Donnerstag, 14. März 2013

A holistic approach: the sociocultural infrastructures and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)






ITIL ®V3 (IT Service Management)  
PRINCE2 ® (Projects in Controlled Environments)
Agile Management Innovations
Wirtschaftsinformatik  - Diplom-Ingenieur
Informatikmanagement - Mag. rer. soc. oec
Wirtschaftsinformatik - Bakk.rer. soc. oec
Social Science - DEUG










"Sociocultural Infrastructures" are basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function. It is an important term for judging a country or region's development....

These sociocultural infrastructures include, for example,  learning experience, spiritual, moral, religion and philosophy dimensions, transport infrastructures, water infrastructures, communication infrastructures, solid and liquid waste infrastructures, earth monitoring and measurement infrastructures, management and governance of social infrastructures, economic and cultural infrastructures, economic infrastructures, social infrastructures, cultural infrastructures, environmental infrastructures etc......



It seems that  we often underestimate the "power" and the central "role" of the right access to adequate sociocultural infrastructures and the related knowledge mangement and transfer in sustainable development sector. We need to focus more attention on sociocultural infrastructures for achieving better development results. This requires new development strategies, politics, visions etc. that aim to encourage innovation and find creative, accessible and acceptable solutions to  the access to sociocultural infrastructures development challenges for poor people....

There are great efforts and good  progress to achieve the MDGs. However some new  great challenges occur. The challenges  are not only how to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but how to support and to make sustainable the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)........ 

Sustaining Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) quality requires taking a strategic view that may present short to medium term challenges,  and the right sociocultural infrastructures with the related right knowledge management should be able to help address such challenges.




The access to  the right sociocultural infrastructures.
 

The access to  the right sociocultural infrastructures with the right related knowledge management and transfer are critical factors to achieve, to support and to make sustainable the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We can fully  be equipped with the requisite skills and knowledge of what we see, what we know and what we  get in interation with our social environment.

Once  we get the access to  the right sociocultural infrastructures with the right  related knowledge management and transfer: good leadership, peace,  security,  good governance, sustainable jobs creation, local capacities building, democracy, sustainable development innovations, poverty reduction, education, poor people’s empowerment, social and human progress including achieving universal primary education, eradicating extreme poverty and hunger,  promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality rates, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing a global partnership for development etc. will progressively impose themselves........

Unfortunately no society can develop sustainable  without access to the adequate economic, social, public, and cultural infrastructures (physical infrastructures) and the related knowledge management and transfer (soft infrastructures) that affect and endorse the daily lives and activities of their citizens whereever they are living....

As economic and environmental crises deepen, there is  a alternative-based  recognition that many aspects of  the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) efforts need to be reinvented. The lacks of the sociocultural infrastructures and the related knowledge management and transfer appear as the major obstacles to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

Therefore a holistic approach to the sociocultural infrastructures in the sustainable development sector  to progress, to achieve and to support the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is crucial in meeting this challenge. These Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) include:

 
  1. Achieving universal primary education, 
  2. Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, 
  3. Promoting gender equality and empowering women, 
  4. Reducing child mortality rates, 
  5. Improving maternal health, 
  6. Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, 
  7. Ensuring environmental sustainability, and 
  8. Developing a global partnership for development.
 

The implementation of interventions that combines holistic approach can produce favourable results. Many  sustainable development projects and progammes  fail  because of the failure to accurately account for local culture, local resources, local knowledge potentials and the lack of  sociocultural infrastructures and the related knowledge management and transfer to handle the programmes  and the projects in sustainable manner after  the programmes and projects exit.....




Therefore good adequate basic sociocultural infrastructures (agriculture, education, logement, culture, water, ICT, public, energy, administration, transports, economics, industries, manufacturings,  and medicine etc.) including local good structures, good political management of local resources and development aid could  help to accelerate the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  The basic socio-cultural infrastructures and the related knowledge management and transfer are absolute ressources  to drive and to promote social, cultural, economics, environmental well-being through innovative development  programmes and projects...


For example, transport infrastructures are fundamental for the smooth operation of the internal and external market, for the mobility of persons and goods and for the economic, social and territorial cohesion of a country and continent. 

