Part 1 :
- The facts:
- Gruel currently made of corn and bananas
- the growth of ~35% of the children are stunted due to poor nutrition
- Mothers believe that gruel is effective
- HIV/AIDS is bad in this region
- More breastfeeding = higher chance to get HIV/AIDS
- Mother’s think gruel works
- 500 women are involved
- Crops used can cause health issues because of pesticides
- Ween off children at 6 months of age
- Women are skeptical of early weaning
- Cash crops are: maize, sorghum, cassava, several varieties of legumes (dried beans), French beans, coffee, pineapple, bananas, pumpkins, tomatoes, carrots, kale, white (Irish) potatoes, and sweet potatoes
- The goal of the coop is to have a shelf-stable porridge product that weens kids off of mothers milk
2. Stakeholders
Mothers
- Professional- An effective solution that keeps their children from getting HIV/AIDS while keeping them nutritious
- Personal- They want their kids to be healthy and safe
Potential Women’s cooperative
- Personal- want to make a positive impact
- Professional- bring in stable income to support families
Infants involved
- Personal – Want to be healthy and grow up healthy
- Professional – none
Innovators
- Professional- they want a porridge that is nutritious and that the coop is doing well. They want to make an impact. I.e. they want people to use their product and they want people to be healthy and safe
- Personal- Recognition, basically the same as the professional
Local government
- Professional- potential to profit if people are healthier/economic gain, social capital gain
- Personal- happier and healthier residents, a better quality of life
Local Farmers
- Professional- Might lose business if their crops are no longer used for gruel/Might gain business if their products ARE used for the gruel
- Personal- N/A
3. Solutions
Utilitarian- Give kids porridge, forget about pesticides. HIV is a more serious issue
- Pros: Kids are much less likely to get HIV and get the nutrients from the porridge
- Cons: possibly poison kids with pesticides
Deontology – Give children porridge that is sourced from all-natural farms no matter the time and resource cost
- Pros: All food is sourced from organic farms, nobody will get sick and will be well nourished.
- Cons: more expensive/more work
Solution 3: educate
- Pros:
- Cons:
4. Ask an advisor for advice
We spoke to Khanjan Mehta, our advisor, for his advice and what course of action he would take on the project. He said that he would have tried different techniques to clean the food first, but at the end of the day, the pesticides are less of a risk than the HIV/AIDS, so he would still implement the product.
5. Best solution
I feel the best solution here is to give the children porridge, knowing the pesticides could cause harm, but I feel getting the children off of breast milk to reduce the risk of HIV/AIDS is more important and a larger risk.
6. Implementation
The way to implement this solution is to continue to grow the porridge business by finding local food producers, training the women to work in the coop, gather information about the children’s sensory preferences to make a desirable product. I work on a similar product, so our process involved building a code that could optimize recipes based on the nutrients in the foods to get as many nutrients to children as possible for the lowest cost. Our next steps include doing shelf-life testing and nutrient profile testing to ensure the products have the content we intend, and that our products are safe to consume.
Part 2:
- The facts:
- Business is thriving
- Women work for about nine hours every day and earn KES 300 (about $3)
- Women sell produce grown on their farms to the coop
- Sold at market rate
- Women are happy. Saves them time and money. Strong sense of community/identity
- Women have to give their earnings to their husbands/fathers/brothers
- Husbands use the money for alcohol and “frivolous” things
- Children in this community are not getting nutrition
- You are one of seven members on a leadership committee
- The committee is elected on an annual basis and you have six months left on the committee
- The other six members of this committee are local women
- Women are not opposed to the men taking away their money
- Women are upset that their hard-earned money is not used to feed their children
- Women are hopeless/convinced nothing can be done
Ethical issue: issue of autonomy/who decides how money is spent
Twin social outcomes goals are: improving the nutritional status of children and improving the livelihoods of rural households
We need to: get the cooperative back on track to meet the twin social outcomes for the cooperative on a sustainable basis
2. Stakeholders
- Women not on Committee
- Prof: Make money
- Social: Feed children, improve livelihood
- Us as part of the innovators/ community
- Prof: Achieve both outcomes with no backlash. Our success depends on the success of coop in the future
- Social: recognition and reputation
- Committee:
- Prof: They want the best for the coop and community
- Social: they want to be reappointed/want more votes
- Male: secondary stakeholder
- Prof: N/A
- Social: social norms, wants control over household
- Children of workers
- Prof: Need nutrients
- Social: N/A
3. Solutions
a. Cut pay and give them some porridge
- Pros: Easy to do. Their kids get better nutrition
- Cons: Males could be upset at the lack of money
b. Give vouchers instead of cash/partner with vouchers
- Pros: Better relations with food vendors, could be for other necessities.
- Cons: males could be upset at the lack of money
c. Women acquire shares in coop instead of cash/women build equity
- Small amounts of money are spent quickly
- Allows the family to save up for larger purchases
4. Ask an advisor for advice
I spoke to a friend of mine that now works at a non-profit providing nutritious foods in Southeast Asia. He suggested that the best solution is to supply the women with common necessities that they need on a weekly basis to supplement some of the money they would receive. This way the mothers can help their children and stay on the good side of the men in their family.
5. Best Solution
I personally feel the best solution is to give the women vouchers that can compensate for some pay reduction but guarantees the mothers will be able to use some of their income for their children needs.
6. Implementation
The best way to make this solution work is to first identify what the voucher can best be used for whether that be food or clothing, etc. and set up a system for how vouchers will be able to redeem goods. We will need to find suppliers of the goods and estimate what the exchange rate can be. After that, a test-run with 50 women should occur before the system rolls out entirely.