Case 4

Teammates: Kelly Mulvaney, Bishoy Youhana, Megan Lindle

Part 1: Ethical Decision Making 

Step 1: Determine the facts in the situation:

Implicit facts:

• Due to their inability to conduct research on the matter, the women believe feeding their children gruel is highly beneficial. This is probably a cultural norm that everyone has just gone along with for decades without concrete proof it is sufficient.
• No readily available testing – if they have HIV they might not even know
• The women do not necessarily know how the pesticides might affect the children

Explicit facts:

• HIV/AIDS is very prevalent in the region.
• 35% of children in the region is stunted due to poor nutrition
• The child’s main source of nutrition is from the gruel that is made out of maize and bananas
• We have 500 women willing to join the co-operative.
• The crops that will be used for making the porridge are often exposed to pesticides which can have adverse effects on the children.
• Few women are tested for HIV/AIDS
• There is a higher chance of transmitting HIV through breastfeeding

Assumptions: 

• We are assuming that the cooperative will make products that are affordable for the women.

Primary issue: 

• Breastfeeding can be potentially harmful in regions where HIV cases are prevalent since it can increase the chances of transmitting the disease to the children.
• Alternative nutritional supplements such as porridge can be offered as a possible alternative to breastfeeding and reduce the growth stunting numbers in the region. However, the ingredients that go into making these are known to be exposed to pesticides which can potentially harm the babies.

Step 2 & 3: Define the Stakeholders and Motivations (personal vs professional)

• The children: 
  1. Personal:
     1. Want the porridge to taste good
     2. Need food that will help them grow
  2. Professional: None 

• The mothers: 
  1. Personal:
     1. Want their children to be properly fed (no pesticides) and HIV/AIDS free 
  2. Professional:
     1. Make money
• Myself/the cooperative: 
  1. Personal:
     1. Improve nutritional status of the children and improve the livelihoods of rural communities
  2. Professional:
     1. Build credibility to get more funding for future projects
• The women who joined the cooperative:
  1. Personal:
     1. Income opportunity
     2. passion for the cause
  2. Professional:
     1. To produce nutrient packed porridge using locally grown produce.
• Government/other groups (secondary):
  1. Personal:
     1. Want to reduce growth stunting cases to go down
     2. Improve livelihoods.
  2. Professional:
     1. Develop the country overall
• Donors (secondary):
  1. Personal: 
     1. Improve livelihoods of the families and reduce the growth stunting
  2. Professional: None

Step 4: Formulate (at least three) alternative solutions:

1. Exclusively breastfeed children- The mothers could simply breastfeed the children until they no longer need it because breastfeeding can provide essential nutrients that can’t be replicated at an affordable price point.
   1. Ethical principle: consequence based thinking
   2. Pros: 
      1. No risk kids receiving pesticides 
      2. The mothers will not be worried about feeding their children products that they are unfamiliar with
   3. Cons: 
      1. Kids will have poor nutrition
      2. Risk receiving HIV/AIDS from prolonged breastfeeding

1. Guidebook/pamphlet detailing which fruits/vegetables contain which nutrients and when is the best time to serve this to their children (0-6 months, 6-12 months, etc.)
   1. Ethical principle: consequence based thinking and ethics of care
   2. Pros: 
      1. No dire need for prolonged breastfeeding (less risk for receiving HIV)
      2. Allows them to understand the benefits and proper nutrition that each food brings; each child will have a more well-balanced diet
   3. Cons: 
      1. Mothers may not be educated enough to utilize the guidebook
      2. Mothers may resort to archaic or traditional solutions rather than the guidebook
      3. May not be as cost-effective as the porridge.
      4. There still could be nutrients from breastmilk that these food lack
2. Use the funds to develop a nutritious and shelf-stable porridge. Maybe use more of the funding to better process/wash off the pesticides before they can go into making the porridge.
   1. Ethical principle: consequence-based thinking 
   2. Pros:
      1. This way the mothers could be assured that their children would not get HIV from prolonged breastfeeding 
      2. Children will have the essential plus supplementary nutrition from the porridge which can help reduce growth stunting. 
      3. Still will receive nutrients from breast milk; this would be used after the baby is 6 months 
   3. Cons:
      1. Risk receiving pesticides
      2. Will not have enough funding left to market the product 
      3. The baby might still have HIV from birth

