NextBillion.net - Development Through Enterprise - Health - Comments

CIA for CareShop

Julia Tran — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:49:22 -0500

Hi Peter, thanks for the follow-up! I just sent you an email on possible next steps.

Julia

Re Paul Rigterink

Allen Hammond — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:18:11 -0500

Paul Rigterink's comment is fascinating and adds a deep insight to the potential of micro-pharmacy model. Since agriculture is still the abiding livelihood and critical to household food budgets in rural areas, simple means of improving animal husbandry can be important. His suggestion that micro-pharmacies, a pharmaceutical distribution infrastructure, could also serve to distribute veterinary medicines and animal care knowledge makes a lot of sense to me. It also shows the value of the distribution platform—that it can be leveraged to meet other needs, and that it can boost incomes as well as save lives. —Al Hammond

Granted Loan?

Laura Venuti — Mon, 12 May 2008 03:01:26 -0500

Is the loan to purchase these product granted by the MFI on the client behalf?

Follow up on the Care Shop initiative and Study

Peter Burgess — Sun, 11 May 2008 23:21:58 -0500

Dear Julia

Thank you for your comment ... comments.

I have been a critic of "studies" for as long as I can remember, not because of the study and the report and presentation, but because they so ofter served as an excuse for not doing (in the case of donors and governments ... not funding) important works that needed doing. You observe ... quite correctly that these case studies are important, but only when they are read and used. So this is your first comment ... and I would say that I am trying to make the Community Impact Accountancy (CIA) and Tr-Ac-Net a vehicle for getting active follow up on study work that is starting the ball rolling ... and needs ongoing follow up and feedback ... and indeed funding.

With regard to your second point ... bringing CIA into play with Care Shop, I would be absolutely delighted. What might be the first step in doing this?

Sincerely

Peter Burgess
www.tr-ac-net.org
peterbnyc@gmail.com

Healthcare for BOP poultry stock

Paul Rigterink — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:36:04 -0500

As strange as it may sound, I believe that the sale of veterinary poultry medicines at the pharmacies described in this article can dramatically increase the health of personnel at the BOP. Backyard producers value chickens for their adaptability, contributions to the family’s income and general welfare, and for insect control and fertilizers in the garden. In most family flocks, chickens scavenge plant or food residues and insects around the home. With minimal care, family flocks can hatch and raise chicks, produce high-value meat, and supply eggs. Eggs can be a particularly important source of food for children with protein malnutrition who are between six months and three years of age. Live chickens sold for meat bring a good price and a primary source of income for poor farmers. Inexpensive disease control markedly increases the survival and productivity of a family poultry flock. The following four preventive practices, given every three months, will eliminate most health problems in poultry flocks: 1) Vaccination for Newcastle disease, 2) Deworming for roundworms and tapeworms, 3) Dusting under wings for irritating external parasites such as lice, and 4) Treatment for chronic respiratory disease to increase production. BOP personnel can easily raise up to 50 healthy chickens. To feed the chickens and obtain maximum profit on a small farm, BOP personnel can use: 1) Excess and/or unusual food crops, 2) Crop residues, 3) Household refuge and 4) Scavenger feed (e.g., weeds, seeds, insects, worms, etc). Once BOP personnel have met this “from 5 to 50 challenge”, they will be ready to move-on to learn the technology of “transitional” poultry systems of 200-300 birds and finally full commercial production of 500-10,000 birds.

Case study into action

Julia Tran — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:39:56 -0500

As one of the case's authors, I very much agree that a case study in itself will not solve any problems, and that it's the actions taken due to the case study that will count.

Though I'm no longer working with WRI, I can say that WRI's "What Works" cases have been the basis of some of WRI's more action-oriented work. The knowledge from the case studies in the health sector, for example, has been used to engage with several different development organizations to promote or support work in private sector based healthcare delivery. As a think tank, however, WRI has had limited ability to take on direct roles with the case study enterprises, such as funding or managing them in any sense.

The best hope the case studies have of generating active involvement and funds for the enterprises is through their readership. I'd be thrilled if those who know of CareShop through the case study were interested to contribute to the enterprise in some way. If, Peter, you'd be interested to offer CIA reporting to CareShop, or if other readers would like to contact CareShop regarding other possibilities, I would be happy to help in making the connection.

Great article on Micro

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:32:56 -0500

Great article on Micro Health Insurance. I am also of the opinion that government should come forward and collaborate with private insurance industry to provide quality health care insurance to poor people of India. Many people like Nandakumar Rajeshirke need this help from Micro Health Insurance Company. I would like to congratulate you on raising such an importan issue. Joseph The Health Insurance Expert http://www.quoteme.ie/irish-travel-insurance/single-trip-travel-insurance.html

Drug supply improvement in Africa

Peter Burgess — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:18:22 -0500

The case study of CareShop Ghana is, in my view, well done ... but the value of the study is only going to be realized if there is appropriate follow through.

But it is far from clear that there will be appropriate follow through ... the global health system and the international development assistance community are good at studies and writing reports, and not so good at turning the issues raised and the recommendations into action that solves the problems. The issues are big and the funding available limited, and frequently allocated to low impact work.

The issue of drug supply has been around since I first working in the development arena 30 years or more ago ... some of the issues are far worse now than in earlier times, including the sophistication of the drugs and the counterfeits.

