Case 1:

Background: Afghanistan Police

• Population: 35,000,000 (250,000 Police)
• Literacy Rate: 27% (2019: 32%)
  • High numerous rate: understand numbers
• 13 Years later Issue: Billions of dollars have been spent on the police force but there is still poor personnel and payroll data (no verification)
  • Extremely High (Hierarchical) Corruption:
    • 10% “Ghost” Police
    • Commanders get a cut from salaries: each person employed, they get a portion of the salary
  • Poor Morale (from poor salary) → Defection to the Taliban
  • Law and Order Crises; deface public trust

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?

Actions I would take as the Chief of Police for Afghanistan:

1. Raise the salary of all policemen. 
   1. Differentiation (identifying the problem): Upon examining the problems within the current system of operation in the Afghanistan Police force, I pinpointed the individual issue of poor salary to members of the police force.
   2. Explanation of solution: One of the reasons why there is an extremely high (hierarchical) corruption is due to the fact that the people in the police force are simply not getting paid enough. Commanders who have some power are using it for corruption rather than the good because they need money to sustain themselves and their families. This statement is especially true to policemen who do not have the power to perform such corruption for the surplus income and end up defecting to the Taliban. It is inappropriate to raise the salary of corrupt government officials, however, it is a different story if they are not getting paid well for their service and need to resort to corruption in order to meet their financial needs. As the Chief of the Police for Afghanistan, I need to first take care of my men who are working for the public by providing them the appropriate financial means for survival.
      1. Multifinality & Interdependence: An increase in pay of all the employees within the police force develops a mutually beneficial relationship between the police force organization and its members. The financial needs of the members are being met and corruption within the organization decreases corruption. The morale of the policemen will increase and lead to a fall in the number of cases of deflection to the Taliban, which benefits both the organization and its members as well. The police force meets their goal of obtaining an income that will meet their financial need. The police force system meets its need of decreasing corruption, raising the morale of the officers, and decreasing the number of deflection to the Taliban.
2. Scan the entire police force and remove all ghost police. 
   1. Differentiation (identifying the problem): A problem within the Afghanistan Police force is that 10% of individuals (ghost police) listed in the police force (system) receive pay.
   2. Explanation of solution: Annually the police force eats 10% of its overhead cost paying for ghost police. A scan of the entire police force to terminate the ghost members is appropriate to eliminate the financial leakage within the organization. The inappropriately lotted money can be re-invested in the first action of raising the pay of policemen (check details above, listed in the first action).
      1. Multifinality: Police organization retains 10% of its overhead costs and eliminates ghost members in initiating the scan/verification amongst its own members. Members of the police force execute the scan and enable the organization to retain 10% of its overhead costs, which will now be applied back to them to raise their salary. 
3. Have police officers do community service and set up a donation box. 
   1. Differentiation (identifying the problem): Another problem within the current system of operation in the Afghanistan Police force, is the individual issues of (1) law and order crisis and (2) deface trust of the public.
   2. Explanation of solution: Community service allows officers to develop a rapport between them and the community they serve. The personal/communal trust that is established between the individual police members and the public would influence the reduction in corruption. The individual police member that is caught in corruption would lose face and the public may become more active in pressuring the police force to remove the corrupt officer since they would know him. Community service would re-establish both the people’s image of the police force in a positive light and their trust in the police force. The donation box serves as an indication of support/trust towards the police force and provides a source of income to raise the salary of the officers (action 1).
      1. Equifinality: Corruption is decreased through the channel of personally meeting the public. The officers provide community service and develop a personal relationship with the community which will make them less inclined to perform corruption.
      2. Regulation: The donation box serves as a feedback system from the public that reflects their perception of (1) law and order and (2) their trust in the police. The public will only donate money if they trust the police and see that they are maintaining law and order.
4. Change existing policies to make corruption acts more difficult within the police force: (1) commanders no longer get a salary cut from each person employed and (2) all police are required to present the proof in the completion of their initial training program (perhaps their ID/certificate) in order to receive their pay.
   1. Differentiation: An individual problem within the current system of operation in the Afghanistan Police force is the corruption amongst commanders.
   2. Explanation of Solution: Another solution to eliminate corruption is making the act of corruption more difficult for the commanders who are committing the act. Implementing a policy of eliminating the idea of receiving a salary cut from each person they employ disincentivizes them to employ people for money and would shift their focus on employing people who are fit for the job to make the commanders themselves look good. Enhancing their image and achievements through their subordinates will serve as an alternative means to obtain more money through a raise rather than corruption. The difficulty or extra work in obtaining proof of training also disincentives commanders to perform corruption for a measly small lump of cash.
      1. Equifinality: A decrease in corruption is achieved in an alternative channel from action 1. In this action, the desired output is achieved in eliminating the salary cut bonus, which is made up through the raise in salary from action 1. Commanders will no longer have incentives to simply have a large number of subordinates. In addition, a decrease in corruption is also achieved by making the act more difficult for commanders from requiring proof of initial training.