Step 5: Seek additional assistance, as appropriate – previous cases, peers, reliance on personal experience, inner reflection 

• Pesticides are more common in fruits, vegetables, meats, poultry, and fish
• Pesticides can bio-accumulate in the body. Most people don’t consume enough for it to be fatal, however, the neurotoxins can harm small children.
• In children, pesticides pose a threat to the developing brain and the nervous system.
• Most East African countries import their pesticides from Europe 
• AIDS is one of the leading causes of death in East Africa
• 25% of babies born to women with HIV will also be infected

Step 6: Select the best course of action – that solves the problem, saves face, and has the best short term and long-term implications for your relationship and venture. Explain reasoning and discuss your solution vis-a-vis other approaches discussed in class. 

Solution: Use the funds to develop a nutritious and shelf-stable porridge and use more of the funding to better process/wash off the pesticides before they can go into making the porridge. This way-

• Children will receive good nutrition.
• Children will not be dependent on prolonged breastfeeding for nutrients (decreasing the risk of HIV)
• It would reduce the risk of receiving pesticides but would cost a bit more money.

This solution allows the children to not depend on breastfeeding as the only source of nutrients, thus making sure they don’t practice prolonged breastfeeding, reducing the risk of HIV. This also allows the children to receive a good amount of nutrients from the porridge, reducing malnutrition. However, it is more expensive to implement than the other two solutions proposed, and does risk the children receiving pesticides, but if resources are allocated correctly, fruits should be washed carefully, so the pesticide level in the porridge will be minimal. 

Having the porridge would be an excellent solution supplement to breastfeeding since it would provide some nutrients that breastfeeding cannot provide. Additionally, processing the local produce before making the porridge with them would let the local women working at the cooperative know that pesticides are harmful and they might share this knowledge with other locals of the region. If done right this might even be able to spark some change in agricultural practices. An advantage of this would be that there could be an important shift from using store-bought pesticides to natural pesticides and herbicides like manure.

Step 7:  Implications of your solution on the venture

 

• Technology-  the technological implications of the solution would be that it would require more physical capitals such as extra machines to better clean the produce to reduce the potential risk of pesticide residue from the porridge. However, this might also spark a change in the agricultural field since if farmers are aware that the pesticides they use on the produce is harmful, then they would likely use natural pesticides which would help make the solution more cost efficient.

• Economic- the economic implications of the solution is that a lot more money would go in the making of the product. There would be a lot less money allocated for the marketing of the product since many of the target market is unfamiliar with the product. Although this is not necessarily a bad thing, it might not be sustainable for the venture to use local produce to manufacture the porridge in the long run especially if they cannot sell enough of them.

• Social-  the solution has a major social implication in that it is sort of based on the assumption that the consumers of this region would even buy the porridge in the first place. Since mothers in this region are culturally accustomed to exclusively breastfeeding their children, it would be difficult to market the product since it would essentially mean changing their way of doing things. However, if done correctly, the porridge could be supplemented with breastfeeding and would be incredibly helpful with bringing down the growth stunting rate of the region.
• Environmental- the environmental implication of this solution would be that the processing of the produce might leave behind harmful chemicals that might hurt the surrounding environment if they are not taken care of properly.

Part 2: Grassroots Diplomacy

Step 1: Determine the facts in the situation:

Facts: 

• The women have a chance to sell their locally grown produce to the cooperative
• They like this arrangement because it saves them time and money
• When they bring the money back home, they are forced to give it to the males
• Men spend the money on alcohol and other things
• The twin outcomes of the cooperative are not achieved
• I only have 6 months left at this cooperative
• The other members of the board wants things to change as well
• The women are not unhappy about giving their money to the males, but do not like the fact that the males don’t look after their families.

Issue: 

• The women cannot use the money directly to improve the nutrition of their children because of aggressive male members of the family who take their money away and use it on alcohol and other frivolous things.

