[sustran] Advertizing!

[Jonathan E. D. Richmond]

I am using the list now for some blatant advertizing -- hope that's ok!

I am currently a visiting professor in Paris, teaching an interesting
group of students, including quite a number from French-speaking Africa,
from whom I am learning a good deal -- reinforcing my belief that the key
to change in transport development is institutional.

I spent September as an advisor to the Government of Mauritius, doing
something quite special, and this is what I'd like to market. I have had
connections with Mauritius for some time -- I went there for the World
Bank nine years ago -- but over the intervening years little has been
implemented in the transportation arena.

I therefore proposed a novel approach. Because simply doing studies (of
which there have been huge numbers, including my own!) did not seem to
produce useful results, perhaps a better approach would be to try to bring
together local factions. If a consensus could be forged, whether or not
it might seem "optimal" from a technical perspective, perhaps at least
that would be a basis for productive action.

So, funded by the African Development Bank, I spent a month in Mauritius.
First, I met a series of parties working or interested in transport. Then
I chaired a two-part forum to try to achieve consensus.

In the first part a large selection of possible policy approaches was
presented. In the second one, I tried to have the group focus on which
of those policies were most acceptable to most of the group. I encouraged
bargaining to reach agreement. For example, if some representatives did
not like a particular proposal, they were encouraged to amend it. If a
proposal had a negative effect on a particular party, that party was
encouraged to offer to support proposals attractive to other members of
the group in return for having the unattractive proposal dismissed. I
provided guidance for the discussion to ensure that the set of options
the group might endorse was coherent, and to try to bring people together
for mutual advantage -- and to the benefit of the country as a whole.

The second part was a whole-day event, and quite exhausting as well as
exhilerating. By the end of the day, nineteen out of twenty participants
had reached agreement. They signed the set of agreed proposals, which were
then transmitted to the Cabinet for discussion and possible action.

I believe this approach has value in many developing countries where
technical studies have not resulted in a basis for moving forward, and
where inadequate efforts are usually made to settle local disagreements
and to provide a focus for action. I am one of the few people who combine
the sort of people-oriented approach used by major management consulting
companies with knowledge of transport issues, so I am hoping this might
be of interest to international development agencies and other
organizations that do work in transportation. If any of you have
leads for me, I would much appreciate having them.

Thanks!

                     --Jonathan!
-----
Jonathan Richmond
Visiting Professor
Logistique, Transport et Tourisme
Conservatiore National des Arts et Metiers
5 rue du Vertbois
75141 Paris Cedex 03
France

Home:
40 rue Paul Delinge
95880 Enghien-les-Bains
France

1 (617) 395-4360
(US number forwards and rings in France.
All calls billed as if to Massachusetts)

e-mail: richmond at alum.mit.edu
http://the-tech.mit.edu/~richmond/