Andrew Conte in Sierra Leone
Case Study Questions: Andrew Conte in Sierra Leone & Ghana
Details below will be reviewed and where confidentiality is not an issue with business partner details may be posted on the MBAs Without Borders marketing material.
VF & Sierra Leone/Ghana Business
Please describe what VF in Sierra Leone & Ghana does and how it is set up?
VF is a manufacturer of textiles focused on disease control. In West Africa, the sales office based in Accra is responsible for winning new orders, managing client and regulatory activity, and coordinating the shipment of product from manufacturing facilities in India and Vietnam to the country of destination.
Operations in Sierra Leone are facilitated by this “supplier-agent” relationship. Based in Freetown, Universat Logistics Company (ULC) has been contracted to represent VFWA.
What are some aspects of the local business that should be understood when foreigners consider doing business in Sierra Leone and Ghana?
Sierra Leone is among the most expensive countries to do business in on the African continent. Part of this can be attributed to the barren state of infrastructure following the decade-long civil war. Access to electricity, roads, water, and petroleum are a daily challenge.
In contrast, Ghana is one of the most modern countries in West Africa. Accra is one of the hubs to the continent and the second largest port city next to Lagos. Any amenities that you would expect to find in any Western city can also be found in Accra.
From my experience, an important aspect of local business practice requires personal acknowledgement of the relevant government body and their Ministers that may have regulatory authority over your business area. Being personally engaged with governing officials, briefing them on your progress, and keeping informed is necessary to be on their “good side”, as public policy can have a more frequent and relevant impact in high growth economies.
Are there opportunities in this field (i.e. health) for local and international entrepreneur?
There are plenty of opportunities in combating the ravaging diseases of Africa. In the majority of cases, companies capitalize on providing health products and solutions that are advocated for by multilateral and global organizations, such as the World Bank, UN, WHO, etc. – since such organizations also provide the funding for the supply for such solutions.
However, more often than not, many of these product and solutions intended for Africa are based on Western theory and ideology, and when actually taken to scale in Africa, they fail. Why?
Primarily because the research required to gauge how these products will meet both cultural and environmental needs of the people they are intended to benefit is not performed, and therefore in the end, the product will not be used.
That is one of the main reasons why UN/WHO attempts to scale up bed net coverage from 2% to 60% by 2005 in Sub Saharan Africa failed. Current coverage in 2006 stands at 6%.
As an entrepreneur, this serves as an example – in order to have a greater impact on population health outcomes, it is more effective to develop methods to market and sell products directly to the beneficiaries that will use them, rather than ascribing to the culture of supplying door funded programs. Product development must ensure the need of beneficiaries are met, and not simply those of donors.
Originally, why did you want to participate in this program?
My interest with the MBAs Without Borders program stems from my career aspiration to become a development practitioner, and a genuine desire to empower people of low-income countries to
make progress in their continuous struggle of poverty. It was an opportunity to apply myself as a social entrepreneur, and to develop innovative solutions to improve population health outcomes and urgent social challenges.
Was the monthly stipend of $1,000US/month sufficient and how, if you, would change the way and what MBAs Without Borders financially covers?
* Yes, the stipend was sufficient.
* Any external finances that MWB had to cover were arranged.
What did you feel you were able to offer to VF in Sierra Leone & Ghana?
* Effective contract enforcement and market management
* A new model of recruiting agent representatives, distributing inventory, and performing transactions.
* Leveraged partnership with the Sierra Leone Red Cross to transfer evidence and knowledge to National Malaria Control Program of Ghana.
What advice would you like to offer future MBAs who work abroad for MBAs Without Borders?
* Be Patient
* Have no expectations
* Keep in close contact with MWB to report any prospective threats to health and safety – to ensure contingencies are accounted for should the need to act arise.
What were the direct and indirect results/deliverables as a result of your placement? Please be as specific as possible.
* Selected by Vestergaard Frandsen West Africa to manage and implement $1.4 million plan for social marketing and distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets; mediated public-private partnership between net manufacturer, distribution agent, retailers, and Ministry of Health under the World Bank’s Health Sector Reconstruction and Development Project.
* Structured communication and public health campaign for competing commercial and humanitarian sectors to scale up national bed net usage from 2% to a 60% target under the Roll Back Malaria Partnership.
* Leveraged partnership with the Sierra Leone Red Cross to transfer evidence and knowledge to National Malaria Control Program of Ghana for implementation of Measles and Malaria Campaign targeting distribution of approximately 2 million bed nets with combined vaccinations.
* Modeled a new operational plan for the social marketing project, including the succession planning process for agent representation.
* Investigated new opportunities in textile-treated technology, such as agri-fencing for the reducing the vector of trypanosomosis, and the commercialization process.
April 20th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
“Peace for the world is a target, that not only most of the students but most of the humans worldwide share as one of the most important.
For this reason the students of peace and conflict studies of the Fourah Bay university in Freetown, Sierra Leone, establish an international network of students and you may be a part of it.”
