Blog #4 Spencer Moros, Jenn Nester, Beigie Lam, Ugochi Amadi

Questions:

What is our role in the cooperative? Are we on the ground (making, selling, educating)?

• We’re developing the whole cooperative
• Malnutrition team is a good example of people who are doing what we want to do

Are there any crops that aren’t using pesticides? 

• No, practically all use pesticides.

 

Step 1: Determine the facts in the situation – obtain all of the unbiased facts possible. Clearly state the ethical issue. 

• Livelihoods of rural households
  • 500 women want to join the co-op
  • They are skeptical of the porridge because it is new
• HIV/AIDS and breastfeeding
  • HIV+ should wean early
  • Not everyone knows if they are HIV+
  • Access to supplements that prevent spread of HIV through breast milk more prevalent
  • Nutritious alternative really a good supplement
• Pesticides on produce
  • Cash crops
  • Subsistence crops
• Childhood nutrition is a problem b/c local gruel is not providing all key nutrients
  • 35% of children have stunted growth
• Breastfeeding can spread HIV from mothers to infants 
• Want to reduce risk of spread of HIV by using new porridge formula for children instead of breastfeeding
• Porridge formula is using locally grown crops in a different way (as opposed to traditional gruel)
• Mothers usually give gruel from ~2 months to 24 months
  • Skeptical of using new formula because it’s not something they’re used to, the traditional gruel is cornmeal
  • Not something they’ve done before
• The WHO recommends breastfeeding until ~6 months but the longer time of breastfeeding with HIV means greater risk
• Reduce risk of HIV/AIDS by having children eat the porridge → Formula for new nutritious porridge is made from locally grown crops → locally grown crops have high levels of potentially harmful chemicals from pesticides / porridge can be sold to improve women’s livelihoods
• Don’t know who has HIV or not, there is now aggressive plan for testing of HIV and most people who have it know that they have it

Ethical Issue: Is it better to wean infants off of breastfeeding with porridge which provides sufficient nutrients, but exposes the infants to the risky chemicals from pesticides on the crops or spread HIV through prolonged breastfeeding and wean them with a traditional gruel lacking nutrients?

 

Step 2: Define the Stakeholders – those with a vested interest in the outcome / Step 3: Assess the motivations of the Stakeholders 

• Mothers
  • Give their child the best food
  • Have their child grow safely & healthily
  • May have mixed opinions about the effectiveness of the porridge formula
  • Want to improve their livelihoods
  • Not risk giving HIV/AIDS to their children
  • Make some money – growing/selling the cash crops
• Children 
  • Stay healthy (not get HIV/AIDS)
  • Get good nutrition / be fed
• Cooperative Participants
  • More participants, lessen burden on individuals
  • Make some money – growing/selling the cash crops, getting some form of return from their investment be it labor or something else
  • Bring more success
• Cooperative Organizers/researchers
  • Respect local traditions and culture
  • Attract women to join
  • Build reputation and credibility to gain more funds and resources for future
  • Reduce malnutrition, improve nutritional status of children
  • Increase livelihood of households
  • Reduce transmission of HIV/AIDS
  • Make venture financially successful/sustainable
• Donors of money for the projects (secondary)
  • Improve nutritional status of children and livelihoods of rural households

 

Step 4: Formulate (at least three) alternative solutions – based on information available, using basic ethical core values as guide 

 

Approaches [1/2/3: repeat for every action] 

• Potential solution: Have women give children the traditional gruel from 2-6 months, then market the porridge as “stage 2”, 6-12 months wean children off breastfeeding entirely. Educate women as to why this is best for their children 
• Ethical Principle or code: Consequence based thinking & ethics of care
• Pros:  respect local traditions while supplementing nutrition, while child is eating gruel they have supplemental nutrients from breast milk; would be less financially costly for the venture
• Cons: Children are more at risk for acquiring HIV/AIDS (breastfeeding to 12 months instead of 6 months suggested), children are exposed to pesticides, 

 

• Potential solution: Have mothers switch to the porridge formula or some diet of both the formula and traditional gruel after ~2 months of breastfeeding and Educate women as to why this is best for their children  
• Ethical Principle or code: consequence based thinking
• Pros: Reduces risk of passing HIV to child in timely manner by cutting short the breastfeeding period, new formula compensates for key nutrients in infants’ diet, improve livelihoods with increased sales or production of porridge
• Cons: May not convince a lot of mothers who don’t believe that the new formula will provide enough nutrients for their child, would expose children to more pesticides from the produce, would be more financially costly for the venture

 

