Aalto LAB Mexico 2016

Aalto LAB Mexico 2016
Project Plan
Yhd-12.3092 - Sustainable Technologies Studio
February 2016
Christine Everaars, Mikael Hyövälti, Ville Lindgren,
Mareike Rohrdrommel, Roy Snellman and Philipp Tost
© Jan Ahlstedt
Aalto
LAB /
Mexico
Table of contents
Table of contents
List of abbreviations
1. Summary ..................................................................................................................................................................4
2. Background study ...................................................................................................................................................5
Country review
Project setting
Background & present situation
Relevant policy guidelines in Mexico
Describtion of water sources
3. Beneficiaries .............................................................................................................................................................9
4. Objectives and monitoring ....................................................................................................................................10
5. Implementation .......................................................................................................................................................11
Project implementation plan
Activities
Project organization
Required resources
Project timetable
Sustainability
6. Risk analysis and management ..............................................................................................................................14
7. Budget .......................................................................................................................................................................14
8. Communications and reporting plan ...................................................................................................................15
References
Annex 1. Extended explanation of beneficiaries
Annex 2. Project implementation plan
Annex 3. Partners and their responsibilities
Annex 4. SWOT analysis
2
List of abbreviations
ALMAalto LAB Mexico
E. coliEscherichia coli
El 20
The village of El 20 de Noviembre
Labbers
Aalto LAB (Mexico) participants
Tec
Tecnológico de Monterrey, ‘the Monterrey Institute of Technology and
Higher Education’
UNAM
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, ‘Autonomous University of Mexico’
CEDIM
Centro de Diseño de Monterrey
WASH
Water, sanitation and hygiene
3
1. Summary
Aalto LAB Mexico (ALM) is an interdisciplinary and intercultural project that results from the collaboration
between Aalto University, Tecnológico de Monterrey’s ‘the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education’ (Tec) campus of Mexico City, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México ‘the National Autonomous
University of Mexico’ (UNAM) and Centro de Diseño de Monterrey (CEDIM). Since 2012 ALM has been
working with the community called “El 20 de Noviembre” (El 20, located in the Mexican municipality of Calakmul, in the state of Campeche). This community and its members form the main group of beneficiaries for
this project. Since 2014, ALM is part of the Sustainable Global Technologies module of the School of Engineering in Aalto University. Every year, the project starts in January with more than a month of intense research
into the project in order to prepare the teams for the field research. In 2016, this latter stage is planned for two
weeks in March, when the team will travel to Mexico City and Calakmul. After this field trip, the evaluation
stage begins, lasting several months, during which the data and other obtained information are analyzed and
synthesized into a report. From this, conclusions for the future of Aalto LAB Mexico are drawn and recommendations are made.
The main goal of ALM is to improve the quality of life in El 20 and make it a better place. More specifically,
ALM aims to fight the large social injustice that exists in that area of high marginalization and to raise awareness about the cultural values of this Mayan community without risking the subsistence of their megadiverse
natural environment.
This year’s team from Aalto University consists of six students from various countries and academic backgrounds. An introduction to these ‘labbers’ can be found on the project’s website (www.aaltolabmexico.wordpress.com). This group of motivated individuals will be working together with labbers from previous years,
teachers, facilitators and other experts in order to reach our project purposes. These purposes consist of two
parts; contribution to the understanding and improvement of long term water collection and purification planning, and to stimulate a more empowered community. The latter is mostly facilitated through co-design methods. It is expected that through a long term collaboration, co-design and ownership, the inhabitants of El 20
will be able to tackle future problems in an autonomous and independent manner, rather than expecting help
from a paternalistic state.
In order to reach these purposes, two main results have been created as a target for this year’s project. The first
results this project is supposed to achieve, is a report of comprehensive and reliable results on the water quality and usage in El 20. Activities linked to this result include water sampling and analysis, and interviews with
villagers. Secondly, the school children should have gained more knowledge about the use and potential problems of water sources. In order to advance this second result, the two activities of education (e.g. workshops
and lectures) and testing the impact will be carried out.
