Team: Asgar Ali and Ami Yoshimura 

 

1. If you are the Chief of Police for Afghanistan, what solution would you develop to pay the cops that are actually working, reduce corruption, and boost their morale.

 

If I were to develop a solution for the Chief of Police for Afghanistan for paying good working cops and reducing corruption, I would first look at where in the system the main problem lies that leads to corruption. To do this, it is important to consider all the facts of the study:

 

• 35M Population; 250,000 Policemen
• 27% Literacy Rate (2019: 32%)
• 13 Yrs, Billions Later  Poor Personnel and Payroll Data (No verification)
• Extremely High (Hierarchical) Corruption
• 10% “Ghost” Policemen
• Commanders get a cut from salaries
• Poor Morale; Defection to the Taliban
• Law and Order Crises; Public Trust

 

The Problem:

 

From the facts above, there are a few critical issues that lead to corruption within the Afghani police force. First, low salaries coupled with the low literacy rates often forces people to act in a way that is not how they would act ideally. For example, if the police force was highly educated then they would likely think twice before doing something unethical. However, this is not the case. Also, due to their low salaries, officers are forced to accept bribes from people just to support themselves. Additionally, since there is hierarchical corruption, the police are more likely to be corrupt since they know that the people above and below them are doing the same thing. Another major flaw in the system is not recruiting authoritative officials with good values. If these types of leaders exist within the organization, then the rates of corruption would go down significantly and ghosting would likely not exist.

 

The Solutions:

 

To reduce corruption while also paying working officers and boosting their morale, a multilayered solution must be employed. To bring radical reforms within the police organization, the chief of police has to ensure that recruited officers are well educated, trained, and are trustworthy.In order to achieve this, the Chief of police must work hand in hand with multiple entities within the Afghani political systems and national educational boards. There should be two components that recruited officers must meet in order to join the police force. 

 

 

• Education: 

 

 

• • The Chief of Police must work in tandem with the schools that train aspiring officers to make sure that each recruit is well disciplined and trained. 
  • The Chief of Police must make it clear that the more strict that educational institutes are, the better and more equipped the police officers from that institution would be since corruption is rooted within a person’s character. If educators and trainers can help build strong character within the officers, then the high level of corruption would not exist. 
  • These institutions could be given rewards for training officers who are making a lot of positive changes in their society. This would incentivize the schools to properly train every recruit.

 

• • The Chief of Police must work with policy makers to make sure that it is a law to have at least a high school education along with training from an recognized police organization for someone to become a police officer. This would ensure that all the recruited police officers are well educated.

 

• • Anti-corruption laws could be made publicly available so that the public can know when the police are being corrupt.
    • Along with this, the public could be given a hotline number to call if they see a police officer doing something that they should not be doing.
    • After the public says the name of the officer, then whatever the police officer did should go on their permanent records and there should be a sizable amount of money cut from their salary for the month.
    • It should also be made sure that the person that picks up the call is someone that is not directly involved with the police department just so the possibility of corruption and bias is reduced. This hotline number could possibly be controlled by a government institution like the Social Security Administration that has access to police identities and can fine officers for being corrupt.

 

 

• Prevention of corruption:

 

 

• • Corruption could be reduced simply by providing fair salaries to the police officers and by maintaining good working conditions.
  • To prevent ghosting, the officers could be equipped with cameras or maybe a tracking device on their equipment which could again be monitored by an external administrator like the Afghan government that can report directly to the chief of the police department if something like ghosting is suspected. Further investigations can be made by the chief of police and the police officer could be treated accordingly. 
  • Strong leaders with commendable skills should be appointed to each department so that the entire policing system can be less corrupt.
    • These leaders could directly cut salaries of any officers that are involved in bribery or corruption. 
  • The police officers could be paid a raise based on their behavior for a period of time like every six months. If they did not do anything wrong and abided by all the laws, then they would get a good bonus. This would incentivize them to work harder and avoid corruption.

 

• Systems Thinking Analysis:

 

• Differentiation: All the various organizations that the chief of police would partner with in order to solve the corruption issues. This could be organizations like the Afghanistan police department and government agencies like the Department of Social Security, and the Criminal Investigation Department which can help detect police officers who are involved in criminal activities.

 

• Interdependence: All the partners would need to work mutually to foster a system void of corruption. For instance, if a civilian calls the hotline to report a crime committed by a police officer, the person on the other end must take action accordingly without thinking twice about the situation. They could instantly report to the chief of police who could punish the officer in question accordingly. This sort of connectedness would ensure the anti-corruption solution to work since every little component would work in tandem with each other to bring order into the police force.

 

• Holism: In order to bring change in the Afghan police departments, all of the components must work together instead of one part doing a majority of the work. For example, when all the cooperating officers, the community and organizations work together to dishonor corrupt officers, ultimately corruption within the system would slowly start to fade away since working as a whole is always greater than the sum of the individual parts.