Case 2:

Facts:

• Water hyacinth infestation is a problem affecting the shores of Lake Victoria
• The amount of moss coverage doubles every month
• Blocks fishermen’s access to lake and results in spread of disease
• Entrepreneur is profiting from compost and briquettes that she produces from crushed hyacinth
• Employs four people to cut, crush, and bring hyacinth to her workshop
• Need for hyacinth increases substantially after two weeks
• Communities on shore are unhappy that she is making money
• The members of the community stop her from accessing the hyacinth, so now she needs to get it from somewhere else 

Problem: 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.

Systems approach:

• Consider whole structure of related systems
  • Interaction of ecosystem, entrepreneur’s business model, and community members (fishermen, potential venture employees)
• Looks for interrelationships across systems
  • Hyacinth interferes with fishermen’s ability to conduct business
  • Entrepreneur dependent on sustainable yield of hyacinth to operate business
  • Community dependent on entrepreneur for jobs
• Understand the long standing causal factors which generate problems
  • Hyacinth causes problems for fishermen
  • Members of the community will always need jobs
  • Removing too much hyacinth is not sustainable for the entrepreneur
• Identify leverage points which wield influence across the whole system
  • If entrepreneur runs out of hyacinth, her business model is no longer operative
    • Using too much hyacinth is unsustainable, so they should only take half of what is currently growing each month, so when it grows back the original quantity will be maintained
• Short term and long term impact on all systems
• Consciously avoids ‘shifting problems’ to other parts of the system
• Identify resistance sources; reduce resistance rather than increase force
  • Community members are resistant because the entrepreneur is profiting from their problem

Solutions:

1. Getting feedback from the community (stakeholders like fishermen, leaders of government agencies, common citizens that are concerned about the hyacinth issue) through open discussions
   1. Regulation: the feedback will bring about expectations of the moss removal and what the community feels are the issues with the entrepreneur taking the moss and selling it as her own. The entrepreneur should also openly discuss the pollution and other effects of removing the moss that may increase around the lake, and discuss with them ways to combat any issues so that it results in a win-win situation for all. 
   2. Explanation of solution: Open discussions will facilitate a cooperative discussion and will allow people to express their opinions on moss removal and come up with a solution that all stakeholders are happy with.
2. Establish a type of permitting system 
   1. Equifinality: the same output of removing the hyacinth (but not too much by the entrepreneur alone) is achieved, with multiple channels of stakeholders being utilized so many different outlets of people can reap the benefits.
   2. Explanation of solution: The permitting system will allow fishermen to collect hyacinth, then they will either be paid a small amount by the entrepreneur or offered a discount on her products; the permits will also ensure that too much hyacinth is not removed.
3. Sourcing the hyacinth from lakes other than Lake Victoria
   1. Differentiation: identifying individual components of a large system. Identifying other lakes that have hyacinth will lead to less outrage when the entrepreneur profits off of large sums of moss from one single lake. The rest of the moss can be used by other members of the community and even fishermen that collect the hyacinth and sell it to people like the entrepreneur that uses the moss to make products
   2. Explanation of solution: Taking a small portion of the moss from certain locations will lead to less resource exploitation and will allow fishermen and other members of the community to have access to the hyacinth, making it more fair and giving more people a chance to benefit from the hyacinth. Having multiple sources will also allow the entrepreneur to keep up with the demand for the hyacinth
4. Hiring more community members to help her in the crushing and composting process as the demand for the hyacinth increases 
   1. Holism: the components of the system need to work together to achieve their goal. This benefits multiple components of the system because the entrepreneur has created more jobs and people will be more economically sound and have more opportunities to provide for themselves. The fishermen also benefit from this option because the moss will continue to be removed from their lake, permitting their access to the lake and mitigating the risk of spreading disease 
   2. Explanation of solution: Since community members are outraged that they are not more involved with getting profits from the entrepreneur’s product, a way for them to accept her business is if they are involved and employed in the business, getting a salary.