Our Work

Since its establishment in the Dominican Republic, DP World, a global port operator, has viewed its investment in the Boca Chica community as an important part of its sustainability strategy. Thus far, the company has contributed in the areas of children’s education and vocational training for young adults. Although it carries out various activities aimed at cleaning and protecting the environment against harmful pollutants, a more cohesive and unified model was considered necessary in order to measure the impact of these investments, particularly concerning the preservation of marine life.

Despite the strong tourism industry in Boca Chica, the lack of education in terms of marine life conservation has led to an exploitative relationship with the ocean. This detrimental behavior, coupled with the effects of global warming and ocean acidifation, threatens the survival of the coral reefs living on Boca Chica’s shores. In fact, human-induced behaviors such as over-fishing, contamination, plastic waste disposal and unnatural sedimentation threaten over 80% of the Dominican Republic’s coral reef population (Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, 2018).

DP World Caucedo has taken what many would have considered a hopeless situation and turned it into its inspiration for the creation of huellazul, its flagship marine conservation program, which it views as an integral part of its sustainability model. However, in order to design a program that could truly contribute to preserve the ecological integrity and biodiversity of the coast in which it operates, SIP Group directly engaged most of the stakeholders with a substantial interest in this particular geographical area of the Caribbean Sea.

To empathize and gain the unique perspective of each stakeholder, we first worked with DP World’s Sustainability Committee to map, analyze and prioritize stakeholders for individual consultations. The valuable insights gained through interviews with stakeholders such as the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, the adjacent airport (AERODOM), Port Authorities, the National Association of Hotels (ASONAHORES) and local community members, helped us determine how each stakeholder defines the problem affecting the coral reefs, evaluate their level of information regarding the current situation and identify those who were most affected and those who were most willing to have a meaningful influence in the design of the program.

Presenting the findings from our interviews to DP World management allowed them to perceive how the community, local authorities and national entities view their role in the preservation of marine biodiversity in Boca Chica. These insights allowed DP World to understand how to best direct their efforts, as well as the optimal methods of delivery for their future actions through the huellazul program.

Through the use of two design thinking tools, Brain Dump and How Might We, DP World employees were able to generate ideas for actions that the company could take in order to protect the coral reefs at its shores. These ideas were discussed, classified and transformed with the input from different participants, eventually providing the source material for prototyping the huellazul’s program design.

The design of the huellazul program greatly benefitted from the various design thinking tools utilized throughout this project, making it evident that innovative solutions can be found from working with the people, and the natural life you are designing for. Various actions were taken on the basis of the findings rendered throughout this process.

First, DP World employees determined that a number of their environmental protection and conservation efforts should be reformulated and incorporated into the design of the huellazul program in order to directly impact the conservation of coral reefs.

Second, the insights gained from engaging with DP World’s stakeholders allowed the company employees to understand the value of the social capital they had been building for years. This realization prompted them to also incorporate a social pillar into the design of huellazul, whereby DP World, through community engagement, could use its education and work opportunity projects to contribute to the preservation of marine life.

Third, engaging with stakeholders allowed DP World to appreciate its important role among its neighboring companies and view their common challenges with the environment as an opportunity for collaboration. By creating partnerships with local companies in the area, DP World can establish and lead a platform in which not only environmental problems can be discussed and addressed, but social and economic ones as well, thus contributing to the effectiveness of the system in Boca Chica.

In 2018, SIP Group began cooperating with Abt Associates in the design and implementation of revenue-generating activities for four Dominican health organizations that specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of persons living with HIV. This particular project is undertaken as part of SHOPs Plus (Sustaining Health Outcomes through the Private Sector Plus), which is USAID’s flagship initiative in private sector health.

Due to its knowledge of social enterprise models, including business strategy development and marketing, SIP Group was tasked with providing technical assistance to private sector organizations in various locations throughout the Dominican Republic. Additionally, due to its local knowledge of the Dominican health sector, as well as national politics, SIP Group was also asked to validate and assist with the implementation of suggestions made by University of Michigan’s William Davidson Institute, which aim to increase the operational efficiency and revenue generation of these organizations.

SIP Group’s technical assistance in this project aims to move organizations that have traditionally been funded by external donors, including PEPFAR and the Global Fund, to greater financial independence and sustainability by mobilizing increased domestic resources to finance services that increase access to HIV testing for KP/PP and ensure successful linkage of all newly diagnosed clients to immediate initiation of HIV treatment.

In our work, we have come to realize that many social enterprises find it difficult to explain their business models, and that many started working on their business plans before understanding their business models thoroughly. With this in mind, SIP Group worked with each individual organization to understand, design, articulate and discuss their everyday operations.

It is only through this participatory exercise that SIP Group was truly able to grasp the added value that these organizations provide in their community through their presence and services. By using this simple tool, we were able to visualize exactly each organization’s revenue stream, the key partnerships that needed to be forged and the resources that are vital to each operation.