Idea Summary
The idea pertains to how to increase minority contractor participation in heavy-civil infrastructure projects for large cities with diversity initiatives.
The ‘sustainability’ link would be that this contributes to a more diverse and qualified workforce in major cities, one that is more representative of the populace than of the wealth distribution.
Many major metropolitan areas in developed countries have minority inclusion requirements, very few of them have been able to achieve their aspirational goals on a regular basis.
The ‘idea’ is a framework by which the funding that major metros set aside for their current minority inclusion programs could be allocated in such a way as to provide better accountability and incentivize the large prime heavy-civil contractors to increase their diversity metrics.
That last bit is key: Must incentivize the prime/general contractors to truly make this advance in the real marketplace.
In general, it would be: raising the professional industry education level of minority communities, closing the wealth gap between racial lines, and growing a diverse pool of profitable infrastructure service providers.
Hi Team!
I'm Somar, your mentor in this challenge.
I'm excited to help you in this amazing journey and looking forward to learning from your expertise.
Firstly, I really liked the idea that you thought about such a deep challenge, and I see the efforts you made to develop an overview of both challenge and solution.
I firmly believe in the importance of diversifying the market, and your solution will make a great impact.
However, to ensure that you develop a clear and feasible solution, I have these concerns while reading your concept note:
- Did you search for current or previously proposed\implmented solutions for the same\relavant ideas? This point will help you make sure that you present a more feasible and actionable solution in case there're other available solutions and also screen the other options to know their pros and cons so you can use both sides to develop your solution accordingly.
- Funding: you mentioned some actions that need funding like raising the education level and incentivizing prime contractors, did you think about the funding methodology or resources?
If these actions don't need funding, what are the alternative solution? (To give you an example, think about the case that some firms might consider hiring a diverse workforce so they can obtain international recognition like ISO certificates, this's considered some sort of incentive for companies. Regarding education, there're also some initiatives where large or global companies work with HEIs or vocational institutions to educate a potential workforce, you can think about such solutions as a win-win solution for both sides as individuals are benefiting from these initiatives and the companies are preparing a well-oriented workforce and making a socially-responsible impact)
- Business development: are you considering working on a pilot basis like working with one or two potential firms and then developing your pilot accordingly? Such a step could help you design a more user-centred solution through the process.
If you have any questions or anything that you want to share privately, don't hesitate to reach out at somar.s.shaheen@gmail.com