U.S.-backed project built malaria-fighting network

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By Helene Franchineau THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The system enticed people to come to hospitals to redeem coupons.

"We managed to get subsidies from private companies that were interested in our project," Mr. Shaw said. "A person would come, voucher in hand, to buy a net, would only pay a portion of the price, and our sponsor would reimburse the difference to the shopkeeper."

In addition to $67 million from USAID, Netmark received subsidies from Exxon Mobil, the British government and UNICEF. Commercial partners overall invested $88 million in the program.

Mr. Shaw said more than 2 million families used the vouchers. In Nigeria, 92 percent of those who got vouchers redeemed them.

"We tried to have, in every country, two to four brands in competition, so that people could choose the blue net over the green, the family size or the normal one," Mr. Shaw said.

African net manufacturers and international insecticide companies also teamed up to come up with nets that remain effective for up to five years instead of the one year for typical nets.

"We wanted to adapt to the local situation. Ugandan manufacturers now produce large nets that can fit for the triple bunk beds that can be found in boarding schools," Mr. Shaw said. "The Nigerian brand Sunflag is about to start manufacturing" its own long-lasting nets.

Beyond public distribution through vouchers, about 6,500 shops now sell the nets.

Despite the end of the Netmark project, USAID will continue to distribute free nets. "All of this will continue because we laid down the foundations," Mr. Shaw said.

On Sept. 23, another initiative was launched by several African heads of state. The African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) aims to end malaria deaths by 2015 by distributing bed nets to 700 million people by the end of next year.

"We are already more than half way there," said Ray Chambers, the U.N. secretary-general's special envoy for malaria. "ALMA is going to accelerate the process."

The envoy acknowledged that government-funded projects alone cannot be the solution.

"Creating a business for bed nets is very important for African economies. We can provide for the poorest, but eventually a market has to flourish. People will need to replace their nets," he said.

Thinking back over the past 10 years, Mr. Shaw expressed satisfaction with what the project had achieved.

"It was not about white people coming to explain to the Africans that they had to use a net," he said. "We showed them there is a profitable business there, because eventually, public funding will shift to another cause. Money doesn't stay."