Fighting corruption with a return on investment

The Standard Newspaper this Saturday prominently featured the results of graft and mis-management of public funds on its front page: a whopping annual cost of KES 270 billion ($3.375 billion USD).

This, it notes, could pay for free primary and free secondary education for 18 years. Yikes. If that doesn’t make your stomach turn, I don’t know what will.

There is a lot that needs to be done to fight corruption in the short- and medium-term, but that’s not the focus of this blog.

Instead, I want to give a glimpse of hope: Nike Foundation, in partnership with the American University of Beirut, found that the current 1.6 million girls who dropped out of school could have won the Kenyan economy $3.2 billion USD every year if they had completed secondary school.Further, Paul Collier in The Bottom Billion, talks of the role of education in turning around countries, that a critical mass of educated people is needed for the impetus for change to come from within. Our own Senior Advisor, the Honorable Linda Tarr-Whelan, in her book Women Lead the Way emphasizes how companies and nations change for better when at least 1/3 of the people sitting around the table are women. Would we have less corruption with more women? I’m not sure, but I’m willing to bet on it.

So what’s the long-term answer to corruption? Educate girls.

What’s the smallest intervention to help achieve this education? Sanitary pads.

Keeping girls who are in school in school each day of the week (and the weekend when many schools still have sessions) requires a method of managing menstruation affordably and with dignity. If sanitary pads were provided for free, only to the 868,000 girls at the bottom of the pyramid, and at the wholesale price of Proctor & Gamble’s Always in Kenya, it would cost approximately $600,000 per month or $7.2M per year. This doesn’t include underwear which could add another $450,000 annually. To take these 868,000 girls 7 years through the education system from the time they start menstruating would be just under $54 M, before transportation. This is a mere 1.6% of what is stolen every year, and a requisite for girls to stay in school. And that statistic above of creating $3.2 billion a year – these girls would make that happen. That’s a good return on investment if I’ve ever seen one.

But imagine if this wasn’t just given in donations. Imagine if it was given in a way that would reduce costs and ensure sustainability. That would be a GREAT return on investment.

This is just what ZanaA is working towards, and we don’t need $50M. In fact, what we need is more like $350,000 for 2011 and under $1M thereafter, to drop the price of pads by about half, and reduce the number of girls needing donations. Then, through NGO partnerships – those who are already investing in girls – we can meet the need in a distributed way for only about $3.1 M per year – with profits that we make reinvested into making our product cheaper, better, and in more countries to solve this problem internationally across the global south.

Now, pause for a minute to consider the environment. Each of these girls would produce 3.5kg of waste each year through disposing of these pads and their wrapping – that is over 3 million kilos – over 3,035 tonnes – of waste added to Kenya’s environment annually. Substances which are toxic when burned, and super-absorbent polymers which will be around until the next ice age. This is patently irresponsible to encourage.

But it doesn’t have to be an either-or choice. ZanaA’s working to create a biodegradable pad, so society and the environment can win. That sounds like an AMAZING return on investment.

If you buy into this idea of a leveraged solution with multiplier effects across society and the environment, consider buying in in a real way, through a contribution, which you could even give as a (tax-deductible) gift to a loved one today – with Christmas around the corner, perhaps this is just what you’ve been looking for. $10 can help us provide sanitary pads and panties to a girl for a year; our Forever550 campaign contributes $550 per year for 3 years to invest in manufacturing for sustainability.

What do you think  – are we on the right track?