A holistic approach means that all factors of the sociocultural infrastructures should be taken into account as a whole, interdependent on each other for the benefit of all (poor and rich people) in the mechanism of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

This approach  should take into account  a new vision, a new perspective and a new role of sociocultural infrastructures (knowledge, functions, characteristics, interactions,  relationship) in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) strategies, based on the social living conditions,  the needs of an individual, the needs of  a community, the needs for social progress etc. in order to achieve  and to support the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

This is an opportunity to change things and make a real difference in the mechanism of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We need to embrace holistic sustainable development programmes and projects approaches ensuring that creative methods and solutions find their way into sociocultural infrastructures development projects and programmes including the related knowledge management and transfer, socle of  any  sustainable development programmes and projects....

Finding new solutions to human problems that tackle the sources and improves the quality of life for poor people should include effective access to sociocultural infrastructures development requirement with the related  right knowledge management and transfer  through well collaborative and participatory approaches, sharing effective, constructive and productive news ideas, sharing innovative practical knowledge for development management (knowledge management and knowledge transfer) with the support of effective evaluations processes....

The Achievements of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) could be well on track and achieved based on encouraging - sociocultural infrastructures gains. Changes and looking solutions without addressing practical issues will not help. The basic human needs should be identified and addressed to make positive impact of changes in achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The big challenge that faces the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is the lacks of adequate sociocultural infrastructures and the related knowledge management and transfer. 

We could not drive and promote sustainable youth and women career development, sustainable development innovation, sustainable local capacity building and career innovation if there are no good adequate basic sociocultural infrastructures (agriculture, education, logement, culture, water, ICT, energy, administration, transports, economics and medicine etc.), and if there are no good structures, good political and social management of local resources and development aids and  technical assistances...

The access to adequate  sociocultural infrastructures by poor people  is absolute  to drive, to promote, to achieve quickly, and to support the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). A holistic approach is essential for building the sociocultural infrastructures needed to sustain innovative development research and technological development innovation for promoting, driving and supporting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“Debate has surrounded adoption of the MDGs, focusing on lack of analysis and justification behind the chosen objectives, the difficulty or lack of measurements for some of the goals, and uneven progress towards reaching the goals, among other criticisms. Although developed countries' aid for achieving the MDGs have been rising over recent years, more than half the aid is towards debt relief owed by poor countries, with remaining aid money going towards natural disaster relief and military aid which does not further development. Progress towards reaching the goals has been uneven. Some countries have achieved many of the goals, while others are not on track to realize any” [MDGs].

There can be no sustainable development without the development of social, public, economic, cultural infrastructures, which provides economic and cultural interaction between the economy, environment and society.

The integration and the access of sociocultural infrastructure for all in the official programs and mechanisms of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will constitute a new opportunity to drive, to promote, to reach and to support as soon as possible the goals.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) programmes and projects must focus attention on the access of sociocultural infrastructures for poor people. Development agencies and Public-private-partnership (PPP) should give priority to essential sociocultural infrastructures programmes and projects that promote jobs, social progress and sustainable economic growth...

The sociocultural infrastructures include learning experience,  spiritual, moral,  religion and philosophy dimensions, transport infrastructures, water infrastructures, communication infrastructures, solid and liquid waste infrastructures, earth monitoring and measurement infrastructures, management and governance of social infrastructures, economic and cultural infrastructures, economic infrastructures, social infrastructures, cultural infrastructures, environmental infrastructures etc......


