
New Incentives (YC S16 Nonprofit) helps Nigerian mothers deliver babies safely - stvnchn
http://themacro.com/articles/2016/06/new-incentives/
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OoTheNigerian
I met Patrick (one of the co founders) in Lagos pre YC. He was really
passionate about this project

This is a brilliant project I am excited about. I see it as a win-win. Some
people are too poor to even take care of themselves. Rather than give them
money (Basic Income?) how can we get them to perform particular activities
while giving them free money?

I hope this succeeds because we need this to be applied to other sectors like
education. i.e allow your kid to go to school and you will be rewarded.

Bravo New Incentives!

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pratyushag2
Hi HN, I'm a Co-founder at New Incentives. Happy to answer any questions.
-Prat

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jbob2000
What do you do to support the mother after birth? If she can't afford to have
the baby, can she afford to care for it for the next 10+ years? Do you think
your service is creating an "another mouth to feed" problem?

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pratyushag2
The main problem is not that they cannot afford to have the baby but that they
are not delivering it safely at the health clinics. Instead, they are
delivering it with traditional birth attendants. This is especially a problem
because it can increase the chances of the baby being born diseases like HIV,
which has a 50% chance of leading to death within the first two years. The
cost of a baby being born with HIV runs into many thousands of dollars.

Also, infant mortality has a strong correlation with the fertility rate, so
trying to increase the probability of survival of babies can help reduce the
number of babies being born (which addresses the problem you mentioned).

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spraak
Honest question, how does birthing the traditional way increase the chance of
HIV infection? Also, are you doing anything to bring the positive aspects of
the traditional into the clinic?

And your post is kind of grayed out, does that mean it's been downvoted? (I
only see up vote option, do I need more points to downvote?)

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pratyushag2
Good question. Clinics are more hygienic (reducing the chance of blood
transmission during birth), provide ARVs pre-birth (reduces HIV viral count),
and give Nevirapine at birth (giving this to newborns immediately after birth
is the biggest individual step that can reduce transmission).

Not sure why the post is grayed out or what it means. I believe only some
members have downvoting privileges (I don't).

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spraak
Thanks for clarifying!

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jaymeh13
Congrats NI!

How did you come across this problem/solution?

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pratyushag2
Thanks Jayme!

Svetha (CEO & co-founder) came across conditional cash transfers (CCTs) while
doing research in effective ways of giving AID in developing countries. CCTs
have seen incredible success in Mexico, Brazil, and several other countries.

The current idea was a pivot after trying to fund CCTs through partners in
various countries. The focus was to save lives through CCTs. Infant mortality
is a big problem and Nigeria accounts for one out of three children born with
HIV. That's how the org started doing CCTs for reducing HIV transmission and
has now expanded beyond HIV transmission.

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wbeckler
Why not, instead of paying mothers to birth at clinics, give the Nevirapine to
the traditional birth attendants. Then you won't have to twist arms to get
people to change their traditions and you can still prevent the spread of HIV?

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pratyushag
Great question. Top three reasons: 1) There are many benefits from delivering
newborns in health clinics outside of Nevirapine. 2) It would be much more
challenging to reach all of the traditional birth attendants, maintain
constant supply of Nevirapine, and monitor proper administration. Moreover, in
our case, the cost of the program is the cash transfers and this is a large
benefit for program participants. 3) Traditional birth attendants do not
consistently test women for HIV when they deliver, because of various reasons
(one being it is bad for business to share negative news).

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tn13
What field presence do you have to carry out this work?

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pratyushag2
We founded our own organization in Nigeria to be able to do this, all the
employees are hired directly by our organization. Women are enrolled at the
clinics by our team and then called to give the cash transfer code (codes are
redeemable at ATMs).

