Problem 1:

The Afghan Police Department Structure

Solution:

The main problems within the Afghan police department or the following

• Low salaries
• Poor working conditions
• Unreliable selection processes
• Lack of proper training
• Unreliable payroll administration

This plan uses many different solutions to combat the problem of corruption most effectively.

• Salaries
  • Salaries must be raised and scaled proportionally to the job at hand
  • A member of the police force must feel that he is being paid correctly for the job they have, and if they feel otherwise they know they must work hard to progress
  • Higher salaries would prevent the feeling of needing to make more money unfairly
  • Incentives and promotions are needed to enforce good work and behavior
• Poor working conditions
  • Money must be reinvested into updating police facilities
  • Police must be proud of their jobs
  • Our government must show the police their worth or else it comes across as they and their actions are not cared about
• Lack of proper training
  • Training programs must be implemented
  • Police must understand their job and role in society
  • By showing the officers what they should be like and making sure they fully understand their duties, it is much more likely for them to actually act in proper fashion
• Unreliable selection process
  • Once officers know what they themselves are supposed to be doing, they can better select who they believe would be a good fit for the police force
• Unreliable payroll administration
  • Once officers are more knowledgeable and trustworthy they will understand the issue with paying people who are not really working
  • They will have pride and respect for their job, and not want any more freeloading

Systems Thinking Analysis:

Differentiation: The current Afghan Police Department acts as a pyramid scheme where lower positions report to those above them with no checks and balances. It is necessary to reestablish the system and differentiate the positions so that no matter the position level there is some amount of power that can be used to make sure the workers can report and solve any forms of corruption before it spreads and becomes much harder to stop.

Interdependence: We are depending on the police force to work together and keep each other in check to perform their duties and prevent corruption whenever it begins to rise up. The whole police force has to come together to make this change, not just the ones being taken advantage of.

Holism: Much similar to interdependence, our solution does not work unless the entirety of the police force works together towards the common goal of creating a more just system.

Multifinality: By implementing our solution within the police force, we not only hope to fix corruption, but also provide better quality of life for the local communities that benefit from the police, and overall have the country have more respect for one another and hold each other to higher standards.

Equifinality: Education, salary adjustments, and incentives are all solutions that on their own, although unlikely, could solve our problem. That being said, if we take these separate solutions and use them together there is a much higher chance of success.

Regulation: We will implement fair police figures into positions of power to stand as role models, have a way for all levels of power to conduct checks and balances, publicize positive police work, and increase salaries to ensure that police and communities are reminded of who they should be and how they should uphold each other to act.

Abstraction: Our goal is not only to revert the police system to fairness. From another perspective, we are making the lives of the local community members more safe and secure by ensuring they have a trustworthy police force.

Leverage: If we could easily raise salaries and make our selection process completely legitimate, all police would be content with their paid positions and not feel the need to make more money in an unfair manor. 

Problem 2:

Water hyacinth

Solution:

The main problem is as follows

• Locals feel their are being exploited
• Fisherman cannot fish with the hyacinth present
• Locals prevent the hyacinth gathering
• Hyacinth also causes disease spread

To solve this problem, the entrepreneur can reach out to the locals to hire them for the manufacturing portion of the venture. For the harvesting, the entrepreneur is forced to work with the fisherman as anyone else has been denied access to the hyacinth. She can offer them payment based on the amount of hyacinth they bring to her from the lake to use in her business. This might cost more money than before as she must satisfy the locals’ demands, but a business running a profit is better than no business at all. This problem revolves around being equitable for all involved, and the entrepreneur was not doing so at the start. For extra effort to make peace with the local community, she can sell her products at a discounted price or even pay the local leaders for the land she is using to make the business interaction moer legitimate.

If the community does choose to accept this solution, the locals will have more jobs and money, the entrepreneur will have a successful business, and the water hyacinth will be cleared and no longer cause problems.

Systems Thinking Analysis:

Differentiation: The entrepreneur has different jobs that she needs filled: gathering hyacinth, producing products, and selling products. This differentiation allows for multiple jobs where each individual is a master of their role and does not have to worry about other responsibilities.

Interdependence: The community depends on the food and money the fisherman bring in, the fisherman depend on the removal of hyacinth to be able to fish, and the entrepreneur depends on the hyacinth for their venture as well as a dependence on the fisherman and community to provide her with the labor for her business. There is circular independence so it is necessary for all stakeholders to find a suitable solution that benefits everyone.

Holism: As explained in interdependence, the entrepreneur’s system does not work if the community does not choose to help, and the community will not be able to survive if the hyacinth is not gotten rid of and reused by the entrepreneur. Together they make a system, and they are nothing without one another.

Multifinality: With the removal of the hyacinth, the community will be able to fish and make money to survive once again. Also disease spread will be greatly lessened. In addition, the entrepreneur can run their business and make a profit while helping the community. Finally, the aquatic system that depends on the lake will also be able to thrive once again. This solution has multiple positive outcomes.

Equifinality: All of the stakeholders play their individual parts that allow for the venture and community to work in unison and prosper.

Regulation: The fisherman must have a weekly quota to meet to keep the business running, and the entrepreneur must be transparent about how much of their profit goes back to the community and fisherman.

Abstraction: The solution is not about ensuring that the entrepreneur makes money, but that the water hyacinth stops harming the local community. Currently the community does not understand that benefit of hyacinth removal as they prevent the entrepreneur from their current plan, so making it equitable for them is really more about ensuring their community survives.

Leverage point: If the community just did not interfere in the first place, the hyacinth would be gone and they could continue to live normally. Their interference is not a bad thing, though, as with this solution they make money in addition to hyacinth being removed.