POLS 585 - Project Proposal

Development Problem: Ugly, neglected, dusty, trashed-filled, unhealthy, unsanitary, dirty street falling into disrepair – key issue is proximity to local first and secondary schools.

Development objective: To promote well-being and community cohesiveness through neighborhood beautification; clean, swept, green streets filled with plants and flowers that are pleasant for residents and pedestrians, imparting well-being for all to enjoy.

- Connected to a wider vision of development in terms of sustainability, creation of green spaces in urban areas, and replicability in highly urbanized environment (show verifiable indicators).

Specific objective (page 37 ITTO manual): To increase awareness of the impact and importance of natural beauty to quality of life, how beauty can enhance well-being, prevent ill-being, be productive and simply achieved as well as profitable. This will be achieved by demonstrating the need for community-led maintenance and preservation of neighborhood streets and locales – instead of allowing garbage and waste to pile up community members will prevent trash dumping, do street clean-ups, protect local areas of potential and actual beauty – this will in time result in desire for traffic control, noise pollution from heavy traffic, etc.

This will be done by starting a street garden which will propagate indigenous and market plants and flowers for both beauty and sale. Goods and services will be the saleable items derived from street gardens-cum-nurseries, small business development skills, as well as skills-building in gardening, education in local environmental issues, and community awareness.

The process of witnessing slow but steady garden growth and concurrent residential improvements to neighborhood beauty – the ugly-to-beautiful transition – while also providing employment, education and skills building, will give residential communities pride of ownership, instill responsibility through said ownership, and promote social and human development.

To solve the problem of ugly, dilapidated, unsanitary, garbage-strewn streets the proliferate throughout Cairo the objective is to bring home to the residents how they are the only ones who can make a difference, and that doing so is essential for life improvements.

The “If…..then” relationship – If we clean up and plant gardens along Wadi el-Nil as in front of Dr. Elnur’s house, the we will improve conditions for residents and pedestrians in the neighborhood, create civic pride, instill desire for community

based maintenance, create jobs, skills building, raise awareness to the predisposition for littering, thereby sponsoring human development by improving quality of life and promoting well-being.

Long-term impact indicators: By 2014 all of Maadi streets are rubbish-free, swept clean, well-maintained, green and beautiful. By 2020 this trend has extended from Maadi to other Cairo districts in the vicinity. Employment opportunities have increased along with enhanced civic pride, creating an increased need for neighborhood maintenance of streets and beautification projects. By 2020 clean streets and abhorrence to littering the norm, not the exception.

The OUTPUTS: Plants and flowers for sale, products from plants for sale, entrepreneurial ops for street kids, services include educations, skills building, environmental awareness and appreciation, employment opportunities.

The ACTIVITIES:

WHY: Wadi el-Nil Street is a busy thoroughfare connecting internal Maadi with the Corniche. It is a dirty, ugly, busy, well-traveled street, combining different elements of intense pollution that affects quality of life; traffic being congestion, noise pollution, exhaust, and health hazards from aggressive drivers. In addition the street is a dumping ground for all manner of automotive parts, defunct vehicles, machine parts, household refuse, and regular rubbish from around the area, including human and animal waste which is both toxic and malodorous, fouling up an otherwise potentially beautiful neighborhood. Community garden projects will improve quality of life and extend beyond the boundaries of the neighborhood in a domino-like extention.

WHAT:

The project will achieve improved conditions for residents and pedestrians.

Will improve sanitary and health conditions for the neighborhood.

Will provide skilled and unskilled employment opportunities for both out-or-work youth and elders, as well entrepreneurial opportunities for street children and social inclusion.

Will provide opportunities for skills building in gardening and landscaping, education, environmental awareness and appreciation of the natural world, small-business building. Will also provide internship and volunteer opportunities for students, expats and Egyptians interested in development and environmental projects.

Will educate children – the future – on the importance of community service, community participation, ownership, the natural world, how their participation can have a real impact on the lives of others. This in turn will raise new awareness in

terms of litter and littering; by inducing pride of ownership a concomitant desire to preserve that creation is instilled. Pride in Egypt is pride in local streets and communities.

The project will enhance community stakes in neighborhood self-maintenance, empowering agency and raising awareness of hidden potential in community unity, creating community pride.

The project by its definition of encompassing neighborhood pride and agency will therefore be both sustainable and replicable; in providing work, skills and education, and by its roll-over potential into and onto parallel streets and neighborhoods, as each street connects with the next. The obvious benefits will be obvious to future communities by simply observing the activities and events of the project street.

HOW:

Through cleaning up the street and planting both gardens and potted plants along Wadi el-Nil.

THE PROBLEM TREE

Effects –

Key Problem –

Ugly, dirty, dusty, unsanitary, rubbish-filled street that is both ugly and hazardous to residents and pedestrians.

Causes –

Busy, main thoroughfare into Maadi

Ingrained, long-term attitudes about littering

Cultural mores regarding class (they litter, someone else cleans up)

Lack of community ownership (not true at the National level)

Lack of community cohesion

Inurement to ugliness (?) (meanwhile greenery and plants are highly valued)

Lack of awareness on how to change status quo

Apathy to change status quo

Bigger, more pressing concerns