The Importance of Native In-Country Coordinators for Predictive Awareness of Cultural and Design Details for International Sustainable Engineering Projects

Construction of international sustainable engineering projects in developing communities by student organizations such as Engineers Without Borders involves a minimum of four basic stages: (1) project acquisition based on the communication of the need for the project; (2) travel to the project for site assessment; (3) project design, logistics, and communication of the design with the communities involved; and (4) travel to construct the project. In general, when construction projects are completed locally, there is an ease of communication and travel that shortens all four stages and inevitably the entire process. By comparison, distant locations, language and cultural differences, and exotic politics lengthen these processes, at times creating barriers that prevent the completion of much needed initiatives. An excellent counter to this situation is to utilize a native in-country coordinator who is privy to the local language and dialects and the cultural norms that stupefy outsiders and is available for site visits to assess progress and answer any design questions the foreign engineers may have. The in-country coordinator predicts the needs of the projects based on his or her background knowledge gained from being native to the area, thus preventing the engineering group from many misunderstandings and perhaps poor design constraints. The fundraising that is required to pay in-country coordinators to ease these processes poses a threat to the ability of student organizations to hire them; however, without their expertise and inherent ability to communicate easily with the community receiving the project, the completed construction and sustainability of the venture is put at risk.