Basic sociocultural infrastructures....
Propety
Characteristics
Transport infrastructures
Road and highway, bridges, tunnels, culverts, retaining walls, lighting, traffic lights, curbs, sidewalks, specialized facilities such as road maintenance depots and rest areas, transport systems (commuter systems, subways , trams , trolleys , the bike sharing system city, car sharing system and city bus transport), Railways  (railway yards, stations), level crossings, signalling and communications systems, canals and waterways, Seaports and light houses, Airports,  air navigation, Bike paths and trails , the pedestrian walkways , the pedestrian underpasses and other specialized facilities for cyclists and pedestrians etc.....
Water infrastructures
Drinking water supply, the system of pipes, storage tanks, pumps, valves, filtration and treatment equipment and meters, buildings and structures to house the equipment used for the collection, processing and distribution drinking water,  collection and disposal of waste water   drainage system (drains, ditches, etc.),  system of irrigation  (reservoirs, irrigation canals), control systems, the flood story (dikes, major pumping stations and valves), Snow Management (turbot spreaders , snowploughs, snow blowers, dedicated dump trucks  routing distribution for these fleets, has assets (snowfall, snow melting), coastal zone management (dikes, breakwaters, ears, locks), using gentle techniques (beach nourishment, sand dune stabilization and protection of mangrove forests and coastal wetlands ....
Communication infrastructures
Postal service, sorting facilities, Telephone network (landline)    the telephone exchange, mobile phones, Radios transmission stations (including regulations and standards governing broadcasting), cable television physical networks, receiving stations and cable distribution networks, Internet (including Internet backbones, local servers, Internet service providers and the protocols and other basic software required for the system to work), telecommunications satellites, Submarine cables, large private telecommunications networks, public or specialized (used for internal communication and monitoring by major infrastructure companies, by governments, by the military or emergency services), National networks of research and teaching,  the pneumatic tube mail distribution networks.... 
Solid and liquid waste infrastructures
Infrastructure for the collection   of municipal waste and recyclables, collection of  landfill solid waste,  Materials recovery facilities harmful favourite environment, Facilities   for   disposal of hazardous waste...
Earth monitoring and measurement infrastructures
Weather Monitoring Infrastructure, weather Radar Network Infrastructure, Weather and Climate Observing Networks Infrastructure, Satellites Earth Observation  Infrastructure, Global Positioning System Infrastructure, Infrastructure for the measurement of spatial data......
Management and governance of social, economic and cultural infrastructures

Government and law enforcement policies legislative, the application and compliance with the law,  Justice and good criminal justice system, Specialized facilities (government offices, courts, prisons, etc.). Specialized systems for the collection, storage and dissemination of data, laws and regulations, Emergency services such as police, fire protection and ambulance, Specialized vehicles, buildings, communications and dispatching systems, Military infrastructure, including army bases deposits weapons, training centres, command centres, means of communication, the main weapons systems, fortifications   specialized in the manufacture of weapons , strategic reserves.....
Economic infrastructures

Financial systems infrastructure, banking systems infrastructure, financial institutions infrastructure, payment systems, exchanges, offers of money, financial regulations, accounting standards and regulations infrastructure, Large enterprises logistics facilities and systems, including warehouses and management systems for storage and shipping infrastructure, plants manufacturing infrastructure, including industrial parks and special economic zones, mines and factories national and regional transformation of materials used as inputs in the local industry, specialized energy, transportation and infrastructure used by local industries, as well as the laws of public safety, environmental and zoning regulations that govern and limit industrial activity, and standards organizations, agricultural infrastructure, forestry and fishing , particularly for specialty food and livestock transportation and storage facilities, large feedlots, systems support  in agricultural prices (including agricultural insurance), agricultural health standards, food inspection, experimental farms and agricultural research centres,  and schools, facilities   licensing and quota management systems implementation, the struggle against poaching, rangers and fight against fire and desertification .......
Social infrastructures
health system,  including hospitals , financing of health care, including Medicare, insurance, Control systems and testing of drugs and medical procedures, training systems, inspection and professional discipline of doctors and other medical professionals, the monitoring of public health regulations, the coordination of measures taken during public health epidemics such as emergency, the educational system and research, including elementary and secondary schools, universities, colleges  specialized research institutes, funding systems and accreditation of health institutions, the social protection, including support systems for both government and private charity for the poor, for people in distress or victims of violence and chronic poverty,  facilities systems, Control systems and creation of jobs hiring for youth and adults........
Cultural infrastructures
Infrastructure sports and recreation, such as parks, sports facilities, the   system   of leagues and sports associations, cultural facilities such as concert halls, museums, libraries, theatres, studios and specialized training centres, business travel and tourism, including both infrastructure of artificial and natural attractions, convention centres, hotels, restaurants, and other services that cater mainly to tourists and business travellers and information systems   and communication to attract tourists, and travel insurance.......
Environmental infrastructures
Networks of aqueducts, reservoirs, water distribution pipes, sewer pipes, and pumping stations; treatment systems such as sedimentation tanks and aeration tanks, filters, septic tanks, desalination plants, and incinerators; and waste disposal facilities such as sanitary landfills and secure hazardous-waste storage impoundments........