In this project, participants learn from each other as well as the community, and the community learns from
the participants. These lessons are generally about development, sustainability, and cultural values and they are
shared through electronic means, cultural events (e.g. Aalto Festival), social interactions, academic articles,
conferences, and through media.
4
2. Background study
Country review
Mexico (United Mexican States) is a federal republic in North America. It is bordered by United States of
America on the north and Belize and Guatemala on the southeast. A total of 125 million people live in Mexico,
of which 20 million live in Mexico City. The area of Mexico is also notable 2 million km2 (map presented in
Figure 1). According to World Bank’s latest numbers, the gross domestic product (GDP) is 1.295 trillion USD.
This makes Mexico the second largest economy in Latin America after Brazil. (World Bank 2016)
El 20 de
Noviembre
Mexico City
Campeche
Figure 1. Map of Mexico with location of El 20 de Noviembre
HDI
Human Development Index (HDI) in Mexico
Figure 2 represents Mexico’s Human Development Index
0.80
(HDI) and its component trends from 1980 until 2014.
In 2014 Mexico’s HDI was 0.756 which in UN’s categories makes Mexico a high development country (ranked
0.75
74 out of 188 countries and territories). The HDI has been
steadily increasing, with an annual average of 0.68 percent
from 1980 till 2014. As Mexico is no longer seen as a de0.70
veloping country, it could be more difficult to get funds for
development projects than in countries with a lower HDI.
However, when inequality is taken into account to the HDI
0.65
(forming the IHDI), Mexico’s score decreases by 22.4 percent (UNDP 2015). This indicates that the (income) inequality in the country is relatively high, which is confirmed
0.60
by Mexico’s GINI coefficient of 48.1 (ranking Mexico as one
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Year
of the most unequal OECD countries) (World Bank 2016).
This inequality also proves to be one of Mexico’s largest de- Figure 2. Trend in Mexico’s Human Development Index
velopment problems. It stimulates political and financial (UNDP 2015)
instability, social unrest and a large stream of migration.
UNDP’s multidimensional poverty index tells us that 6% of the population lives in multidimensional poverty and an additional 10.1% near this poverty, but only 1% lives under the poverty line (UNDP 2015). Next
to inequality and (relative as well as absolute) poverty, Mexico’s sustainable development is limited by several
other challenges, such as corruption (score of 35/100, 0=highly corrupt and 100=very clean, ranking Mexico
among the top 75 most corrupt countries in the world), education (OECD’s second lowest percentage of people
reaching the end of high school education), and insecurity (due to the threat around drug cartels) (Kapellmann
2015).
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Project setting
Carretera/Xpujil
The context of ALM is a Mayan community ”El 20
de Noviembre” located in the state of Campeche, on
the Yucatan peninsula (Figure 1). The village has 418
inhabitants whose main source of income is in agriculture and handcrafting. El 20 has its own primary
school. It is part of the tropical forest that covers parts
of Guatemala, Belize and the southeast of Mexico. The
community was founded 1969 by a group of Mayan
immigrants from Dzibalché. Calakmul is an archeological site, with an ancient Mayan city ruins. Great part
of Calakmul’s territory is formed by the largest tropical reservoir in Mexico, Calakmul Biosphere, which is
also where the Mayan archeological site of Calakmul is
located. Map of the village is presented in Figure 3.
From previous reports it seems that the village is a safe
place with extremely friendly and hospitable people.
The villagers seem to have their primary needs satisfied
in the current situation, although there is room for development with e.g. water quality and health care.
Background & present situation
Since 2012, the Aalto LAB Mexico has been an ongoing project focusing on the cultural branding concept
‘Artesanía para el Bienestar’ and on the design of an
Ruinas
0 100 200
communal area. The designed communal house in the
village is called Eco-hostel but the villagers refer to it
Figure 3. Map of village of El 20
as ‘La Casita’. La Casita is a concept designed to build
economic activity through tourism. It creates new possibilities for the community to improve her existing infrastructure.