Step 2 & 3: Define the Stakeholders and Motivations (personal vs professional)

• The children: 
  1. Personal:
     1. Want the porridge to taste good
     2. Need food that will help them grow
  2. Professional: None 

• The mothers: 
  1. Personal:
     1. Want their children to be properly fed (no pesticides) and HIV/AIDS free 
  2. Professional:
     1. Make money
• Myself/the cooperative: 
  1. Personal:
     1. Improve nutritional status of the children and improve the livelihoods of rural communities
  2. Professional:
     1. Build credibility to get more funding for future projects
• The women who joined the cooperative:
  1. Personal:
     1. Income opportunity
     2. passion for the cause
  2. Professional:
     1. To produce nutrient packed porridge using locally grown produce.
• Government/other groups (secondary):
  1. Personal:
     1. Want to reduce growth stunting cases to go down
     2. Improve livelihoods.
  2. Professional:
     1. Develop the country overall
• Donors (secondary):
  1. Personal: 
     1. Improve livelihoods of the families and reduce the growth stunting
  2. Professional: None
• Men:
  1. Personal:
     1. They just want the women’s money and want to spend it on desirable things for themselves.
  2. Professional: 
     1. Instead of spending money on alcohol, they could work with the women and make their own money.  
• The six members of the leadership group: 
  1. Personal:
     1. They want what it best for the cooperation
     2. They want the women of the cooperation to use their own money instead of surrendering before their husbands because these members are local women who likely struggle with similar issues.
  2. Professional: 
     1. They want to achieve the twin outcomes of the cooperation.

Step 4,5,6: Formulate an alternative solution:

• Optimal Solution: Bring together leaders in the community and discuss the issue immediately and talk about the ⅓ rule of payment. Essentially how it would work is, the cooperative would function as an equity firm. The workers can work for the cooperation and have one third of their income be given to them immediately, one-third be saved by the company as bonds and the rest of the money could be used to provide the women with high value products such as goats or chickens which can generate income for their families in the long term. The cooperation could establish a separate store at the cooperative where the workers could use the money right away to purchase these products. This would stop the males from taking the money away because they would already use the money to buy products. This solution also allows the women to generate income for their families for the long term without any major risks because they would be guaranteed their money in the future when the cooperation bond matures. The males would also likely be in favor of this decision because it would mean that they would receive more money in the future instead of a small sum immediately. This solution meets the twin goals because it incentivizes the women to keep working at the cooperation by providing essentials, securing their future through bonds and avoiding having to deal with the males of the households while also making sure that they get the necessary items the women need to properly take care of their families.
• Pros: 
• • • Gives immediate and long term benefits to the the women
    • Gives the men a reason to not take the money from the women immediately since they would get more in the future.
    • Allows the women to buy essential products like the porridge to feed their children which would help minimize the growth stunting in the region
• Cons:
• • • The men might be resistant to the idea of the women not having enough money to give to them and this might lead to abuse 
    • There could be a trust issue since the idea of bonds might be new to them
    • Getting only one third of the income at a time might not be sufficient for them to sustain their families
• Short term implication of the venture:
• • • In the short term the venture might run into problems of retaining the workers because having only one third of their income given to them at a time might not work out that well considering the fact that it would be a very low amount.
    • There would be alot of trust issues between the employees and the cooperation since this system of payment would be new to them.
• Long term implications of the venture:
• • • The cooperation could be able to sustain itself and thrive at some point if they are able to build trust with the women they employ.
    • The women would be happy since they would have a steady source of income as well a plan for their future.
    • This solution could potentially get the males to start doing something productive to earn their own money instead of relying on the women.
• Saving face:
• • • The women get a chance to save face since they do not need to confront the men regularly about their income since they would spend it on essential items.
    • The cooperation saves face by discussing their ideas with local leaders and getting them on board with their plan and allowing the women to get a steady source of income.
    • The men saves face by not relying on the women for money but getting a job to pay for their own things
    • The committee saves face by coming up with a great plan to achieve the twin outcome goals of the cooperation.
• Assistance sought to come up with the solution:
• • The class discussion and the group discussion mainly helped in brainstorming ideas from which the group narrowed it down to this solution.

Implementation steps:

• Apply grassroots diplomacy steps to bring about change in the large scale in the long run by talking to local leaders
• Ask the women if the solution works for them 
  • Getting their feedback is very important
• Validate the process and discuss with male leaders (25 to 30 males) and get them on board
• Get recommendations from all of the stakeholders before making any major decisions
• Hire people to handle the bonds/finance related activities 
• Hire people to maintain the store
• Take a survey from the women to see which items they spend the most money on
• From this survey, buy products in bulk for the store
• Get in touch with government officials/organizations to see if they can donate products to the store
• Take surveys from the women in the future to see how the cooperation impacted their lives