SNA Proposal: Private vs. Public assistance. Is there room for partnership to benefit the artisans of Otovalo?

I will not be taking the second module of this course this semester but plan on enrolling next Fall.

 

Key Question

Do the artisans of Otavalo receive government subsidies in addition to the assistance provided by Faire Collection? If so, what kind of assistance?

 

Background

The presence of the Kichwa Indians in Otavalo, Ecuador has had a profound cultural, anthropologic, and economic impact in the development and progress of this city over time. The diversity of their traditions and cultural expressions has always been appreciated by locals and visitors alike. The production and commercialization of their manual crafts are central to the diversification and dynamism of the region’s economy.

It was these types of characteristics that attracted Fletcher graduate, Amanda Judge, to invest in Ecuador by providing fair employment for artisans of this country through Faire Collection (FC), a social enterprise she created to promote positive change in impoverished communities. FC has established partnerships with 65 different artisans throughout eight fair trade workshops in Ecuador, including some in the city of Manabí as well.

Faire Collection’s approach to reduce poverty goes beyond simply providing employment to the artisans of Ecuador. They believe that a holistic approach must be implemented to be able to really reap the benefits of sustainable social impact. Ms. Judge’s company provides training programs on topics like financial management, health and nutrition, conflict resolution, and recycling & energy efficiency among others. Additionally, FC also provides academic scholarships for the artisans and their families, no-interest loans, disaster assistance and mentorship.

FC has carried out annual artisan well-being surveys to assess their social impact in the communities in which it works. Data obtained from these surveys will serve as a starting point to fulfill the objective of this analysis.

Objective

The objective of this analysis is to assist FC in figuring out whether they should pursue a partnership with Ecuadorian government. The government also has similar types of assistance programs, in the form of subsidies for its citizens, like the ones offered by FC. To assess whether a public-private partnership would be a good idea, FC needs to find out if their artisans are receiving government subsidies in addition or separately from the assistance they already provide. Through this analysis FC will be able to find out how they could harness the assistance provided by the government to make a more significant social impact in the community of artisans they work with, and therefore, develop a proposal for a public-private partnership to approach the government with.   
 

SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS

Key Questions

The analysis would require the following key questions:

·         Do you receive government subsidies?

·         Do you or someone from your family ever receive an academic scholarship from FC?

·         Do you or have you received a no-interest loan from FC?

·         Do you or have you received disaster assistance from FC?

·         Do you or have you received mentorship from FC?

·         Do you or someone from your family ever receive an academic scholarship from the government?

·         Do you or have you received a no-interest loan from the government

·         Do you or have you received disaster assistance from the government?

·         Do you or have you received mentorship from the government?

As previously stated, the information collected by FC will serve as a starting point for this project.  Since the company already surveys their artisans every year, these additional questions would be simply added to the survey to address the objective of this analysis. The survey already collects attribute data that can then be analyzed to pinpoint which of the artisans in the FC network is yielding the most benefit by taking advantage of both the assistance provided by FC and the subsidies offered by the government.

If cliques are discovered among those who receive only FC assistance, only government assistance, or both types of assistance in one particular area (i.e. no-interest loans), analysis of particular attributes within each clique could prove useful in figuring out what led to the creation of each particular grouping.  Furthermore, centrality measures could help pinpoint which individuals are receiving the most benefits and therefore, are the most informed of the assistance offered by both FC and the government. Relevant connections among the network would also prove useful in assessing whether the government needs to improve their methods of communication to a particular demographic in the group (i.e. are more women vs. men receiving more subsidies? single vs. married?).

Two-mode networks could be developed to see if there is a correlation among the strength of ties between individual attributes in the network and ties of those artisans with access to government subsidies.

 

If a large amount of the artisans are not receiving government subsidies, FC could make a case that partnering with them would give the government access to a network of artisans that are not being fully serviced by their offerings of subsidies. Knowing what kind of subsidies the artisans are receiving from the government will allow FC to narrow down the scope of the partnership they could potential pursue with the public sector and consequently achieve their ultimate goal of promoting positive change in impoverished communities 

Assumptions/Limitations:

·        Since I do not currently have access to the data set collected by FC, I assume that basic demographic information (geographical location of the artisan, gender, marital status, age, etc.) is collected every year.

·       Due to time limitations on obtaining more in-depth information on the subsidy programs offered by the government, I assumed that the government currently offers comparable programs to FC’s. Further research on this would allow for the analysis to be more accurate.