The ALM 2015 group focused mainly on water related issues, ‘Cuxta-Há’. The team thoroughly examined the
water sources and the quality of water with water sampling. One of the conclusion included the poor quality of
the water from wells. Furthermore, the rainwater appeared to contain some traces of E. coli (bacteria used as
indicators for fecal contamination and can cause food poisoning and other severe stomach problems). Finding
the source of water contamination with more water sampling, especially regarding bacteria, was suggested as
a next step.
Another finding suggested that the villagers’ knowledge on sanitation and hygiene was poor and that the issues could be addressed with information about dry toilets. The report included suggestions for an educational
program about dry sanitation benefits. The project’s third focus surrounded bucket showers, which were concluded to satisfy the needs and desires of most villagers. Some minor improvements like the relocation of water
supply to a nearby area were introduced.
6
Relevant policy guidelines in Mexico
One important policy or guiding factor related to issues with water quality, water sources and sanitation in El
20 and across the globe is the human right to water and sanitation, defined by the United Nations (UN 2010).
At this point the community of El 20 is lacking this basic human right. (Chantiri et al. 2014)
In Mexico there is a norm NOM-127-SSA1-1994 (Ministry of Health in Mexico 2000), which defines the limits
of different factors of water quality. These limits must be taken into account while inspecting if water is suitable for human-use e.g. as drinking water. Furthermore, WHO guidelines for drinking-water quality should be
taken into account (WHO 2011).
The community’s cultural heritage and Mayan traditions are not an official policy, but they ought to be strongly
regarded (Garduno 2015). The other relevant policy guidelines that must be taken into account during the
ALM 2016 project should also be evaluated. The possible sources of information could be the Embassy of
Mexico, the previous participants of ALM (Nayeli Ramirez and Guillermo Castillo) and experts (e.g. Omar
Rojas, Damaris Garza and Pablo Monterrubio) mentioned by ALM Project Leader, Claudia Garduño Garcia.
A problem in El 20 de Noviembre is that the long history of legal inconsistencies causes the failure to protect
the natural habitat and natural ecosystems in Mexico. Some legally granted permits and concessions, the absence of integration of policies for the protection of the environment and weakness of government in terms of
enforcing environmental justice have enabled the exploitation of natural resources. The result is the weakening
of the ecosystem services of Mexico. This can be strongly seen in rural areas, like El 20, where policies contribute the commercial exploitation of natural resources and revenues are favored. (Chantiri et al. 2014)
Describtion of water sources
There are three sources of water in the village: wells, rainwater and bottled water. Rainwater is the number
one source, however the quantity forms a problem, as it is not enough to provide water throughout the dry
season. Furthermore, the wells are proven to contain contaminated water with poor quality. The last source
of water, bottled water, is expensive and can cause serious environmental problems, especially with regards to
the plastic bottle waste. The next chapters will give a more in-depth analysis of the water quality in the village.
“---some households boil the rainwater before drinking it, some households only drink bottled water and some
children said that sometimes they drink even the well water. A surprising finding was that many of the families
were aware, although only to a certain extent, of the water quality from each source and they distributed their
consumption based on the availability and the quality of the water.” (Pihl et al. 2015)
Wells:
During the previous ALM project, the wells in “El 20” have been
sampled and the results showed that the water was not drinkable.
The biggest problems included:
• increased level of nitrate and ammonia
• very high calcium level
• considerable evidence of Coli -bacteria, suggesting the presence of human and animal feces in the water
Additionally, the condition of the wells and tanks should be researched. Although the well water is mostly used for non-drinking and non-eating purposes, some individuals in the village use
the water for drinking and eating purposes as well. (Pihl et al.
2015)
Figure 4. The well in El 20 (Pihl et al. 2015)
7
Rainwater:
“As we were in the community during the dry season we observed that most of the households had already used
their rainwater supply to the end” (Pihl et al. 2015). This implies that the rainwater management is not strong
enough to supply water throughout the dry season. The lack of sufficient rainwater means that the villagers
have to use other sources of water as well. Looking at last year’s research, one can easily see that these sources
are either expensive or have poor quality.
