Malaria Control in Africa (2)
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Dear Colleagues
Professor Sachs has identified addressing the malaria problem as
a "no brainer". For just $5 a bed net a child will be protected
from the dreaded mosquito and malaria... and we have made devel-
opment progress. Therefore the donors should buy a humungous
number of bednets and distribute them free to all the mothers
with children in malaria affected areas. This does not sound
like sustainable development to me. If $5 is all it takes to
keep a child from getting malaria and dying, then why don't all
the parents buy bednets? The answer, of course, is that they
cannot afford $5 to keep a child alive. This is a symptom of to-
tally failed development, and the fix must be radical.
Malaria is a debilitating disease. In children it is often
deadly. Mosquitoes spread malaria. No mosquitoes, and malaria
does not spread. Incidentally, mosquitoes do bite children when
they are playing, and not just when they are sleeping. What can
be done to get rid of mosquitoes? In the good old USofA, mosqui-
toes do not have a chance. There is fogging, there is spraying.
It is environmentally OK, lethal to mosquitoes but safe for
Americans. It is also surprisingly cost effective. It would make
a huge difference in the urban areas of Africa where mosquitoes
are everywhere spreading malaria, killing children and debili-
tating adults.
In my view this gets to the root cause of the malaria problem,
and I am advocating for this type of solution. It would be a
good use of Global Fund (GFATM) resources. As to why an African
family cannot afford a $5 bednet if it's going to save the life
of a child, that is a big question. But it ties into what one
might describe as the "bednet" thinking that dominates the offi-
cial relief and development assistance (ORDA) community.
Africans work very hard to survive... water... growing food...
struggling with shelter and clothes and schools and health
and.... everything. It has a terribly low productivity, and not
surprising because there has been no investment (I learned eco-
nomics in a Keynsian environment) in decades. Their economy has
been almost totally ruined by several decades of relief and de-
velopment that has failed. Communities need opportunities to im-
prove themselves, and WE, in the relief and development assis-
tance (RDA) community need to think through in each and every
community what it is that will let a community get a little bet-
ter... and do it over and over again Communities need business
models that create local wealth and leave it in the community so
that the children can better water, better food, better medical
care and education. And in my experience, every community has a
different profile and different opportunities. Most every commu-
nity has people that are underutilized in productive activities.
WHY are they not having an opportunity to do something of value?
This last statement unfortunately can today be challenged. Be-
cause of the catastrophic health crisis adults are dying in a
disastrous manner. This is the ultimate measure of total failure
of development. The human resource is still the driver of eco-
nomic progress, and it now has to be rethought around old people
and young people with rather less of the normally strong adult
age group. Huge improvements in community productivity is possi-
ble, but I don't sense that there is any organization in the
ORDA community doing much significant work on it. None of this
is new. I could have written all of this 10 years ago, or even
20. It is now about 10 years ago that an African blacksmith
asked me to help design some agricultural tools that would be
light enough for young girls to use because their parents were
dead or dying. A lot of money has gone into ORDA organizations.
What on earth has been accomplished?
Let us make a start and get the money that is available used in
good ways that are going to give the maximum of community bene-
fit. I suggest solving the mosquito problem rather than the lack
of bed net problem would be a good start.
Sincerely
Peter Burgess
Transparency and Accountability
a global not-for-profit Network
Tel: +1-212-772-6918
mailto:peterbnyc@gmail.com
Kris Dev - Tr-Ac-Net in Chennai India
mailto:krisdev@gmail.com
mailto:tracnet@gmail.com
http://Tr-Ac-Net.blogspot.com