The sociocultural infrastructures we are discussing in this work  include both physical assets such as highly specialized buildings and equipment, as well as non-physical assets such as the body of rules, and regulations governing the various systems, the financing of these systems, the ways of working with others; of building and maintaining trust; of working collaboratively toward accomplishing shared development goals and outcomes, as well as the systems and organizations by which highly skilled and specialized professionals are trained, advance in their careers by acquiring experience, and are disciplined if required by professional associations (professional training, accreditation and discipline).

The essences of the soft sociocultural infrastructures  that we are discussing here are the deliveries of specialized services to poor people wherever they are living. Unlike much of the service sector of the economy, the deliveries of those services depend on highly developed systems and large specialised facilities or institutions that share many of the characteristics of hard infrastructure.



If the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are to fulfill economic, social environmental, and cultural well-being for the poor people, it is essential to build the missing links and to remove the obstacles in the access of sociocultural infrastructures (physical infrastructures) and the related knowledge management and transfer (soft infrastructures) for all, as well as to ensure the future sustainability in social, public, economic, and cultural well-being by taking into account the welfare efficiency needs and the social and environmental change challenges.

The major programme's objective of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to enhance the capacity of poor people to meet basic human requirement needs and to help them  managing their  own social, private, public, cultural and economic environments through the use of the available sociocultural infrastructures in sustainable development manner.

In order to establish a comprehensive and useful concept that integrates sociocultural infrastructures in the mechanism of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) policymakers should decide to establish an effective and a pragmatical Portfeuille «Millennium Infrastructures Challenge Programme» that allows development agencies to integrate the development and the access to sociocultural infrastructures into their programmes and projects....

Establishing an efficient Portfeuille «Millennium Infrastructures Challenge Programme» may constitute a key element in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) strategy for poverty eradication in the world. This will play a central role in the attainment of the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).


This Portfeuille «Millenium Infrastructures Challenge Programme» may be responsible for assisting and advising development countries and development agencies in accessing, researching  and in the development of adequate sociocultural infrastructures, especially the appropriate physical infrastructures, and soft infrastructures that support the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

This Portfeuille «Millennium Infrastructures Challenge Programme» may be primarily responsible for the evaluation, generation and the maintenance of a number of high-quality and fundamental sociocultural infrastructures and the provision of the basic infrastructures in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) mechanisms to poor people worldwide.

The working environment of the Portfeuille may be dynamic, participative, and collaborative involving interaction with development agencies, beneficiaries, local communities, and other international development organizations, governments and Public–private partnership (PPP) in order to provide standard model of access to sociocultural infrastructures to poor people in the world. The Portfeuille may encourage the investment in sustainable development projects and programmes that are aimed at creating sociocultural infrastructures.


The Portfeuille Utility Fonctions

In cooperation with development agencies, governments and Public–private partnership (PPP) organizations, the Portfeuille may manage the «Millenium Infrastructures Challenge Programme», both the programme that provides access to sociocultural infrastructures services to poor people and the programme that creates and develops sociocultural infrastructures for sustainable development purpose.

The Portfeuille may investigate, evaluate and support how  the North-South cooperation, and South-South cooperation could make adequate sociocultural infrastructures   and its related  “know-how” (transfer of the “know-how) accessible to all regardless of social class needs, and at the same time, helping to progress, to achieve, and to support the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The Portfeuille may seek, encourage and develop innovative investment programme in the  mechanisms of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to ensure that the access to sociocultural infrastructures services to poor people are well operated in accordance with Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) policies. 

The Portfeuille may develop new Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) approaches, and may constantly seek ways to improve the access to sociocultural infrastructures  developement  for the poor people in the world.

The Portfeuille may provide regular knowledge management and transfer support to update on regular basis the sociocultural infrastructures services templates including ensuring that local knowledge and usage of these sociocultural infrastructures services are available for all and correspond to the local human well-being basic needs.....


The Portfeuille Utility Purpose


The Portfeuille may be responsible for all new approaches to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In cooperation with development agencies, privates, governments, and Public–private partnership (PPP) organizations, the Portfeuille “workforce” must ensure that the «Millennium Infrastructures Challenge Programme» is conform to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) rules and approaches and is adequately updated and followed.


 The Portfeuille Utility Role


The Portfeuille may support innovative research programmes to develop adequate sociocultural infrastructures, which may help to focus attention to the basic needs of the poor people. The Portfeuille may help to assess the added value of community actions for integrating and developing sociocultural infrastructures approaches that reflect sustainable development impact.