The rainwater itself was pure and clean enough to use for eating and drinking purposes; it is the best source of
water, not in the least because it is free of charge. However, some traces of Coli and E. coli were also found in
the water sampled for the ALM 2015 project. (Pihl et al. 2015)
20
200
10
100
0
Precipitation (mm)
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
0
Precipitation (mm)
300
January
Average rainfall days
Average rainfall for Xpujil, Mexico
30
Average rainfall days
Figure 5. Average rainfall per month (mm) and number of days
with rainfall per month in the area of Xpujil, Mexico for years
2000-2012 (World Weather Online 2016)
Figure 6. Rainwater collection tank in El 20 (Pihl et al. 2015)
Bottled water:
The team of ALM 2015 wondered if the use of bottled water forms a large financial burden for the inhabitants
of El 20. Some people use the bottled water all year long, but it is mostly used in the dry season, when rainwater
is no longer available. Next to the potential economic influence, bottled water can also have an impact on the
environment, as the empty bottles are not always reused or recycled, leading to plastic pollution.
Figure 7. Water gallons in El 20 (Pihl et al.
2015)
Figure 8. Man transporting water gallons in El 20 (Pihl et al.
2015)
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3. Beneficiaries
Looking at the different groups of beneficiaries, it is easy to divide these actors or groups into two sections,
namely directly and indirectly affected. In order to fully understand the effect that this project can have, the
following figure (Figure 9) shows a concise overview of the ways in which these beneficiaries are participating
in the project and how the outcomes might affect them. A more detailed explanation of these groups, relations
and effects is presented in Annex 1.
Figure 9. Beneficiaries
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4. Objectives and monitoring
The overall objective of ALM 2016 is to contribute to improved living conditions in El 20 de Noviembre. This
is strived towards through the project purpose, which consists of two parts, one regarding knowledge creation
and transfers and the other regarding a social purpose. Firstly, with this project, the team wants to contribute
to the understanding and improvement of the long term water development plan, The second purpose includes
the empowerment of local people. These goals are achieved by focusing on water quality and education.
In order to be able to plan and assess these purposes, several set of two projected results has been created. The
first results this project is supposed to achieve is a report of comprehensive and reliable results on the water
quality and usage in El 20. Secondly, the school children should have gained more knowledge about the use
and potential problems of water sources.
Activities related to education and the second result include (co-designed) workshop, lecturing at school and
assigning exercises for kids during field trip week. After the children have had several lessons in the beginning
of the week, it is time to “poll” the children to see if they have learn anything and if they have shared their
knowledge with family and friends. For water quality side activities are water sampling, analysis, reporting and
interviews.
Improvement is measured by using indicators. Indicators are the amount of kids attending workshops and lectures, interviews completed and number of water samples taken. For long-term indicators it would be useful to
understand whether education has changed behavior.
Figure 10. Project objectives
10
5. Implementation
Project implementation plan
The plan gives a guideline to the tasks and their intended period to fulfil them. Those are the tasks, which have
to be done to implement the plan in the given time frame. It is structured into 4 phases corresponding to the
classification of the time table. Project implementation plan is illustrated in Annex 2.
The first phase is the research phase, which has to be done before the field trip. One important ongoing task
in this phase is the crowd funding, as there can be complications to get the needed amount of money in the
time period before the field trip. Another point is to keep the donors up to date about the project progression
and this has to be done during the whole project. The second phase includes the field trip, which needs a lot
of effort in the preparation as the amount of time on-site is extremely short and the list of tasks is long. The
activities described below will take place during this time. The third phase includes the whole evaluation and
reporting process after the field trip. The fourth phase is the basis for the continuation of the project as well
as for the future of the villagers. The recommendations are based on the results of the project and should help
to continue the work in EL 20.
