FEATURED RESULT: "Due to NetMark's efforts, over 19 million people in Africa now sleep under insecticide treated mosquito nets (ITNs) and are protected from malaria."

 

Additional Information --NetMark  --Academy for Educational Development

Purpose of Initiative
Malaria kills more than 2 million people in Africa each year. Between 300 and 500 million people suffer from malaria, the majority of which are young children; one out of 20 children in Africa dies of malaria before the age of 5. Families are often forced to spend approximately 20% of their income on malaria treatments, and public health institutions spend up to 40% of their budgets on outpatient malaria treatment. All told, in addition to the human loss and suffering, the disease results in an economic loss of $3 billion to African economies each year, slowing economic growth by approximately 1.3% annually.

In 1999, the U.S. Agency for International Development launched the NetMark, in partnership with the Academy for Educational Development, to reduce the human cost caused by malaria. Since its launch, NetMark has developed partnerships with 37 African and 9 international commercial partners.

NetMark's mission is to reduce malaria cases and deaths in Africa by increasing the availability, affordability and use of insecticide-treated bednets (ITN) through partnerships with commercial net and insecticide manufacturers, their African distributors, ministries of health, and NGOs. To accomplish this goal, NetMark works through public-private partnership to achieve both short and long-term public health impact. NetMark's model, based on efficient and effective delivery of ITNs, could easily be applied to other areas of malaria prevention.

Partners
Governments: Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia, and the United States (USAID)

International Organizations: UNICEF, World Health Organization, World Bank, and the Roll-Back Malaria Partnership

Civil Society: Academy for Educational Development (AED), CARE, Churches Association of Zambia, Delybimb Malaria Foundation, Africa Fights Back, AFFORD, Malaria Consortium

Private Sector:
Net Manufacturers - A-Z Textiles, Mossnet, Sunflag Nigeria, Sunflag Tanzania, Siamdutch Mosquito Netting Co, Tana Netting, Rosies Textiles, Vestergaard Frandsen;
Insecticide Manufacturers - BASF, Bayer Environmental Science and Syngenta; Consumer Marketing -- FCB Advertising, Exp Momentum.
Distributors - SFH (Cameroon); EAG, Petram (Ethiopia); Agrimat, Netco Rockville, Reiss & Co., Transcol (Ghana); Mossnet (Kenya); Ets. Simparia, Industries Kulubali, Toguna SARL (Mali); CHI, Harvestfield, Rosies, Sunflag, SFH, Stitchers Association, Syngenta (Nigeria);, CAD, Palunet, Negrita, Senphyto (Senegal), Coopers, Nettshoppe, Safinet, Quality Chemicals, X-Net (Uganda); Cropserve, Ecomed, Melcome (Zambia).
Textile Experts - Anovotek.

Partnership Goal
The NetMark project uses public-private partnerships to prevent malaria by increasing access to and appropriate use of insecticide-treated nets in sub-Saharan Africa. NetMark's work specifically contributes to:

• The President's Malaria Initiative goal of achieving 85% ITN coverage for pregnant women and children under 5 in focus countries by 2010; and
• The achievement of the Roll Back Malaria Objective which is to halve the burden of malaria in the world by 2010.

Strategies
To achieve these targets the partnership is using three main strategies:

• Promotion of ITNs through public education about malaria and correct net use: NetMark makes strategic, time-limited investments intended to stimulate interest and use of ITNs among key opinion leaders in segments of the population who will encourage others to use ITNs.
• Creation and expansion of commercial ITN markets to help make this lifesaving product readily available long after NetMark ends: In order to assure access to ITNs by all segments of the population on a sustainable basis, the participation of the private commercial sector is critical. By engaging the commercial sector in promoting and selling ITNs to those who can afford to pay, the limited resources available from the public sector can then be used to subsidize ITNs for those who truly cannot afford to pay full costs. Competition is encouraged among these commercial partners to ensure customer access to higher quality and more affordable products.
• Provision of targeted subsidies: NetMark works to ensure that ITNs are available through partial or full subsidies that are targeted specifically to pregnant women, providing them with discount vouchers that are redeemable in the same convenient locations where ITNs are sold commercially. The project supports ministries of health, NGOs and donors to expand access to ITNs.

Progress Toward Targets

• Since 2002, over 19 million ITNs have been sold through October 2006, under the umbrella of NetMark support
• During the first 10 months of 2006, sales were up by 166% over the entire year of 2005 to 8 million through October 2006
• As of 2006, 65% of nets owned in NetMark countries have been treated
• Over 600,000 pregnant women and mothers of children under five have benefited from discount vouchers from NetMark, and 500,000 pregnant women in Mali have received insecticide treatment kits.
• Taxes and tariffs have been eliminated in all seven NetMark primary countries, the Partnership is well on its way to eliminate taxes and tariffs in 18 more
• ITNs are now being sold throughout Africa by more than 40 commercial partners
• NetMark partners are now selling ITNs in the range of $3.90 to $5.50, which is 75% less than untreated nets did in 2000 due to increased competition and availability
• NetMark is contributing to the availability of long lasting insecticide treated nets (LLINs) through the development of a new process for producing state-of-the-art long-lasting ITNs (LLINs), which led to the construction of a privately funded new factory in Thailand that will produce 5 million LLINs in 2006. This technology was introduced and shared with 39 companies in Africa and Asia. At the present time, two Tanzanian companies are in the process of adopting the new process, while two other companies in Ethiopia and Kenya are finalizing plans with support from NetMark.
• NetMark's programs have benefited the lower socio-economic groups as much or more than the wealthiest groups. In Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Zambia, the poorest 40% of the population own 33% of the nets. For more information, see: http://www.netmarkafrica.org/research/index.html

Next Steps

• * Expand voucher programs targeting pregnant women in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Senegal.
• * Transfer LLIN technology to Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania in 2007. This transfer will increase availability and affordability of LLINs on the African continent although manufacturers have not yet set production goals.
• * Phase out activities in Mali as USAID's private sector investment is integrated into their bilateral program and NetMark will no longer be the funding mechanism for commercial partnership in Mali.
• * Phase out activities in Zambia due to a shift in local policy by the Ministry of Health to distribute all ITNs for free.
• * 2007 partner sales are projected at 7.35 million (note: this projection is based on sales in only five countries, two less than in 2006).

Resources

To date, USAID has invested $46 million through the NetMark partnership. Commercial investments by NetMark partners to date are approximately 90 cents for each NetMark dollar spent.

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