Responsible Tourism Defined

At Honest Aid we are working to encourage "responsible tourism" in Zanzibar, starting first with our home base, Dhow Beach Village in Jambiani.

An agreement on the definition of responsible tourism was reached in the 2002 Cape Town Declaration.

"Responsible Tourism is tourism which:

• minimizes the negative economic, environmental, and social impacts;
• generates greater economic benefits for local people and enhances the well being of host communities;
• improves working conditions and access to the industry;
• involves local people in decisions that affect their lives and life chances;
• makes positive contributions to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage embracing diversity
• provides more enjoyable experiences for tourists through more meaningful connections with local people, and a greater understanding of local cultural, social and environmental issues;
• provides access for physically challenged people; and
• is culturally sensitive, encourages respect between tourists and hosts, and builds local pride and confidence."

If you know good examples of responsible tourism or what you'd consider irresponsible tourism please share.

Base of Operations in Jambiani, Zanzibar

Honest Aid's first field office is now fully operational in Jambiani, Zanzibar. When I began the process of creating Honest Aid I wanted to start with a clean slate, building the organization from scratch.

Key criteria that I had in mind when setting up our first field office were:

1. Finding a good location in a host comunity,

2. Having the necessary infrastructure needed for the office to function (appropriate space, communications technology, safe and secure)

3. Ensuring that we can provide services needed to support our team.

Our First Host Community - Jambiani, Zanzibar

Choosing to locate the first field office in Jambiani, Zanzibar was a logical choice for me personally. Zanzibar is an ideal location to transition from work in the Middle East to work in Africa. Why Africa? The pace of development in Africa is incredibly slow. Poverty and suffering on the continent is rampant, with low levels of life expectancy, severe strains on the environment caused by high population growth, and a history of exploitation of human and natural resources by outsiders (e.g. colonial powers).

The difference between the situation here and the situation in the Middle East is obvious, where the intensity of war and unpreditability of violence has slowed development considerably and taken some regions back decades.

Studying and working in development in the Middle East is frustrating, because there's always a risk that your projects (or even your office) might get blown up. Usually a minimal risk but historically not uncommon.

My experience has convined me that the location and setting of a field office has a clear and significant impact on the perspectives and motivations of the organization's team. Jambiani offers people working for Honest Aid an experience in an African community struggling with the challenges of development that is highly enriching but not harrowing.

Why Jambiani? The village of Jambiani is unique in Zanzibar in the extent to which the village has maintained its own identity while at the same time accomodating foreigners (both residents and visitors). The natural environment on the southeast coast of Zanzibar would qualify the whole region as a place where the ecological value of both the marine and land environment require that we work actively toward environmental preserveration and restoration.

There is certainly poverty in the community, particularly among households that have not gained benefit from the touism sector, but the situation is certainly not as dire as in more remote villages or overcrowded urban areas (namely Stone Town).

One of the greatest things about Jambiani is that residents maintain pride in their community and are generally optimistic about the potential for improvement and development. We are accustomed to youth in developing countries dreaming of a "better life" in other places and largely giving up on the communities they live in. In Jambiani we've found that people generally believe a better life is possible without leaving home.

Setting up Office Space - Dhow Beach Village

The opportunity to rent the Dhow Beach Village from a Zanzibari family enabled us to quickly have the space and facilities needed to have a functioning field office. While the idea of locating an NGO within the space of a small hotel is certainly novel, for me the arguments in favor are compelling.

At one level, any NGO field office must be prepared to offer food, shelter, and security for its employees. Foreigners working for an NGO overseas will usually find it very challenging to get settled in a new home and office. Most NGOs provide room and board to foreign staff or give per diem. It is much more efficient to cover the costs of room and board directly rather than set a per diem and ask employees to find their own accomodation.

At Dhow Beach Village the same team that takes care of housekeeping, maintenance, food and beverage serves both tourists and our team.

Beyond providing these services to Honest Aid, Dhow Beach Village is itself an interesting project for us. One of the greatest potential engines for economic development in the community is "Responsible Tourism". Clearly in Zanzibar (and globally) tourism can be a threat to the local environment, economy, and social fabric while at the same time it can present a significant opportunity for economic growth and providing income for the poor. I believe that by making Dhow Beach Village a model of responsible tourism we can turn the place into a live demonstration of how hotels in Zanzibar can minimize their negative impact and maximize their positive impact while earning more money than a hotel built and managed in a traditional manner.

Making Dhow Beach Village a model of responsible tourism is quite complex as it involves looking at land use, choice of building and cleaning products, management of solid and liquid waste, and careful attention to employment practices and ensuring that we work in accordance with local law. Currently we have a team of 12 local staff who are very dedicated to their work as employees of Dhow Beach Village who also understand the work we do as Honest Aid.

To learn more about this interaction between Dhow Beach Village and Honest Aid and our understanding of Responsible Tourism please visit http://dhowbeachvillage.blogspot.com.

Assessing Needs in the Community

As we get Honest Aid started in Jambiani, Zanzibar we have begun the process of assessing the needs in the local community where we operate. The approach of beginning the work of an NGO with a field office in the community is in some ways novel, but we find it a great way to begin work by actually doing work "in the field". For Honest Aid's team in Zanzibar "the field" literally begins in the space around our office and spreads thoughout the community.