Activities
Water Sampling:
The ALM 2015 team gathered water samples from wells and concrete and plastic tanks. As the measurements
were taken during the dry season and in time of a drought, issues occurred with the amount of water that could
be sampled. Most of the samples were taken in the village, creating an initial overview of this area. Although
water samples were taken widely, there still exists a need for more thorough sampling, as was also suggested by
Claudia Garduño Garcia, who has been actively involved in the ALM project since the beginning.
Education of WASH:
For the workshops on Hygiene we plan to use the pre existing WASH material from UNICEF. It can be combined with existing material from around the village, since the teachers create their own material. There might
also be material from past ALM workshops. Next to existing educational packages, the team of ALM 2016
is also excited to use participatory co-design, in order to stimulate dialogue, learning together, exchanging
knowledge both ways and to cater exactly to the wishes and demands.
Workshop ideas for future development that are suggested by ALM 2016:
• Organizing workshops for adults and children about the benefits of WASH
• ALM 2016 could use Legos in a prototyping workshop related to WASH
• Visualizations and explanations on posters related of WASH
There is no internet in El 20. This could change in the following years due to the efforts of Google that is conducting a project in the village. If the internet connection is enabled, it would be more convenient and simple
to develop other options for the school kids to learn about WASH and other pressing issues.
11
Project organization
ALM 2016 project will be done by students from four universities with guidance of project leader Claudia Garduño García and some other experts. Aalto University comes from Finland and Tec, UNAM and CEDIM from
Mexico. At this stage, responsibilities are divided so that Aalto will concentrate on water quality and education
on WASH topic, Tec on dry toilets and UNAM on bucket shower. These three universities will work in closer
collaboration together. CEDIM will take care about handicraft business and currently they won’t be in that
close relationship with other universities.
ALM students will work with close connection with local people from EL 20, especially with school and community center La Casita. The project is done for the community of El 20 so their habits, traditions, wishes, etc.
are highly taken into account. There are also other partners participating to the project with different responsibilities. They are explained more deeply in Annex 3.
Required resources
The needed resources are classified into different categories, which are needed for the execution of the project
activities (look at Table 1). The related activities were set in the implementation plan (look at Annex 2). The
required resources are also the basis for the calculation of the project costs.
Table 1. Required resources
12
Project timetable
To get a quick overview of the project timetable, a visualisation is presented below in Figure 11. The more
detailed describtion of the project timeline can be found in Project implementation plan in Annex 2. When
more information is gathered about the exact dates, options and meetings during the time of this project, a
more exact mission itinerary will be presented.
Figure 11. Project timetable

Sustainability

o
o
As the project is on the one side related to different
long term goals and on the other side to the aspects
of a constantly changing world, it is necessary to
work in a sustainable way in all of the project related
categories. Table 4 gives an overview of the included
sustainable aspects, which will be used to implement
the project work with a sustainable focus and with a
positive outlook in the future.

o

o



o
o

o
o

o

o
o


o
o
o
Figure 12. Sustainability
13
6. Risk analysis and management
In order to evaluate the risks of this project, a SWOT analysis is presented in Annex 4. This method is chosen
over a ‘regular’ risk management section because it offers the team opportunities to be creative when thinking
about potential negative as well as positive influences. This positive aspect brings new opportunities to light
and shows the team which area has unexpected potential. As visible in the table, this analysis looks at internal
and external factors that can have an effect on this project. The potential harmful effects (shown on the right
side of the table) can be viewed as the risks of this project. With regards to the presented risks, the team also
established – often several – ways to manage these potential dangers. In the following few paragraphs, a short
overview is made about the risk and risk management. Further elaboration can be found in Annex 3.
Internal risks
• Lack of language skills and local knowledge
• Consulting with labbers and facilitators or previous ALM trips as well as with Mexican students. Be
fore the trip, the team will try to learn the basics.
• Too little time in El 20
• Proper planning can enable a large amount of work. Furthermore, making many notes gives the par
ticipants the opportunity to postpone analysis of interviews until after the trip.
• Diverse group across borders, leading to possible conflicts
• To solve this, the team will try to be open, honest and respectful to each other. Communication is key in this aspect; when this is done well, the diversity will be a major advantage.
