Systemically Designing Zoonotic disease risk management
Client: GGD Brabant-Zuidoost
2024
This final master project, conducted in collaboration with the GGD Brabant-Zuidoost (Public Health Service), aimed to enhance the effectiveness of zoonotic disease risk management within livestock farming. The core challenge was to bridge the gap between existing expert-derived regulations ('Boer & Verstand' documents) and their practical implementation within the complex multi-stakeholder environment of municipal permitting processes.
The Challenge: Lack of Impact in a Complex System
The GGD Brabant-Zuidoost possessed valuable 'Boer & Verstand' (B&V) documents outlining scientifically-backed measures to reduce zoonotic disease introduction, spread, and emission on livestock farms. However, initial investigation revealed these documents were not being effectively utilized or making a tangible impact within the existing permitting process for farm expansions or modifications.
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The complexity of the multi-stakeholder permitting process involving municipalities, Omgevingsdiensten (Environmental Agencies), and the GGD.
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Conflicting roles, perspectives, and regulatory frameworks (legal vs. health-advisory norms) among stakeholders.
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The difficulty in quantifying zoonotic disease risk, making it hard to integrate health advice into legally-driven permit decisions.
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An unclear pathway for translating the B&V regulations into actionable practice.
The Approach:
A Systemic
Design Journey
To navigate this complexity, a Systemic Design methodology was adopted, guided by the framework from "Design Journeys through Complex Systems" (Jones & Van Ael, 2022). This approach involved distinct stages focused on understanding the system, identifying leverage points, and envisioning strategic change.
The Process: From Understanding to Strategic Envisioning
Stage 1: Framing the System
Defining the initial boundaries of the project, focusing on the permitting process and the key public organisations involved. This established the baseline understanding of the context and relationships relevant to the B&V documents.
Stage 2: Listening & Understanding the Context
Gaining deep, human-centered insights into the current permitting process, understand stakeholder experiences, and identify the real barriers to implementing the B&V documents. Crucial Insight: The core issue wasn't the B&V documents themselves, but the fundamental misalignment of roles and norms between the GGD (health advisor, often above-legal norms) and the Omgevingsdiensten (legal executor) within permitting.
Stage 3: Reframing the Challenge & Expanding the View
Acknowledging the limitations of the initial scope and pivot the project towards a more strategic level. This involved understanding where and how GGD could effectively influence zoonotic risk management, looking beyond just the permitting process.
Stage 4: Envisioning a Strategic Transition
Collaboratively developing a strategy for GGD Brabant-Zuidoost. The Horizon Map outlined a transition from the current (ineffective) top-down approach within permitting towards a future state incorporating broader, potentially more effective top-down (e.g., policy influence) and bottom-up (e.g., direct education/communication) interventions for implementing B&V principles. This involved defining GGD's evolving role within the wider stakeholder network.
Stage 5: Exploring Potential Interventions
Illustrating a tangible, pragmatic example of how the developed strategy could be activated. This served not as a final solution, but as a tool to inspire GGD stakeholders and demonstrate the potential of design-led interventions within the newly identified strategic contexts (like policy making).
The Outcome:
A Strategy for Future Impact
Instead of delivering a single tool the key outcomes of this projects were:
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Deep Systemic Insight: A clear understanding and visualization of the complex dynamics, stakeholder roles, and conflicting norms hindering effective zoonotic risk management within the current system.
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A Strategic Roadmap (Horizon Map): A validated strategy outlining how GGD Brabant-Zuidoost can transition its approach over time, expanding its influence beyond permitting into policy-making, monitoring, and direct communication to effectively implement the principles of the Boer & Verstand documents.
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An Illustrative Intervention Concept: A hypothetical serious game designed to spark imagination and demonstrate a concrete application of the strategy within the policy-making context.
This project successfully reframed the problem, providing GGD Brabant-Zuidoost with a strategic foundation and actionable directions for future initiatives aimed at systemically improving zoonotic disease risk management.