In Jambiani we've developed the following work plan:

Honest Aid Workplan - How Can We Help Our Community?

1. Understand the Community and Build Our Own Capacity to Help

- Review written documentation and studies related to the community and our activities;

- Get to know community stake holders and local people;

- Assess NGOs in the community and projects that have been implemented in the past;

- Conduct our own assessment of the community, starting with the environment;

- Begin pilot projects that we think can help the community.

2. Take Action to Help the Community

- Share information that we gather in our work with stakeholders and the general public through written media, photographs, and video, utilizing old and new technology;

- Turn successful pilot projects into demonstration projects to assess interest, potential challenges, costs, and opportunities;

- Seek funding to expand and improve demonstration projects;

- Advise and advocate with stakeholders for community improvement.

We're working on different ways to share the findings of our assessment work with each other and the public.

If you'd like to learn more about the Environmental Impact Assessment work we've done please visit what we call "The Temple of Artemis" to learn about the environment.

To date we've begun 5 pilot projects:

1. Work to make our base of operations, Dhow Beach Village, a model of responsible tourism;

2. Begin developing a model garden with beneficial and appropriate plants and animals;

3. Develop a "wood saving" Justa stove using local materials;

4. Develop a system of integrated waste management;

5. Work on finishing a home to understand best practices in home construction and improvement and prepare the home to be used for demonstration.

We'll post content on each of these five pilot projects in the coming days.

Rob

Overview for Potential Founders and Supporters

A. Mission

HONEST AID works to create opportunity, hope, and an improved quality of life for people in every country in which it operates.

B. Core Values

1. HONEST AID believes that the problems of the "First World" are often as great as the problems of the "Third World" and that the paradigms of "First, Second, and Third Worlds" or "Developed, Less-Developed, and Under-Developed Countries" offer very little to any intellectual consideration of how we can achieve our mission.

2. HONEST AID views relief (alleviating suffering) and development (improving quality of life) as the beginning and end points on a continuum of human need.

3. In helping people improve their quality of life, HONEST AID contributes to achieving their freedom from want, which we believe is essential to achieving happiness.

4. We consciously do not seek to foster materialism and greed and recognize that even the poorest of the poor are often happier than the richest of the rich.

C. Guiding Principles

1. HONEST AID seeks to build long-term positive relationships with people and organizations that are mutually beneficial and which contribute to our mission.

2. HONEST AID values cooperation above competition. We view competition between non-profit organizations as something that has done more harm than good in the past.

3. HONEST AID has a strict policy of 100% transparency. Anything and everything produced by HONEST AID will be available to the public so that other individuals and organizations might benefit from our knowledge and experience, and offer their own honest input, advice, and criticism. We see criticism as important for self-improvement and therefore welcome it - but of course positive input and advice is
generally a more appealing side of the same coin.

4. It is of utmost importance that HONEST AID is viewed as a trusted and respected organization. In order to ensure that we remain trusted and respected, HONEST AID has a strict transparency policy concerning founders, volunteers, employees, and other persons associated with the organization. Any act of dishonesty will be grounds for dismissal, subject to review of the Founders concerned.

5. HONEST AID must remain flexible and agile to meet changing conditions. HA is currently wholly committed to development work but recognizes that circumstances may at some point mandate that we engage in relief work.

6. HA is committed to long-term equitable and just solutions to the world's problems. HA seeks support from a wide range of donors; however, we currently will not accept any donations from donor governments, UN bodies, or the various agencies they manage. HA will accept donations from corporations, foundations, and other for-profit or non-profit organizations which meet our strict standards (these standards will be set by the Founders).

7. HA will only work with legitimate and capable organizations. Basic requirements include: a functioning board or oversight body, legal registration, by-laws that are clear and conform to our standards, annual audited statements which are available to the public and show that the organization is indeed a non-profit or not-for-profit body.

8. HA is committed to implementing projects and programs in partnership with local organizations. Only in rare cases will we implement projects and programs directly without a local partner.

9. HA is committed to strengthening local organizations whenever possible. We are committed to the principles of fair trade and require our employees to continually review suppliers and service providers by fair trade criteria.

10. We are committed to the use of open source software as part of our ethos of development by collaborative partnership.

11. We are environmentally conscious and strive to administer programs and operations in a sustainable manner.

12. Do no harm.

13. Committed to abiding by local, state, and international law.

14. Justice (anti-exploitation)

15. Anti-discrimination

16. Anti-violence (physical, non-physical, and sexual violence all included)

17. Finally we encourage our staff and stakeholders to be vocal advocates for the causes they believe in and place no limits on their desire to be active in seeking positive change.

D. Planning Assumption

HONEST AID works in an ever-changing environment that is effected by politics and events which are unpredictable and beyond the organization's control. While our planning process will take into account current global political, economic, and environmental conditions, we do not want to be distracted in the planning process by debating various scenarios about the future of the planet (in other words, let's agree on a document that will be acceptable to people who have different world views, priorities, and concerns by not trying to prioritize between issues we face today but remaining focused on larger principles and ambitions.)