Development
How does our project contribute to development?
For explaining this question an illustration is made, see the figure below. The figure illustrates that the farmer invests in renting a part in the greenhouse on the university. He sells his vegetables to the university and with the earned money he will build his own greenhouse. This time his production will be larger so he is able to sell his vegetables to restaurants for example. His profit increases and he can provide a good education for his kids. He teaches his kids about farming and the kids will take over the greenhouse, where the cycles starts over again. The only thing that is not included in the cycles is that the next generation will have more and more greenhouses.
Culture
There are 11 cultural dimensions and we will discuss the most important and most relevant ones for our project. Uncertainty avoidance is crucial in our project, because the farmers have to step out of their comfort zone and open themselves for a new step into the future. The project of Fedha Safi is a feminine project, because we will take care of the farmers. We are not sure of the farmers will act feminine ore masculine so we have to find that our over there. We are used to a specific context society but in Bondo they are used to a diffuse context, therefore we need to adjust to their society. We also like to become more affective with the farmers and the University because this creates a lot of trust. And we would like to create trusted collaborations, how to accomplish this trust can be read in the Risk analysis. Fedha Safi would like to create a synchronous project plan because there has to be a clear structure and planning in the plan otherwise it will not work. This will be difficult for the locals because they are used to a sequential life-style. Therefore we have to teach them how to make a structured planning and how to be synchronous. We don’t want to change their cultural habits therefore we will only learn them to be synchronous within our project. This is the same for internalism and externalism. We want to change the attitude of the farmers. We want them to believe in their own succes and their own possibilities to change their future.
The goal is that the farmers and the people from the University will work together with us and with each other independent of the rules from their families. Accomplishing this will be very difficult but again creating trust is the key to success!
Innovation
FIS
We will analyse the Functional Innovation System from van Alpen because this system is specifically developed for developing countries. Knowledge diffusion through networks is the most important function in our project plan. The locals have to understand what our project is about and that we want to help them. The farmers need to be convinced that our project will offer them development. Market formation is also an important function in our project. We need to create a safe market for the farmers. Resource mobilization is also needed in the project, we need to find the right resources to build the water tank and to set up the long-term plan. If we would like to expand the production of the farmers by making contact with restaurants ore large supermarkets creation of legitimacy is maybe needed, we will have to research it when we are there.
Institutions
In general
Kenya consist of an extractive political institution and extractive economic institution. The government tries to change his institutions into inclusive institution but unfortunately the corruption is too big. The economy in Kenya is market-based with state-owned infrastructure enterprises. It maintains a liberalised external trade system. Kenya has well-developed physical and social infrastructure. Kenya lives in a presidential representative democratic republic. The President of Kenya is both head of state and head of government and since 2010 also head of a multi-party system.
NIS
In the second figure that is depicted below, all the components within the National Innovations System mentioned. The different institutions within our project are formulated below:
TU Delft students
TU Delft students is an inclusive institution because they treat people equally. The team consists of three people. All team members poses a range of functional expertise. There is an Industrial Design student, a Mechanical Engineer and a Civil Engineer. Business courses are being followed by all team members. So this team can ensure that the business ideas generated draw broadly on the company’s capabilities and provide the continuity throughout the business development process. Besides that there is a professor, who is the supervisor of the group. He is an experienced development practitioner with deep understanding of community facilitation and mobilization. And then there is the local supervisor who has got good connections with the community. The only interest of this team is to practice their entrepreneurial skills and to help the local people doing the same thing. The only risk of this team is failure. In the worst case scenario the team goes home, without having succeeded in the plan.
University JOOUST Bondo
We think that the University in Bondo is an exclusive institution be we are not sure. So far we didn’t heard any stories of people that are favoured but we do assume that it will happen on the university. The University will provide room for greenhouses in their yard. They also are willing to use the yield for their own kitchen. The students from this University are open to learning new capabilities and entrepreneurial skills. The University is also ‘socially embedded’ in the community. The stakes of the University are high. They can use the yield of the greenhouses for their own kitchen. The greenhouses provide knowledge and practical teaching methods for the students in both greenhouse farming and entrepreneurship. Also letting local farmers use the University will provide goodwill at the community. Certain problems arise considering the University as a partner. There is a hierarchy in the Kenyan communities the TU Delft student team is not used to and the question arises who will be responsible once the team leaves.
Students4Sustainability
S4S is an inclusive institution because they treat people equally. It is an organization that invests in sustainable development. In the last decades development has been about governments and individuals of high income economies donating money, products and services to low-income economies. This approach did not contribute sufficiently to the general development of these economies. That’s when organizations like S4S started with a new approach of creating sustainable development through entrepreneurship. By working out a feasible business model which includes all the costs and possible revenues, an enterprise can be organized in such a way that long-lasting positive impact can be achieved more readily and without using human and natural resources faster than they can be replenished, (B. Vastbinder et al, 2012). S4S goal is to raise awareness for their organization and to work out their goals. The organization will deliver the greenhouses in the next few years to make it possible to create a sustainable business. Their only problem is the distance. S4S needs to be assured of a good business that uses the greenhouses in the proper way.
To conclude, we will reduce uncertainty avoidance by knowledge diffusion through networks. We will create trust by the farmers which will make confident and certain about our project plan. The farmers will step out of their comfort zone and open themselves for a new step into a brighter future.
