local regulation and standard. The Engineer will assist the Architect to develop the detailed design. The Quantity Surveyor will monitor and ensure the cost of the design will not exceed the original budget. The

Architect will be the decision-making actor in this stage, he/she will finalise the final detailed design and provide all drawings and documentation that is required.

4. Pre-construction planning Assuming that there is no construction approval required (due to the humanitarian characteristic), pre-construction planning will take place. The stage is critical for this project because the process carries a considerable number of risks and an intensive amount of training and upskilling are required before construction commerce. A comprehensive risk mitigation plan on-site OHS management plan and regular on-site supervision schedule need to be provided during this stage.

In this stage, there are 11 main stakeholders: The Architect, Engineer and Quantity Surveyor will act as one team. These design professionals will provide support to the Project manager. Labours, trades, on-site supervisor, and material suppliers will report to the project manager on their capabilities. The local government, the non-profit international organisation will provide reasonable support and relevant guidelines to the project manager. The Project manager will reach out to Baghere Community and the community will provide feedback to ensure the construction will not exceed community capacities. The Project Manager is the decision-making actor in this stage. He/she will ensure comprehensive planning and management is done prior to the construction.

5. Construction The construction phase is divided into two different aspects: 5.1 construction (the process itself), and 5.2 project monitoring and control.

In the Construction stage, there are 13 main stakeholders: The Voluntary groups, Baghere community, material supplier, labours, local transportation, trades, and on-site supervisor will report straight to the project manager. Labours and trades will report straight to the on-site supervisor, who reports directly to the project manager. The Baghere government and project organisations shall provide reasonable support to the project manager throughout the construction project. The Architect, Engineer and Quantity Surveyor will act as one team, and provide consultancy to the Project manager. The Project Manager is the decision-making actor during construction, shall collaborate with all stakeholders and ensure the project stay within the budget and schedule

In the project monitoring and control aspect of construction, stakeholder involvement is mostly similar. However, the decision-making actor becomes the On-site supervisor, and he/she shall reduce and to some extent eliminate potential risks during the construction process.

6. Project closure Project closure occurs when physical construction is completed, but prior to the project handover. Project closure involves waste management, return construction equipment, site cleaning, and handover of relevant documentation to users. More importantly, we need to ensure the community is capable of building daily operations.

In the Project Closure stage, there are 10 main stakeholders Voluntary groups, local community, labours and trades will report directly to the on-site supervisor, where the on-site supervisor and material suppliers report directly to the project manager. The design professionals will provide consultancy assistance to the Project Manager to ensure the work is completed according to the scope. The Project manager as the decision-making actor will walk through the project following a punch list. He/she will inspect the quality of work, collaborate with

the workforce to clean up the site, handover documentation to the users, and ensure the local community received enough training on building operations.

7. Use In the Use stage, the building is handed over to end-users and they are in charge of building upkeep and operation throughout its lifetime. For the Women’s House project, it is crucial to ensure local communities are capable of building ownership, decision-making, and facilities control.

In the Use stage, there are 5 main stakeholders Surrounding villages, local farmers, local business, and local transportation will provide essential and reasonable support to the Baghere Community. The Baghere Community is the decision-making actor in this stage.

8. Maintenance and upkeep Depending on the level of repair, The women’s house maintenance and upkeep may exceed local capacities, and that is when Voluntary groups and local government will involve providing additional assistance. Therefore, there are 5 main stakeholders in this process The local government and the voluntary group will provide assistance on upkeep when building damage exceeds community capacity. Material suppliers and local transportation will provide general support for building maintenance. The Baghere Community is the decision-making actor in this process, shall seek necessary assistance and repair building damage promptly.

9. Post-disaster The post-disaster phase is often overlooked in building life-cycle assessment. However, it is crucial to assess for a humanitarian construction due to its remoteness and vulnerability. In order to establish a set of effective strategies to assist the community in rebuilding after a catastrophe, post-disaster planning must be regularized in a local decision-making process. Therefore, local stakeholders are exceptionally vital during this stage.

There are 12 main stakeholders involved in the process Passive stakeholders are stakeholders on a national and international level, including the Sedhiou region government, project organisations and international organisations, which will indirectly assist the Baghere community on post-disaster repairs. Direct stakeholders are predominantly stakeholders on a local level, including trades, labours, material suppliers, local farmers, business and transportation. These local stakeholders will provide direct assistant on building repair. Due to the humanitarian characteristic, voluntary groups on a national and international level might also participate in the rebuild process. And because pre-disaster planning needs to be institutionalized to be effective, the local government should be in charge of the process instead of the local community. Therefore, the Baghere government will be the decision-making actor in the post-disaster phase and the local community will assist the government on post-disaster recovery

Figure 2 Duccio Turin’s model for Stakeholders management of the Baghere Women’s House

Drawn by Y.Wang, (2021).

Figure 3 Geographical location of stakeholders of the Baghere Women’s House

Drawn by Y.Wang (2021).

Prioritizing Stakeholders Throughout various project stages, stakeholders should be engaged with different level of intensity and care. Identifying and prioritizing important stakeholders in the early stage can assist the project to save both time and money. Therefore, this report mapped out the degree of stakeholder involvement throughout the project life cycle, map out and rank stakeholders from most important to less important. For the purpose of this project, stakeholder management will be divided into 3 levels:

Table 4 3 ranks of stakeholders at the Baghere Women’s House Project Approach

High involvement stakeholder Strategic Approach

Medium involvement stakeholder Systematic approach

Low involvement stakeholder Synthesis approach

Created by Y.Wang, (2021).

Action - Give more priority to this level of stakeholder - Intensive and early communication as well as collaboration - Allow decision-making - Establish risk assessment and mitigation planning - Give moderate priority to this level of stakeholder - Moderate and equal task allocation - Moral but non-obligatory responsibility to stakeholders - Dealing with them ethically with reasonable solution

Figure 4 Involvement of stakeholders at each project stage of the Baghere Women’s House

Drawn by Y.Wang (2021).