Some critical  missions of the Portfeuille «Millennium Infrastructures Challenge Programme» is to evaluate, invest, expand, construct, improve, maintain and repair urban and rural public infrastructure including rural and city’s water system, wastewater system, storm drain system, park system streets and road system, municipal buildings and facilities and all rural and city public landscaped areas in the city and the rural milieu; maintain city and rural vehicles and equipments and oversee the collection of solid waste and recyclable materials...


The Portfeuille Utility Partnership


The Portfeuille may discuss issues and obstacles regarding the coordination of planning and implementation of the «Millennium Infrastructures Challenge Programme» with development agencies, governments, privates,  Public–private partnership (PPP) organizations and local development communities in promoting collaborative working relationships with international sociocultural infrastructures development experts and economists.



 Conclusion

The «Millennium Infrastructures Challenge Programme» will not  providing results without the right institutions and regulations of the sociocultural infrastructures sector. Sound sector policies, effective regulation, and greater innovation and great management and investment strategies  are needed to achieve the access to adequate sociocultural infrastructures to poor people......

The sociocultural infrastructures services will require more transparence, more investment efforts and innovative strategies. With that said, the focus should be on development countries governments to present a secure and supportive environment for more investment in the sociocultural infrastructures sector. 
Local, national and regional inddustry and manufacturing infrastructures must be created and developed for the exploitation of local, national and regional resources. This requires good management, good innovation, good education, good knowledge management, good  knowledge transfer,  good product, and  production competition strategies....

The access to the sociocultural infrastructures in  remote areas, for example, is a sensitive topic and would need the role of the central government including
local government, local community development representative, indepedent community development commission etc. to ensure that the interests of all involved in the evaluation and in the developement of local sociocultural infrastructures for sustainable development purposes are fully represented and protected.

The Portfeuille «Millennium Infrastructures Challenge Programme» may specify  the minimum  requirements in sociocultural infrastructures sector  that includes the basic human needs for the well-being. In planning the Portfeuille of the «Millennium Infrastructures Challenge Programme», development agencies, government, local communities etc. need to address issues of basic needs such as road building, food production and availability, equitable access to sociocultural infrastructures services; sociocultural infrastructures that enhances social interaction and participation; methods of reducing living costs, especially for poor people.


One thing is certain, political stability, the creation of jobs, the multiplication of development aids, the promotion of democracy, the access to innovative finance programme etc. do not provide an absolute guarantee to achieve,  to support, to make sustainable the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as long as the access to  social, public, economic and cultural infrastructures (physical  infrastructures)  and the related knowledge management and transfer (soft infrastructures) are not well integrated in the activities and operations of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  

The great challenge is to ensure that new and existing public and private   sociocultural infrastructures of urban and rural areas are keeping   adapted  with the needs and requirements of urban and rural citizens. It needs to become more flexible and functional otherwise it will reduce the qualities of urban and rural life.
 

In any case no society can develop sustainable without access to the right economic, social, public and cultural infrastructures and the related knowledge management and transfer that affect  and endorse the daily lives and activities of their citizens wherever they are living. 


You may also be interested in this following paper: Évaluation Agile et les Objectifs du Millénaire pour le Développement

Author, Amouzou Bedi, sample paper, contact on LinkedIn. I will try to update this paper on a regular basis if  a need arises. Please if you have a suggestion and feedback with regards to this paper, please feel free to contact me.

References 

[Amouzou Bedi] Knowledge Package for Development
URL: http://amouzoubedi.blogspot.co.at/2012_10_01_archive.html
[Amouzou Bedi] Creating decentralized knowledge management and transfer culture for development
URL: http://amouzoubedi.blogspot.co.at/2012_09_01_archive.html
[Amouzou Bedi] La coopération agile au développement, book french édition
URL:http://amouzoubedi.blogspot.co.at/2011/09/la-cooperation-agile-au-developpement.html

[Wikipedia] Infrastructures
URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrastructure
[Amouzou, Bedi] La vie privée et sociale des plus pauvres: indicateurs pertinents dans les processus d´évaluation des programmes et projets de développement (Actuellement en édition)
URL: http://amouzoubedi.blogspot.co.at/2011_05_01_archive.html

2 Kommentare:

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  2. Thank you so much for sharing this informative article on Holistic Development Approach. Keep up the Good Work.. Keep Sharing...

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