My organization has a big concern over sustainability ... and has developed the concept of Community Impact Accountancy (CIA) to help the donor community appreciate the social good that is being created by some organizations that are having difficulties with their financial sustainability.

If CareShop Ghana were the subject of CIA reporting, it might well be a slam dunk for it to get the funding it needs to keep going ... with GAAP reports the raison d'etre for the initiative is totally ignored, which, we would argue, is pretty silly.

Sincerely

Peter Burgess

Distribution

Steve — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:32:24 -0500

Hello, Would you please elaborate on how PureIt is distributed? Do the MFI's serve as intermediaries/resellers for these devices?

In the past whenever there

Eddie — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:45:36 -0500

In the past whenever there are 'public events' or charity shows such as Live Aid, one often wonders how the money is spent. We assume in the warmth of our houses that it will be wisely invested and given to the needy, but I guess we forget that the real progress is made by the people who educate and work their butts off to help people under these extreme circumstances. If only governments worked to build community with less wealthy countries rather than give handouts and forget the real issues, maybe we wouldn't have those problems. Anyway, enjoyed your post.

Mi Farmacita

Puerto Vallarta Condos — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:38:02 -0500

(Mi Farmacita was established in Tijuana, Mexico, in 2003, and employs a classic franchise business structure. As of March 2007, Mi Farmacita had established 57 franchises in over 15 states in both smaller and major cities--including Morelia, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta, and Tijuana--and in squarely low-income as well as middle class communities.) I have never seen a Mi Farmacita in Puerto Vallarta. Can you tell me the address so I can go check it out, I live in Puerto Vallarta

nedd mosquito nets of our state Chhattisgrah India

Shabbir Hussain — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:45:54 -0500

Sir, I founded my new organization(CAM Foundation) for my small one of state of India called Chhattisgrah almost 90% of land covered by forest area and people are dying due to malaria and snake bite and my foundation work for this only purpose Sir how can I get free bed nets for them to whom I contact please show me the way to help my poor tribal peoples. Regards Shabbir

Thanks very much for your

Francisco Noguera — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:43:42 -0500

Thanks very much for your contribution, Paul. Indeed, I am a strong believer in the power of the models you suggest and specially of accessible tools like those offered by IDE or Kickstart. Only through such initiatives, complemented with efforts in education and helth care (for example, through programs like Partners in Health which have proved successful in countries like Peru) will this communities start walking a sustainable path out of extreme poverty. I will review the outcomes of the FOC Conference in detail and look forward to continuing this conversation.

Development of rural Latin America

Paul Rigterink — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:42:52 -0500

I worked as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cordoba, Colombia which has similar problems as the Choco. Attached are some ideas that may be of use to Colombia in the future which I presented to top officials in the Colombian Government at the Friends of Colombia Return Peace Core Volunteer conference (see http://www.friendsofcolombia.org/.) They were very interested. More details and other ideas are presented on my web site http://home.comcast.net/~prigter/site/ 1. Creation of demonstration Backyard Poultry Farms (similar to the 30,000 backyard poultry farms created by the UN FAO in Afghanistan) 2. Production and use of drip irrigation kits (2,000,000 sold in India for $1/each) (Larry Arnold, Inter-American Foundation, noted the importance of drip irrigation in Guatemala during the FOC conference). (see below) 3. Creation of fruit tree nurseries that give Bottom of the Pyramid farmers an advantage in selling their products on the world market. (See my web site for details), 4., Colombian students could contribute articles to a Spanish language wikipedia or a “Friends of Colombia” wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombia http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombian_cuisine 2701655.html?referrer=emailarticle... Feel free to ask me any questions. Thanks again for your work. ------------------------------------------------------- Appendix – Micro drip irrigation International Development Enterprises has developed inexpensive micro-drip irrigation systems for many water scarce areas. These systems include drum kits, bucket kits, kits made with double layered plastic bags (called Family Nutrition Kits), as well as customized micro irrigation systems. In particular, International Development Enterprises India (IDEI) has developed customized systems, costing from $5 for 20 sq.m. to $80 for 1000 sq.m. that will enable a family to grow produce for their own use or for a cash crop. In addition, IDEI sells a variety of treadle pumps for use by small farmers in areas where water is available at or near the surface. Equally important, IDEI has developed a program called “Integrating Poor into Market Systems (IPMAS)” that provides help in overcoming market constraints as well as water constraints. Programs of this nature need to be developed for major refugee centers (including the World Vision Center at the Nelson Mandela school outside of Cartagena) so that the most poor can get back on their feet after an economic or political disaster. It is suggested that major NGOs should buy large quantities of IDE equipment as well as other needed supplies and use it to develop nurseries and small gardens at refugee centers to demonstrate to the poor that the technology can significantly improve their income. In addition, major NGOs should supply some of this equipment to villages used for resettlement, schools, and community centers so that the refugee and other poor people can begin to work their way out of poverty. These ideas will only work if the proper supply chains and training also are provided. http://www.ide-india.org/ide/pt/index.shtml http://www.ide-india.org/ide/drip.shtml http://www.ideorg.org/

Thank you

Francisco Noguera — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:14:13 -0500

Dana, thanks very much for your comment. It sure helps! I'm sure there must be a number of programs working in Choco and other areas with similar problems. We need to spread the word and make them visible so I'm glad to learn about your program and hope that NextBillion will allow many others to learn about it as well.