Mobilizing Science-Based Enterprises for Energy, Water, and Medicines in Nigeria (2007) / Chapter Skim
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5 Recommendations
5 Recommendations
Pages 63-74
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From page 63... ...
A program of financial incentives and technical assistance to encourage responsible service will be in consonance with the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) poverty reduction plan prepared with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
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From page 64... ...
Recommendation: The Nigerian government should develop a sys tem of incentives to encourage private companies to sell and ser vice solar electric systems for the home to rural residents who are not connected to the national grid. The Nigerian government also should develop a system of incentives to encourage private compa nies to sell and service water purification systems to communities that are not served by municipal or national water supplies, or to produce household filtering systems for safe drinking water.
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From page 65... ...
Existing law might actually make it legally hazardous for private companies to bring electric power into people's homes, because this service is now the exclusive mandate of a federal ministry. A new law in the realm of public health and conservation of natural resources could encourage people to conserve water and energy and to avoid disease from infected water and food, in part by making it legal to install electric power and water filtration systems and sell and deliver electric power and safe water to the home.
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From page 66... ...
Whether or not Artemisia annua is grown commercially in Nigeria and Nigerian pharmaceutical companies are able to participate fully in a subsidized distribution system, actions must be taken to ensure that the population is as fully protected as possible. These actions include public campaigns calling for the use of treated bed nets, avoiding counterfeit and ineffective drugs, and draining potential breeding places for mosquitoes.
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From page 67... ...
Sometimes, consumers receive some reassurance from the public regulatory agencies or the private NGOs that monitor product safety, drug efficacy, and truth in packaging. But when these watchdog agencies are ineffective or absent, or when populations are illiterate or isolated, public agencies must step in and provide more explicit consumer education through the schools or in public campaigns or pronouncements.
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From page 68... ...
3 Students are exposed to villagers' problems at an early stage in their curriculum. Recommendation: The high mortality rates in Nigeria from diarrheal disease and malaria argue that the Nigerian government should offer health education and training in the schools that would include the importance of safe drinking water, how to maintain a sanitary water supply, and how to choose effective medicines.
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From page 69... ...
They will be sustainable, because the owners and employees themselves depend on the success of the enterprise -- rather than renewal of grants -- for their survival. However, for donors this path is the more difficult one, because the creation of successful enterprises is less well understood in the philanthropic world than grant giving, and a natural failure rate characterizes even the most fertile investment plans.
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From page 70... ...
Recommendation: Philanthropic foundations and donor agen cies should orient some of their activities in developing countries toward creating and supporting profit-making enterprises that would provide public-benefit goods and services to poor people. grants should be replaced in spirit with first-stage financing or investments, and the portfolio should be broad enough in diversity of enterprises with different business plans and different technolo gies to raise the probability of financial success in this area, where there is relatively little experience.
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From page 71... ...
The first topics for discussion and perhaps publication could be how to mobilize the private sector to sustainably provide basic services to remote parts of Nigeria; setting and enforcing government standards for drinking water sold to the public; and a national strategy for ensuring that Nigeria has a secure supply of effective malaria therapy at affordable prices. Another valuable topic for discussion could be preventing the illegal sale of counterfeit products and medicines.
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From page 72... ...
Especially useful participants would be representatives of the Ministry of Health, the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, the International Center for business Research, the Nigerian Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, and the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises. Importantly, such a workshop could urge the government both to clarify the law on the right to provide potable water to households and to mount a campaign in favor of filtered purified water to com bat diarrheal disease.
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From page 73... ...
RECOMMENDATIONS u.S. scientific agencies with international programs, such as the Office of International Science and Engineering of the National Science Foundation and the Fogarty Center of the National Insti tutes of Health, should guide the exchange programs between the united States and countries such as Nigeria toward cooperation in helping small and medium enterprises to provide public goods and services.
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