Charity: Engineers Without Borders UK, a student-led charity that focuses on removing barriers to development using engineering. www.ewb-uk.org
May 2009
Engineering the future
This month I thought I’d talk about one of the challenges faced by an organisation like Engineers Without Borders as a student-led charity.
Engineering itself is becoming more sophisticated and is rediscovering its purpose as a profession. Young engineers are graduating with stronger transferable skills in management, exposition, communication, finance, economics and – not least – sustainability.
They are increasingly choosing to study engineering at university because they want to help solve global problems of poverty, inequality, climate change, resources, sustainability, environment, biodiversity and conflict. Engineers are increasingly wanting to and are working hard to engage in poverty reduction.
These engineers embrace the social dimensions of their work and recognise the importance of new kinds of profit. They embrace new technologies and new approaches to technology, such as open-source. They have never known a world without internet, global communications or cheap international travel that now connects them personally and professionally to diverse cultures and communities.
Organisations under the name of Engineers Without Borders have emerged in many countries from the confluence of these changes – and most were started up by young engineers.
However, the echoes of development failures in technology-based projects from previous decades still haunt the international development community, which is only now waking up to find that engineers and technology have moved on. The engineering community is still fighting an image problem – or, more accurately, a public engagement problem – and is seemingly desperate to find ways to re-engage in decision-making.
University teaching of engineering has been confined to the theoretical and, even then, is unable to keep up with the pace of change – with the result that students can often be found to be disenfranchised and disillusioned. Governments and international institutions, though they can often provide leadership, are no longer powerful enough to mount an adequate response to the long-term challenges that the world is facing.
In less developed countries, these problems can be yet more pronounced. Many ‘developing’ countries simply do not have the engineers to enable them to develop – a situation that is particularly stark in sub-Saharan Africa. Many countries suffer from inadequate engineering education or cannot motivate young people to start, and to finish, studying engineering at university.
Those that do graduate in engineering have skills that may not be appropriate to their local context, face insecure employment or are tempted into further study or jobs overseas. In some countries, the aspiration for engineers to tackle global challenges is dulled by irresistible lifestyle opportunities – particularly where relatively well-paid jobs are available in outsourcing companies that service richer nations. In many countries, economic success has not yet become the vehicle for improved quality of life and reduced inequality that it could be. Something has been missed.
Over the next few months, Engineers Without Borders UK will be positioning itself to better respond to this situation. We’ve still got work to do on some of our own internal systems still, but they are now nearly ready. Watch this space.
April 2009
Half way, but not a half way house
I was told by a friend who’s Chief Executive of a disaster relief organisation that the first six months after taking up a Chief Executive role is usually mayhem and that you’re always playing catch-up. Only after that period do you feel as if you’re getting your head above water, and that you’re begin to work more, well, ‘executively’.
I’m six months into my job as Chief Executive here at Engineers Without Borders UK, and I have to say that my friend was right, but not entirely: coming into an organisation where you are the first paid Chief Executive makes it all the more intense, as people suddenly find a place to put all of their questions, task, ideas and hopes.
My email account has had 18,332 emails go in and out of it since I started on 1 December. I have, for the first time ever, experienced going over my 1,200 free calling minutes per month on my mobile phone. Recent weeks have seen me visiting Liverpool, Warwick, London and Geneva or Leeds, Sheffield, London and Cambridge in a single day – stopping to give presentations or have meetings in each place.
Mention of Geneva is a good sign. My first six months are over and I’m getting my head above water. There are fewer surprises, fewer tasks requiring my urgent attention – and I’m now moving into a position where I can plan for the longer term. My trip to Geneva – my first international trip – was to a conference called ‘Shelter Meeting’ where I met our volunteers, heard about projects that our members had done and looked at potential partnerships with major international organisations.
I also attended a conference in Turin to improve our relations with our sister organisations in Italy, Spain, France and the rest of Europe (few European countries do not have an organisation carrying the ‘Engineers Without Borders’ name). I’m starting to feel more ‘executive’ in the way I approach my agenda each day.
I’m half way through my Vodafone Foundation World of Difference grant. This unparalleled experience has made me realise something else: that I don’t want this job to last only for another six months! I want it to last longer so that I can see the effects of the step change I’ve been trying to make in our finance systems, membership scheme, fundraising and so on.
I want to stay on to improve the longer-term approaches needed for our programmes – particularly our work overseas – and to make that ‘new generation of engineers’ that we talk about a reality. This opportunity has not been a half-way house for me, en route to something else. It hasn’t been something that I’ll do for a year, before going back to my day-job. It has been much more profound.
What do the next six months have in store? How about this, just off the top of my head:
- 34 people will start their projects with 20 organisations in 14 countries including Cameroon, Indonesia, Uganda, Nepal and Ecuador.
- 18 people from our branches will join our office in Cambridge over the summer to work on fundraising, publicity, education, outreach, membership and more.
