News

MEDA checks progress on World Malaria Day

For MEDA staff in Tanzania, every day is “malaria day.” The rest of the world marks it on April 25, selected by the World Health Organization (WHO) as World Malaria Day. It’s a time to celebrate gains in the battle against malaria and to gauge progress on the Millennium Development Goal of “near-zero” malaria deaths by 2015.

When the world paused on April 25, there was much to cheer about. Advances are being made in the struggle against malaria, the leading killer of African children and pregnant women.

Part of MEDA’s role in the battle has been to extend the supply of insecticide treated mosquito nets to far-flung regions and to ensure a steady supply is available to keep coverage rates high as new babies are born and old nets wear out. All this is done through MEDA’s management of the Tanzanian National Voucher Scheme (TNVS), known locally as Hati Punguzo, which issues mosquito net vouchers in health clinics. Pregnant women and mothers of young children who visit the clinics are issued vouchers that, with a small top-up fee, can be redeemed for a bed net that protects against malaria-bearing mosquitoes which are most active at night. An important feature is that the commercial component provides an incentive to small retailers throughout the country to maintain a steady supply of nets.

“Voucher programs provide cost effective net distribution, while stimulating consumer sales and improved use and ownership,” says Faith Patrick, MEDA Tanzania country man-

A young mother rejoices in her new mosquito net, acquired through MEDA’s voucher program.

A clinic worker (left) uses her cellphone to access/authorize a mosquito net eVoucher for patient and her child.

ager. “At $8.33 per net, MEDA can ensure that pregnant women and infants — those at highest risk — have access to this simple, yet critical, tool. Almost 9,000 lives will be saved in 2012 alone.”

MEDA’s network now includes 7,000 retailers throughout the country. With some 33 million nets now in use since the beginning of the program, the effort is credited with saving more than 180,000 lives, mostly children and pregnant women.

More recently, MEDA has developed mobile phone technology that delivers vouchers electronically to health clinics and redeems them from retailers via text messaging. A pregnant woman only needs the voucher number to redeem her voucher for a net at a nearby retailer. Electronic distribution not only saves on printing vouchers and physically sending them over long distances to remote locations, but also reduces the risk of fraud.

The e-Voucher channel is catching on, say project officials. Electronic vouchers represented 11 percent of redemptions in February, 12 percent in March. They are expected to reach 20 percent by year-end.

The focus on pregnant women and infants offers an important “keep up” component, says

Ann Gordon, MEDA’s senior manager for the project. “It increases ownership and allows the commercial sector to thrive, while saving thousands of lives each year and reaching a target group that other campaigns, such as those in schools, do not.” ◆

CMU business school adds second faculty

Jeff Huebner has been appointed to the faculty of the new Redekop School of Business at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg.

He joins Craig Martin as the school’s second full-time faculty member.

For the past five years Huebner has taught international business at Ambrose University College in Calgary. At CMU he will be associate professor of business and organizational administration.

Huebner

Huebner holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of British Columbia and an MBA from the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. Prior to teaching, he worked for over a decade in management and corporate consulting, including research on international business and trade.

He has a strong interest in developing international study opportunities and organizational partnerships for students to expand their global cross-cultural learning experiences.

“I want students to be able to see and experience firsthand how their business knowledge and skills can be applied overseas,” he says. “I encourage my students to apply their business skills to positively impact others, both locally and globally.”

Last year Huebner introduced students from his Ambrose course on International Microfinance to MEDA’s MiCredito program in Nicaragua. He arranged for them to conduct research and develop consulting reports on a number of topics and operational

business owners incentives to improve workplace conditions and update antiquated equipment such as looms through access to loans. MEDA will also link rural textile families to high-end market buyers so they can improve the quality of their products, increase their incomes and send their children to school, instead of to work.

In agriculture, MEDA has a two-pronged approach targeting youth in subsistence farming families. E-FACE will encourage farmers to supplement their income with the addition of low-intensity crops such as apples and bamboo. Since these crops require less labor to produce higher incomes, there is less reliance on children to work. MEDA is also training 250 youth aged 14-17 as agricultural sales agents. Equipped with seeds, fruit tree saplings, supplies and information, they can work in safer jobs, and ensure that farmers in their region have access to needed agricultural inputs.

MEDA expects E-FACE to have a direct impact on 7,000 families and more than 2,200 youths, improving their livelihoods, workplaces and hope for the next generation. — Linda Whitmore, MEDA News Service

issues.

Eight students accompanied him to visit MiCredito and deliver their research findings. They learned about field operations, visited loan recipients and their businesses to see how their lives were being improved, conducted interview surveys with clients for an accounting audit, and met with local church and development leaders.

MiCredito CEO Veronica Herrera said she appreciated the students’ fresh ideas on delinquency management, client retention, microinsurance services and cellphone banking, and planned to implement some of their suggestions.◆

New MEDA project fights child exploitation in Ethiopia

Ethiopian child laborers can look forward to a better life thanks to a new four-year MEDA project called E-FACE – Ethiopians Fighting Against Child Exploitation.

Some 18 million Ethiopian children aged 5-17 work – almost a third of the population. More than half of rural children work, many about 33 hours a week.

Although the country’s policies and legislation aim to protect children from exploitive labor and support their education, the incidence of child labor is still very high. Most work in the informal sector, where it is difficult to enforce safe practices.

As part of a larger initiative with World Vision, E-FACE will target child laborers in two critical economic sectors — textiles and agriculture — where MEDA has already has an active program called EDGET (Ethiopians Driving Growth, Entrepreneurship and Trade).

Children who work with weavers, spinners and dyers often do so in poor conditions, earning less than $1 a week and working 14-hour days that prevent them going to school. They risk physical deformities from bending over the loom, eyesight problems due to poor lighting, and skin diseases from unsanitary conditions.

Working through local partners, MEDA is offering child weavers a program of hazard awareness sessions called Keep Safe, and a referral system to get children into other areas of employment or back in school. E-FACE also offers