• Potential solution: Refer all of the mothers to a place where they can be tested for HIV/AIDS in order to identify the most at risk children
• Ethical Principle or code: Consequence based thinking & duty based thinking
• Pros:  Many at-risk children are identified as early as possible, targets problem at root by identifying mothers who should switch to porridge from breastfeeding, allows mothers to learn if they have the virus and what measures they should take for their own health, 
• Cons: Invasion of the privacy of the women, not many women get tested so there may not be many testing sites/facilities/resources, adds more stress on the venture as a whole, morally obligated to educate about HIV/AIDS if test positive, identifying at risk children puts a target on some mother’s backs

 

Other possible solutions: 

• People might be reluctant to use the new formula
• Have information sessions to inform the locals about the harms of pesticides and HIV and educate them about what the porridge’s benefits vs consequences are so they can make decisions for themselves
  • Who will pay for that?
  • Who will organize and make these sessions happen?
  • Way to make money with this cooperative is to scale up with this product so it gains traction and spreads 
• Partner with other entities to aid with product development
  • Put information labels or tags on the back or packaging of the porridge
  • Community health workers (need incentives)
  • Do partners have something to gain from working with you?
• Focus on tackling HIV problem by providing infrastructure to fight HIV epidemic
  • Better sex education by focusing on impact to children
  • Very expensive because they have deep ingrained beliefs
• Partner with Health Ministry and WHO to leverage introducing the porridge product as a second stage diet product for infants
• Focus on scope issues which is this cooperative that sells porridge for infants after 6 months of breastfeeding
• Profit by making this product shelf stable and with low production cost that can sell for higher prices
• Source input locally when practical but go to the open market if it is more efficient

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

• Malnutrition Team
• What accountability structure do you make in order to incentivize people but also have people join for the right reasons (might be second part)
• Look at long-term effects of either side of the problem to decide which problem is more impactful (e.g., pesticides may not be as bad as HIV)
• How do you start as close to the solution as possible?
• Addressing skepticism isn’t the biggest issue (in terms of an ethical issue)
• https://www.azurihealth.co.ke/ 

 

Step 6: Select the best course of action – that which satisfies the highest core ethical values. Explain reasoning and justify. Discuss your stance vis-a-vis other approaches discussed in the class. 

The best solution is to respect traditions of the locals by allowing them to give gruel to the children, and encourage mothers to not wean as quickly until 6 months and market the porridge as a next step. Also, as part of the program the mothers will be instructed to breastfeed until 12 months. This solution is not ideal for a few reasons: the children are receiving nutrient-lacking gruel from 2 months – 6 months and the infants are breastfeeding past the recommended time, 6 months, instead they are breastfeeding to 12 months. Although the children are malnourished when they are receiving gruel this respects the traditions of the community, thereby gaining respect from the locals, and reducing the reliance on the gruel by discouraging weaning from 2-6 months ensures that the infants receive the nutrients that require from breast milk. Also, this solution works to respect the longer breast feeding which is typically until 24 months by incorporating breast feeding until 12 months. This approach also helps to reduce the risk of HIV transmission via breast milk by cutting the time of breast feeding in half (24->12).  Lastly, the children are receiving good nutrition from the porridge from 6-12 months. One issue that still remains is the exposure to pesticides, however this is somewhat combatted by more reliance on breast feeding, and most detrimental effects of pesticides are from exposure on a time scale of years rather than months and these children would be exposed regardless.

 

Step 7: (If applicable) What are the implications of your solution on the venture. Explain the impact of your proposed solution on the venture’s technology, economic, social and environmental aspects.

This solution affects the social aspects of the venture a great deal. By incoporating the traditional practices the project as a whole is more likely to be adopted. Additionally, by beginning on the right foot the venture is able to build upon the strong foundation and move to even more favorable solutions. Such as, eliminating the gruel completely and replacing it with the porridge and weaning off breast feeding completely by 6 months. This plan also improves the economic health of the venture by acquiring a sizable workforce as part of the cooperative which also can grow from there.

Part 2

Issue: women work and the men take the money and spend it on things other than food for the family.

 

Step 2: Define the Stakeholders – those with a vested interest in the outcome 

• Mothers
  • Want to improve their livelihoods
  • Make some money – growing/selling the cash crops
  • Don’t want the money they earned to be wasted
  • Want the money to go to their children’s benefits
  • Use the money to feed their children
• Cooperative Participants
  • Make some money – growing/selling the cash crops, getting some form of return from their investment be it labor or something else
  • Improve livelihoods of rural women

 

• Cooperative Organizers/researchers
  • Respect local traditions and culture
  • Build reputation and credibility to gain more funds and resources for future
  • Reduce malnutrition, improve nutritional status of children
  • Increase livelihood of women in rural households
  • Ensure the added wealth is going towards feeding the children
  • Make venture financially successful/sustainable
• Donors of money for the projects (secondary)
  • Improve nutritional status of children and livelihoods of rural households

 

Step 4: Formulate (at least three) alternative solutions – based on information available, to have a win-win situation for your relationship and your venture. 