- We’ll run our first National Conference to be hosted by a university –Bristol – which will include public events for the first time.
- We’ll attempt to secure at least another £100,000 in funds for this current year, and apply for major grants that could provide for our key programmes for the next three to five years.
- Ten of the 13 people on our national team will stand down as we open applications for next year’s committee, bringing in new volunteers from around the country.
- A personal target: I’d like us to have 36 university branches by the end of the year and active relationships with every single one of them so that hundreds more people can take part in our movement.
March 2009
Getting organised!
I’ve sent a video report this month to update you on what’s been going on. It’s a strangely quiet time because, being a student-led charity, the exam season slows down major activities. The good news is that it’s given me time to work on setting up systems and organising the office.
January 2009
There's a huge amount going on, from projects overseas and in the UK to work in the classroom, so I thought I’d share some statistics with you from the team here, which includes people responsible for placements, our research programme, outreach, education and publicity.
Since September, more than 1848 people have been trained on Engineers Without Borders courses and events. We’ve announced 35 placements in 13 countries, where volunteers are doing things from setting up a small water supply system in Ecuador to working on improved cooking stoves in India.
The research programme is expanding and we have 30 projects in the pipeline. These range from exploring bamboo as a structural material to researching sanitation materials. We’re having a research conference on 20 February, where 100 people will take part in four different panels: sanitation, habitat, energy and social connections.
We had a very exciting national outreach conference with coordinators from 10 branches, and we’ve just finished our five-year strategy booklet.
Our education coordinator is working on a one-day course for 35 undergraduate engineering students. We’re running a national survey to identify what undergraduate students want from degree programmes so that we can think about how we help them to instigate change. We’ve had bursary applications from 15 students and awarded four bursaries.
Publicity is all-important, so we’ve launched a fortnightly newsletter for students, academics and other interested people – so far it goes to 350 people.
This is a really exciting time this year for us, and it feels very good to be making a difference in so many areas!
30 December 2008
Imagine that you’re sitting in a bare room in Cambridge. Or in a pizza restaurant in Edinburgh. Or in a quirky cafe in Cardiff. Or in an emptied lecture hall in Bristol.
Someone is telling you about their idea, probably talking too fast – and thinking faster. It’s an idea that they’ve been working on for a few months or years now, and it’s showing some signs of success. The idea is a way to improve the living conditions, health or education or people somewhere distant on our planet.
You feel a spine-tingling sensation when you realise that the person talking to you is really onto something big. Their idea is a great one that could really, truly (and in many cases already is) make a difference.
Imagine them standing in front of you – a 20-year-old mechanical engineer, a 23-year-old electronics engineer, computer scientist, student historian or linguist who knows the difference technology can make. They might be male, female, from overseas, from home, someone you know or someone you’ve never met before. Whoever they are, it’s humbling and exhilarating. You’ll never be able to forget the fire in their eyes; the passion on their face. It leaves you on a high – full of excitement, enthusiasm and energy.
This is what it’s like being the Chief Executive of Engineers Without Borders UK (EWB UK). I’ve had this experience almost every day since I started on my Vodafone Foundation grant in December.
There are a lot of people involved in EWB-UK so a good deal of my time is spent on management, as you might expect. I’ve been travelling around the country meeting volunteers in EWB branch societies – something that, in the seven-year history of this organisation, few volunteer holders of this role have had the opportunity to do. It’s making a ‘world of difference’ to the organisation.
I’m actually rather removed from our project overseas – more so than I thought I would be (four levels of management in fact!). This in itself is what makes EWB-UK special because it means that many young volunteers are working to support our projects. Our work in the UK is going from strength to strength, and new branches are starting up at universities around the country.
The downside of meeting so many inspiring volunteers dedicated to the cause of relieving global poverty is that your capacity to help them is quickly overwhelmed. My job description is written in the framework of being a ‘leader of leaders’ – placing the emphasis on inspiration, guidance and support rather than management and direction. That helps, but there are bigger concerns.
On the train to work on my first day, I picked up a free newspaper. One headline read ‘100,000 engineering jobs to go’. The engineering sector is, of course, our most important fundraising base. It left me very worried. Later in the day I did a BBC radio interview in Cambridge – someone in an engineering firm was listening, phoned me and said that he’d like to support us. That eased my fears, but not by much.
My year with EWB-UK is about improving the capacity of the organisation through work like improving our finance systems, membership system, approach to projects, the way we measure our impact, and of course through fundraising. It’s rare you get the chance – and the funding – to invest in such things. I’m going to make the most of the opportunity, for the sake of the people with the ideas, and for the sake of the people who can and will benefit from them.
PS: For reasons passing understanding, I’m giving up meat and dairy and going vegan for the month of February as part of a sponsored fundraising and awareness scheme by EWB Cambridge. Please sponsor me by clicking here! www.smartgive.co.uk/funds/govegan