External risks
• Regular traveling issues (e.g. diseases, temperature, burglary)
• This risk can never be prevented, rather it can be minimized, through e.g. consultation with locals, carefulness, vaccinations and anti-mosquito nets/spray.
• Disinterest from inhabitants of El 20
• This risk will be minimized through the use of co-design methods and human-centered design.
• Lack of awareness
• Many of the activities planned focus on this risk, including education and workshops.
7. Budget
The budget calculation is done for all 6 student members of the ALM 2016 team from Aalto University.
Calculations and estimations are presented in Table 2.
In the current phase, one of the tasks is to raise funds.
Once we have established an income, this information
will be added to the table below, creating a balance
sheet.
Table 2. Budget calculation
14
8. Communications and reporting plan
In order to conduct this year’s ALM project successfully, the team needs to establish a solid plan for the communication. This plan can be subdivided in two parts: internal and external. The following few paragraphs
will shortly summarize the plans and guidelines established for the communication within and about this
project.
External communication
Firstly, the following paragraphs will describe the results that this project is supposed to produce. These results can also be seen as our external communication and consist of several parts.
• The final report for Aalto University’s course and for Aalto LAB Mexico will contain our process, findings, analysis and ideas for future plans of ALM.
• On the project blog (www.aaltolabmexico.wordpress.com) we will post news about our progress and
changes of plans, as well as a short introduction of every team member. The evolution of ALM over the
years can also be evaluated on this website.
• Sponsor letters have to be written to (potential) sponsors. These documents have to be tailored to the
specific sponsor in question.
Internal communication
It is important to establish the ways of internal communication, in order to coordinate activities among coworkers, that are spread over two continents, and who have each obligations outside the project.
• Email is used to set up meetings and exchange the most essential information.
• On Google Drive, documents with vital information can be shared. Documents that can be edited by
everyone can be used to exchange information among the coworkers. As those documents are continuously updated and online, teams and individuals from all over the world can answer, add and edit questions.
• Skype is used to communicate with the partners in Mexico before the trip. The Skype meetings can include all kinds of questions and conversations.
• WhatsApp is used for setting the time and place for meetings and sharing other essential information.
• Facebook is used for longer questions and updates.
15
References
Chantiri, P, Sánchez de la Barquera, X, Garduno, C, Nousala, S & Rojas, O 2014, Aalto LAB Mexico: Co-Designing to Maintain Ecosystem Services, presented at: Design for Sustainable Well-being and Empowerment
on 12-14 June 2014.
Garduno, C 2015, ‘Good Design As Design For Good: Exploring how design can be ethically and environmentally sustainable by co-designing an Eco-hostel within a Mayan community’, Journal of Global Ethics,
vol. 11, no 1, pp. 110-125.
IDEO.org 2015, The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design. 1st ed. Canada: IDEO.org. Available from:
http://www.designkit.org/resources/1. [1 February 2016]
Kapellmann, D 2015, ‘Top 5 challenges facing Mexico this Independence Day’, Seattle Globalist 15 September. Available from: http://www.seattleglobalist.com/2015/09/15/challenges-facing-mexico-independenceday-challenges-inequality-corruption-insecurity/41505. [10 February 2016].
Ministry of Health in Mexico 2000, Norma oficial Mexicana NOM-127-SSA1-1994. Available from: http://
www.salud.gob.mx/unidades/cdi/nom/127ssa14.html. [23 January 2016].
Pihl, T, Singh, A, Ohotnikova, E, Gebremichael, B, Nguyen, T, Peltomäki, T, Nobre-Amraoui, I, Rios, A,
González, A, Flores, A, Ramirez, N, Castillo, G & Cavillo, G 2015, Cuxta-HÁ, Otaniemi, Espoo, Finland: Aalto Lab Mexico 2015. Available from: http://www.sgtprogramme.fi/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/ALM_2015_
REPORT_FINAL_small1.pdf.
Transparency International 2015, Corruption measurement tools, country Mexico. Available from: https://
www.transparency.org/country/#MEX. [10 February 2016].
