Using private sector skills for a humanitarian aim

RedR member and engineer Darren Mort, currently works for engineering company Bechtel and this year returned from a year working abroad in development and disaster relief. He won the Quest Travel Award through the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), to put his engineering skills to use overseas.

Darren spent five months working in Uganda for Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) as the Operations Manager for a local road contractor and teaching in Kampala University and was then recruited through RedR for a seven-month placement in the Maldives, working as the Deputy Project Manager for the British Red Cross Society (BRCS) on the tsunami recovery project.

Uganda
Darren worked with the contractor GCIL, helping them to deliver their projects and provide road access to numerous rural communities. When Darren arrived they were struggling to complete their current projects and during this period, he worked with each of the organisation’s departments to collaboratively review and improve their ways of working, including: improving their safety management, quality of work, productivity and commercial management.

Whilst in Uganda, Darren had the opportunity to share some of his expertise and skills by lecturing courses to 4th year engineering students on Construction Project Management and Environmental Management in Construction. Due to staff shortages in the university, prior to Darren’s arrival, students were unlikely to be able to complete the course. He taught and examined the students and compiled course material based on his own education and experience, tailoring this to the Ugandan context through research. Darren found the teaching experience enjoyable and enlightening and was pleased that all 60 of his students successfully completed their courses and successfully graduated from University.

Though his involvement with the local construction industry and educational establishments in Uganda, Darren was also able to meet many Ugandan engineering professionals and engage in various other activities. In conjunction with the ICE’s Professional Development Department, he worked with a Ugandan Civil Engineering Consultancy to develop a training scheme for their staff to become ICE members. He also worked with VSO to set up a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) to provide support to a camp of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

Maldives
In the second part of his year abroad, Darren was working on part of the tsunami recovery programme, which involved the relief and recovery of five islands which were devastated during the tsunami of 2004. He worked on the second stage of the programme which focussed on the larger scale reconstruction of one island, Vilufushi.

Darren was responsible for managing all aspects of an $11m contract for 250 houses and the development of management processes for the overall $22m island project. This included contracts for water supply, sanitation, power supply and many government-funded public buildings. His team consisted of consultant engineers from Mott McDonald India and a number of Maldivian staff.

There were significant logistical challenges on Vilufushi as the island had been completely destroyed by the tsunami and all workers, materials and equipment had to be brought by ship. Darren also faced other challenges such as the lack of experience of the housing contractor, which he overcame by working closely with the contractor to plan all procurement and construction operations in detail, and identify and implement productivity improvement measures.

One of Darren’s primary areas of focus on the project was health, safety and welfare, as standards were well below what he would accept. He worked closely with his team to develop safe working practices, acceptable welfare facilities and ultimately a strong health and safety culture. During his time on Vilufushi, Darren was able to resolve the vast majority of issues associated with the housing project and completion of the project is planned for December 2008, which will enable the 2,500 members of the Vilufushi community to return to the island after 4 years of living in temporary shelters.

Private Sector involvement
Darren personally believes that there is currently too much divergence between the private and humanitarian sectors. He feels that each can learn a lot from the other and it is good to have a distribution of skills and have a mix between the two. Darren has always been interested in the international side of engineering and prior to his most recent placement has spent time working as a volunteer in Tanzania as Site Engineer for school construction projects.  He has also worked for Bechtel on projects in The Netherlands, Croatia, New Zealand, Turkey and Romania, and is currently working on a motorway project in Albania.

Darren feels that he contributed to the development and recovery of disadvantaged people in Uganda and the Maldives but also learnt a lot from his overseas experience and he is keen to maintain his interest in relief operations. Whist on his year out he also furthered his knowledge of the sector through participation on courses such as RedR’s Personal Security in Emergencies course.
 

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