projectdesign

Here wee share very interesting video that relates to unintended consequences. In the social sciences, unintended consequences (sometimes unanticipated consequences or unforeseen consequences) are outcomes of a purposeful action that are not intended or foreseen.

Unintended consequences can be grouped into three types:

1. Unexpected benefit: A positive unexpected benefit (also referred to as luck, serendipity or a windfall).
2. Unexpected drawback: An unexpected detriment occurring in addition to the desired effect of the policy (e.g., while irrigation schemes provide people with water for agriculture, they can increase waterborne diseases that have devastating health effects, such as schistosomiasis).
3. Perverse result: A perverse effect contrary to what was originally intended (when an intended solution makes a problem worse).

There is also this article from the University of Birmingham that talks about unintended consequences regarding air quality projects.

I came across this document by Paula Silva at Oxfam that seems quite relevant to this CoP.

It is an overview of five common themes identified in an urban learning exchange project undertaken in Jordan, Pakistan, Nepal, Kenya, South Africa, and Bangladesh. The lessons learned are:

1. Applying systems thinking to project design: urban resilience programmes (including clean air zones, for example) must recognize how the systems that support urban life are inextricably linked in their project design.
2. Aiming for transformative urban resilience: paying attention to human rights and people’s well being can avoid the danger that interventions focus too narrowly on physical and technical solutions that do not deliver much for vulnerable sectors of society. Ask Whose lives will this project improve?
3. Designing and implementing holistic intervention: a project must consider how various sectoral interventions (eg. Strengthening municipal services, improving urban governance, creating alternative mobility routes) can be integrated into one programme.
4. Facilitating inclusive multi-stakeholder and multi-level governance: project management requires relationships with stakeholders from community to national or even international levels. There must be extensive coordination between the various stakeholders.
5. Supporting social resilient networks: pre-existing social networks can be an asset in supporting project implementation