The United Nations (UN) 2010, Human right to water. Available from: http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/human_right_to_water.shtml. [24 January 2016].
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 2015, Human Development Report 2015. Work for human development, Briefing note for countries in the 20155 Human Development Report, Mexico. Available
from: http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/MEX.pdf. [13 February 2016].
United Nations Development program (UNDP) 2015, Human Development Report. Briefing note for countries on the 2015 Human Development Report: Mexico. Available from: http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/
hdr_theme/country-notes/MEX.pdf [20 January 2016]
World Bank 2016, Mexico. Available from: http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/mexico. [23 January 2016]
World Health Organization (WHO) 2011, Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality, 4th edn. Available from:
http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/dwq_guidelines/en/. [23 January 2016]
World Weather Online 2016, Xpujil Monthly Climate Average, Mexico. Available from: http://www.worldweatheronline.com/xpujil-weather-averages/campeche/mx.aspx. [13 February 2016]
Annex 1. Extended explanation of beneficiaries
Looking at the different groups of beneficiaries, it is easy to divide these actors or groups into two sections,
namely directly and indirectly affected. In order to fully understand the effect that this project can have, the
following paragraphs will include a concise overview of the ways in which these beneficiaries are participating in the project and how the outcomes might affect them. A visual overview can be found in the
Direct beneficiaries
The first and foremost target beneficiaries of our project are the inhabitants “El 20”. Following from the ALM
project of 2016, this group shall benefit from improved water quality and overall hygiene. In order to achieve
that, we plan to involve several groups of inhabitants in order to stimulate their interest as well as their own
learning with regards to hygiene and how to keep their water clean and save. In the educational setting, a special importance is placed on the participating teachers, since they can learn themselves, help us to co-design
the educational package for the children, and pass the information to their students. This creates a multiplication effect and will also hopefully have a long-lasting effect.
Next to this educational co-designing section, the inhabitants will also participate in other parts of the project. One of the ways in which this is done, is storytelling. In order to adapt our plan and teaching methods to
El 20’s inhabitants needs and desires, it is important for the ALM 2016 team to improve the documentation of
the locals’ behavior and the reasons for it. In future years, the education and projects would cater directly to
the needs of the inhabitants, enlarging the positive influence.
Other direct beneficiaries from this part of the project include the students and otherwise involved members
of the teams from Aalto University and participating Mexican universities. They will gain new experiences
and knowledge about culture, technology and education.
A second plan we have is to establish a distribution system for the sanitized feces from the dry toilets as
fertilizer. This would mainly benefit the local farmers, since they would have access to affordable high quality
fertilizer, potentially increasing the productivity of their land.
Indirect beneficiaries
The teachers and children can carry the knowledge from the workshops to their families. That way they too
can learn, how to keep their water clean and save.
Another beneficiary of this would be the overall ecosystem of the region. Since the nutrients would be circulating in a closed cycle, they would no longer pollute the environment. Nitrate and phosphorus in particular
can cause problems for bodies of water, since too much nutrients lead to a strong bloom of algae. The subsequent decay of the algae uses up oxygen in the water, which is bad for the other organisms.
If such a system can be established in “El 20” it could serve as a model for other parts of Mexico and the developing world. That way people from outside “El 20” can also benefit from it.
Besides the effects that the project can have on the ecosystem of the direct beneficiaries, ALM 2016 can also
create value on the other side of the globe, mostly in Finland. The beneficiaries that are indirectly influenced
by this gathering of knowledge are for example our sponsors, as we will have to create some kind of value for
them, either through knowledge or through the generation of brand awareness. The acquired knowledge will
also have an effect on our classmates of the Sustainable Global Technologies module, as we hope to provide
them with learnings about our project, just like our team is hoping to learn from them. All participating universities receive 'free' positive PR, as well as stronger connections with each other.
Annex 2. Project implementation plan
Annex 3. Partners and their responsibilities
Annex 4. SWOT analysis
SWOT, page 1/2
SWOT, page 2/2