I am the 22 years old spokesman of a group of students at the Fourah Bay University in Freetown, Sierra Leone. We study master of peace and conflict because we want to heal our country after more than 10 years of war.
From 1991 to 2002, the country suffered greatly under a devastating civil war. To end the civil war, UN and British forces disarmed 17,000 militia and rebels, in the largest UN peacekeeping act of the decade. In January, 2002, most of the estimated 45,000 fighters had surrendered their weapons. By early 2002, most of the ex-combatants have been disarmed and demobilized, although many still awaited re-integration assistance. On 18 January 2002, the civil war was officially declared over; an estimated 50,000 people died during the war.
The Sierra Leonean government asked the United Nation to help set up a Special Court for Sierra Leone, which would try those who “bear the greatest responsibility for the commission of crimes against humanity, as well as crimes under relevant Sierra Leonean law within the territory of Sierra LeoneElections were finally held in May, 2002. Election were held. In June, 2003, The UN disarmament and rehabilitation program for Sierra Leone’s fighters was completed. In February, 2004, by which time another 70,000 former combatants had been helped. UN forces returned primary responsibility for security in the area around the capital to Sierra Leone’s police and armed forces in September, 2004; it was the last part of the country to be turned over.
Despite its tries of development, the Sierra Leone economy still faces some significant challenges. There is a high rate of unemployment particularly among the youth and ex-combatants. Authorities have been slow to implement reforms in the civil service and the pace of the privatisation programme is also slacking and donors have urged its advancement.
Our tiny West African nation has one of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world, with 167 out of every 1,000 children dying before their fifth birthday and 1,300 women dying for every 100,000 live births, UNICEF said in a press release. The average life span of a Sierra Leonean is 38 years for men and 42 years for women.
We, the educated people of the country feel the biggest challenge in our young lives to put end to violence and to support positive changes. We also want to prove that Africa is more than the continent of crises, deseases, catastrophes and wars. We are representing the young Africa. The Africa which calls for support of our own ideas how to finish the extreme poverty. Our special message is the message of peace.
We are searching people worldwide who study also peace and conflict and would like to exchange with us. We want to be connected with the world. The need for peacemaking and peacebuilding in any society cannot be over emphasised. The Peace and Conflict students want to make themselves a major African contribution to global peace efforts. Therefore we search connection with a practical understanding of the issues of peace and conflict in the modern world with particular reference to Africa based on the perspectives of a range of academic disciplines. We want to spread the message of active non-violence and we would like to be connected with other peace-students or peace loving people worldwide.
We also want to bring development to our war-affected country. For this we need to find people who are concerned in our work; people who also search to help directly and who trust us that with this support they will strengthen us in our own fight against the extreme poverty. To erase extreme poverty is a receipe for peace. Up to now we launched all our projects without any support from abroad. I was 19 years old when immediately after the war I started my social work.
If you are interested to exchange with us: you are very welcome.
If you are interested to visit us and study with us: you are very welcome.
If you want to work volontary in one of our projects: you are very welcome.
If you want to support our projects of active non-violence or our development-projects you are very welcome.
If you only want to visit our website we share with others: you are very welcome to meet us on: www.africa-promo.org under Sierra Leone“
If you have any questions: you are very welcome to ask them.
Let me finish with a citat:
“You cannot go on having absurd amounts of wealth when other people have problems of survival,” said Muhamad Yunus “If you can bring an end to poverty, at least from an economic point of view, you can have a more livable situation between very rich people and very poor people, very rich countries and very poor countries. That’s our basic ingredient for peace.” Muhamad Yunus and Grameen Bank share the Nobel Prize of peace 2006
We thank for your attention.
And wish you peace! and joy! and solidarity!
Mohamed Salia
founder of human society of africa
www.africa-promo.org
E-Mail: mohamed@africa-promo.org
founder of ASSOCIATION4 HUMAN DEVELOPMENT SIERRA LEONE
student of peace and conflict Fourah Bay University, Freetown, Sierra Leone
6a Kingharman Road
M.C.S.L. Compound
Freetown, Sierra Leone, West-Africa
Telefon 00232 – 338 63333
Our ideas and initiatives are supported by www.anayiafrica.de and http://www.buerofeuerfest.de/
Sources of statitiques www.allafrica.com and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Leone
May 22nd, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Children need our help. Youth violence is a plague in its beginning stages. Our local government, state governments, and national government must develop comprehensive programs to stop youth violence. We can stop our children from becoming a part of gang activity, we can stop the killings that occurred at Virginia Tech, and we can stop the Columbine shootings from happening again. There are programs and grants available to teach our youth right from wrong, to make them feel valued, to make them feel a part of our community. Join us in a comprehensive discussion on Curbing Youth Violence; Stopping Violence before it happens. Blog us at FreeSpeechAmerica.us and listen and call in our live radio show broadcasting Thursday’s at 7 at WGOW.com - We want to hear from you!!!