CASE: THE NATURAL DISASTER RELIEF PROJECT IN PERAVIA Peravia is an island in the Caribbean, known for its lakes and coastal lagoons. It has close relationships with the United States and is a member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. The island is rich in natural resources but has been plagued by government corruption and a widening gap between rich and poor, with many attributing it to foreign economic interference. The island has been internationally criticised for its practices of child labour in its sugarcane, coffee and rice industries. An estimated 2% of the population is estimated to be enslaved on sugar plantations. Economic growth is mainly driven by tourism, which has led to improvements in the island’s infrastructure. In a recent population survey, most inhabitants self-identified as mixed, 16% as black and 14% as white. The population is mostly Spanish-speaking but due to the region’s economic ties with the United States, islanders often have high English proficiency. More than 60% of the population lives in urban areas – concentrated on coastal areas, and 95% of the island’s inhabitants identify as Christian, with other religious groups being a significant minority. In recent years, human-induced climate changes have led to loss of land surfaces near coastlines and severe sea level rise. Frequent costal storms and tropical cyclones have contributed to the salination of costal aquifers, which are an 3 essential source of freshwater for many island inhabitants. Costal environments have also deteriorated due to extended periods of drought, changes in rainfall patterns and marine heatwaves. It is currently predicted that extreme water level events in the region will double by 2050 leading to significant economic and humanitarian crises. The island also lies in the path of hurricanes, with the annual hurricane season running from June to November. A recent storm has caused flash floods and landslides, dislocated local communities, and led to an estimated death toll of 2,812 persons. The general hospital in the island’s capital suffered irreparable structural damage along with flooding and mudslides. The local population has as a result been deprived of medical care. Road communications are badly disrupted. The island’s doctors and medical staff fear that the natural disaster will increase the spread of the COVID-19 virus and slow down the rollout of the ongoing vaccination programme. Makeshift medical facilities are under huge strain and may not cope with an escalation in COVID-19 cases. The local press has reported that doctors are treating injured patients on hospital stretchers and mattresses by the side of the road as smaller healthcare centres are struggling to cope and have run out of space. The island’s government has approached the United States for assistance. Juliet Barnard has been appointed as the Project Manager of a Disaster Assistance Response Team and instructed to begin scoping the hospital reconstruction project whilst also taking care of emergency medical treatment. She has been informed that, in due course, funding will be made available from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Juliet Barnard has lost no time visiting the site with engineers and conferring with the hospital manager. It has rapidly become clear to everyone that the only way to proceed is to clear the entire site and rebuild the entire hospital. In the meantime, several self-contained hospital units would be erected to deal with casualties from the disaster and the ensuing outbreaks of disease and COVID-19 cases. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been working with civil society groups in the area and is leading on the implementation of projects for disaster risk reduction, funded through the European Development Fund and other agencies. Coordinated by Sue Fernandez, UNDP has already started distributing stocks of water, warehouse, hygiene, and sanitation supplies to local communities. The organisation has offered to the help the island’s aid efforts, led locally by the Office of Civil Defence for Disaster Prevention (OCDDP). One of Sue Fernandez’s key objectives is to stop a COVID-19 outbreak and minimise the need to use medical facilities until the local infrastructure is rebuilt. Barnard realises that the project will require far more manpower, materials and construction equipment than is immediately available on the island and plans to request all the required resources from external suppliers. Barnard is a strong communicator, focused on teamworking and motivated by challenges. She is 4 passionate about tackling medical needs that affect human lives and displays humility and resilience in her work. She likes her entire team to participate in decision making, believing that many heads are better than one. After a detailed site survey Barnard has drawn up an initial plan for the new hospital project and sent this to the USAID for approval and funding commitments. In the meantime, the Disaster Assistance Response Team has started work on erecting several self-contained hospital units just several hundred yards from the demolished hospital. Victor Ferreira – the project coordinator from the Office of Civil Defence for Disaster Prevention (OCDDP) – visits the site of the demolished hospital with Barnard and is keen to get things moving. He seems to think that waiting for approval for the project from USAID will be time consuming, and his opinion is that “things need to start happening now”. He was briefed by the island’s governor to “get results, whichever way necessary. We must be seen to be leading the way in this international relief effort.” Barnard explained the need for additional resources, but Ferreira advocates immediate action. At this point, the island’s governor finally makes an appearance and is keen to know what the plan is. He welcomes the addition of huge US resources and agrees that the rebuilding must begin immediately. He also states that he will personally recommend which builders and suppliers “can be trusted”. This worries Barnard, who knows that when it comes to USAID funded projects, there are clear commissioning procedures that must be followed to ensure full transparency. This is especially worrying as the island currently sits high on the world index of corruption. UNDP have also made an initial survey of the problems with medical healthcare. Sue Fernandez is an experienced Spanish doctor and Aid Project Manager, and keen to get to work in the temporary hospital units but believes they have been incorrectly sited and need moving. Her team and their equipment will more than double the effort currently being provided by Barnard’s team. Fernandez has strong opinions on how the temporary hospitals should be set up and managed. She is used to having autonomy when delivering these kinds of projects. She also informs Barnard that she has access to substantial funding to assist with rebuilding the hospital which can be made available within days, but the release of that funding depends on her recommendation to the European Development Fund. In addition, Fernandez has resources to increase the pace of the vaccination programme on the island to prevent further casualties. This will be an essential measure while the new hospital is being rebuilt. To further compound efforts, there is increasing agitation amongst the local population that nothing is happening in terms of rebuilding and there are constant, lengthy queues at the temporary hospital. The leader of the island’s political opposition party is already making speeches to the crowd about the governor’s inability to coordinate the rescue effort. This simply increases the 5 pressure on Barnard to get on with something practical whilst she waits for approval of her project, and the requested funding, from the USAID. Several international media organisations now have teams on the island, and Barnard is overwhelmed with requests for interviews and press conferences, whilst she is busy trying to manage this complex situation. The media seem to be obsessed with the deterioration in law and order that has occurred following the disaster, which has left certain parts of the capital in the hands of gangs and armed groups. Ferreira has appeared in the media to defend the reputation of the island’s governor against accusations of ‘dodgy dealing’ and corruption. As private relief supplies from shipments from the US and other countries have started arriving on the island, poor roads and gang activities have slowed down relief efforts. Two doctors working in the self-contained hospitals have reportedly been kidnapped by local gangs. Medical staff are now preparing a two-day shutdown to protest the kidnapping of their colleagues. Somehow, Barnard needs to work with all stakeholders to manage this crisis, obtain their commitment to work with her on the project, manage differences in interests and priorities, whilst also making best use of the resources that each stakeholder brings with them, all of this under the media spotlight and the threat of further casualties. END OF CASE
TASK: Write a report in which you: • Demonstrate how a range of leadership approaches and human capital management tools might be applied to the stakeholders in this scenario, in order to achieve their buy-in to assist project leader(s) with successful project delivery, ensuring that you take account of any national or organisational cultural dynamics that you identify. (50 Marks)
• Evaluate competing stakeholder agendas and critically assess how effective communication with these stakeholders might assist in removing barriers to change in this scenario. (20 Marks)
• Critically reflect on the ethical implications of this project and the choice of partners the project leader(s) may choose to work with, suggesting approaches that might assist them in making ethically sound decisions. (20 Marks)
• Use Harvard Referencing convention throughout for citations and your reference list. Also ensure you produce a well-structured essay with 6 effective use of grammar, and appropriate evidence from a range of academically robust sources. (10 Marks)