Approaches [1/2/3: repeat for every action]

 

• Potential Solution #1: Offer “store credit” rather than cash so the women can use their money to feed their families.
• How does it solve the problem? 
  • Pros: Money goes where the earner wants it to go, there is no risk of it being taken away by the husbands or being sold off, more value if they use it as credit instead of cashing it out
  • Cons: Might cause domestic issues; go against traditional hierarchy
• How does it save face of those involved?
• Implications on relationships
  • Short-term: Women can get more food for their children, might create mistrust between the men and the cooperative organizers/researchers
  • Long-term:  
• Implications on the venture 
  • Short-term: mitigate the issue of mismanagement of funds
  • Long-term: make women more independent; close the gender gap 

 

• Potential Solution #2: Give the women the option to get paid in essential items as opposed to cash, make them accept part of the wage to the product that they are making and the rest will be cash or credit, buy in bulk things like goats that cooperative members can get for cheaper than market price so they can take it directly home
• How does it solve the problem? 
  • Pros: builds livelihood of families because the members can save money and keep producing with things like goat milk and cheese, can bring the men in because it makes them money in the long run, production of things will build towards feeding the children
  • Cons: only about 20 women will actually be working in packaging the porridge so it’s unrealistic to create an entirely separate system of distribution of goods
  • How does it save face of those involved?
• Implications on relationships
  • Short-term
  • Long-term 
• Implications on the venture 
  • Short-term
  • Long-term 

 

• Potential Solution #3: Act as a bank for the workers, hold the workers’ wages and let them grow and only let them cash out when they reach a certain amount or emergency
• How does it solve the problem? 
  • Pros: allows people to save and build capital, free as opposed to banks that need you to pay to make an account, allows women to save and improve their livelihoods because it prevents the money from being taken away by the men
  • Cons: Social implication that the men may get angry that the women are working without making anything, may still take the money after it gets cashed out
• How does it save face of those involved?
• Implications on relationships
  • Short-term
  • Long-term 
• Implications on the venture 
  • Short-term
  • Long-term 

 

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

• Maybe only 20 women will be working with the cooperative to grow/sell crops
• Cooperatives emerged as a way for people to save money and collect capital
• Research indicates that men are less likely to take all of the money that’s saved compared to a weekly wage
• Women aren’t upset men are taking the money, they’re upset about their misuse
• Don’t cut off the entire money source (maybe leave like 5% or something)
• How to establish a banking system
• Sporadic bigger rewards (e.g., every three months can buy a goat)
• Bring together a group of people who have clout in the community

• Get people with clout including men and religious leaders so that they can deal with this issue and consider taking ⅓ of the wages in cash while the ⅔ is going back to the cooperative as an investment so they can grow it
• Have the council agree on what products they think the cooperative should make available to use the credit for such as goats, etc..
• Address nutrition issue by having women who work in the cooperative walking away with a small amount of the porridge everyday that can feed two people
• Elderly people are a big customer section for the porridge
• Validate the solution by telling it to the other 6 leaders on the committee, also go out to men and other leaders (maybe 25 people one on one) and get them on board with the way to tackle the issue → bring people together to talk about the problem and let the people discuss and come up with their “own” solution → create a contract or system of more equitable bylaws that everyone involved will agree with and enforce in the community → go towards developing this in the community so they adopt it 

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. 

 

The best course of action is to have the cooperative can act as a bank where the women can keep their wages as credit and build capital until they reach a certain amount to cash out or want to cash out. Keep a portion of their wages as immovable credit and maybe cash out about 5-10% directly so that the women can have something to spend, although the men may take the cash and spend it themselves. The could act cooperative as a distribution center or “store” for alcohol and cigarettes at lower than market price so that the men are incentivized to spend at the cooperative instead of outside markets and the cooperative can help to control the rampant spending of the men and give back control to the women to spend the money on food and other necessities.  Additionally, the cooperative can act as a source of goods that the members can get goods from for a better price based on the women’s needs and the men will feel motivated to save as well if they realize that saving for a couple months will actually build more value for them. 

 

Step 7: List the sequence of actions you will take to implement your solution.

 

1. Survey women about a banking system
2. If general consensus is yes, the banking system would be established, implement any changes they would like
3. Work with women to decide how much of their wages go between store credit and cash (make 3 options: %70-30, %80-20, %90-10)
4. Find out the most pressing needs of the women (specific foods, clothing, household items, etc) with which to stock the “co-op” store.
5. Find out where to get those resources in bulk to keep prices low enough to incentivize purchasing in the co-op. Ideally these products would come from co-op members.
6. Get those resources and stock the store.

 

Other possible solutions: 

• ⅓ of the wage is the porridge 
• Instead of money or full amount of money, they can get something that creates value

 

Banking system: 

portion of wage=store credit (stored in every week)

-portion of store credit=saved in the bank

portion of wage=cash (given out every week)