 

• Multifinality: Since all of the acting party’s goals are achieved through our solution, multifinality applies in this case. For instance, the community wants protection from the police, and when the police do not do their part, they can call them out knowing that higher officers in command and external government organizations would take action about them. The higher officers and government agencies would want to protect the civilians since that is their job and their income is directly affected by the actions they take. This ensures that all of the individual goals are met and the dream goal of reducing corruption is also fulfilled as a result of them working together.

 

• Equifinality:  Although our individual components (Education and prevention) are two different ways of solving the issue, the main outcome in both cases are the same which is to ultimately reduce corruption within the Afghan police department.

 

• Regulation: Since our solution involves the chief of police making some key partnerships, it ensures that these partners keep themselves as well as the police in check. This allows for accountability within the system and does not allow one entity to become overly divergent from their goal.

 

• Abstraction: The concept of abstraction applies here because if our solution works in Afghanistan, then it could be easily integrated into the police departments of similar countries where the police are corrupt.

 

• Leverage: When the police officers know that any negative action that they take can impact their salary as well as their records, they are less likely to be corrupt which will result in having officers who are trustworthy and maintain the anti-corrupt rules.

 

1. If you are the entrepreneur, what multi-final solution will you develop so that you succeed, your venture succeeds (takes water hyacinth off the lake), and the people living along the lakeshore also walk away happy. Please be specific on how your solution might function and precisely whom you would work with. For example, refrain from including vague stakeholders like entire communities.

 

The Problem #2:

 

The problem above can be broken down into a couple different aspects/parts: The first is that the water hyacinth infestation blocks fishermans capabilities to fish in Lake Victoria — what’s worse, the moss doubles every single month. In addition, it can lead to the spread of disease. Although an entrepreneur has a solution to this, by the means of crushing the water hyacinth, and turning it into briquettes and compost, after just two weeks of implementing the process to Lake Victoria (And hiring four employees to help), the community of the lake deny access to the hyacinth due to the fact that the entrepreneur is profiting off of it. So, the problem is not focused on the technological and scientific problem of removing the hyacinth, but rather the problems that the community members and fishermen have with the entrepreneurs being the sole money maker off of her processes and the Lakes hyacinth. 

 

The Solutions:

 

1. A recent article we read on FGM in the communities surronding Lake Victoria mentioned that a majority of community members care most about financial incentives and gains, especially those in dire economic straits. Therefore, in order to help those in the community gain economic opportunities and empowerment and to fix the conflict between the entrepreneurs and the community the entrepreneur can outsource the work to fisherman and community members at Lake Victoria. Not only is this solution a bit more sustainable, but it also allows for all stakeholders to be satisfied and gain positive benefits.
2. The second part of the solution is to offer free briquettes and compost (5% of produced) for those in the community by way of giving so that trelury everyone in the community feels as though they are obtaining value and positively benefiting from the entrepreneur. 

Systems Thinking Analysis:

 

Differentiation: The differentiation would be with all of the stakeholders involved including the entrepreneur, the fishermen, the community of and surrounding Lake Victoria, and the workers who are helping the entrepreneur. 

 

Interdependence: In order to facilitate this solution, the entrepreneur would need to provide the opportunity to outsource the work of obtaining the hyacinth from the lake itself (and pay the community members and the fishermen in the process). With this, the entrepreneur can continue to profit off of the hyacinth, the community members and the fishermen have opportunities for more economic gain, and the fishermen also have the opportunity to catch more fish and less risk for disease. 

 

Holism:  When taking a step back, this solution will allow for not only the entrepreneur, workers, fishermen, and community members to make money, and gain more financial security, but also allow for increased health and wellness as well as more abundance of food (fish).

 

Multifinality: Since all of the acting party’s goals are achieved through our solution, like previous, multifinality applies in this case. In case of the entrepreneur, she can regain access to the lake with hyacinth, which she can ultimately profit off of. The surrounding community will also be satisfied with the positive economic gains through payment through outsourced labor, gifting of some resources, and an overall increase in health and wellness with less risk for disease spread. The fishermen would also have a positive economic gain with paid outsourced labor, and also a better suited environment for fishing. The workers on the entrepreneurs also still have the means to gain income through this venture. 

 

Equifinality: Although the stakeholders and individuals may have different reasons and even goals in mind, they all want to have personal and economic gain which could be achieved through removing the hyacinth.

 

Regulation: The outsourced work (especially with removing the hyacinth) will be paid through a fair contract, the same amount of money the entrepreneur would pay other workers through commission, instead of through time to help set a expectation and create an incentive. The entrepreneur also would be creating a contract pledging to donate 5% of the final product back to the population.

 

Abstraction: The concept of abstraction also applies due to the fact that the solution itself has diverse impacts on other ecosystems and environments, and also has the potential to apply elsewhere. 

Leverage point: The economic incentive that all stakeholders have, in addition to the overall positive impact on other aspects within the environment and communities like food and health as well.