Page 244 - The Power to Change Anything

Change the Environment 233

tion to the villages that were plagued because the leaders drew
their political support from urban areas.
Consequently, Hopkins’s first challenge was to escalate the
importance of the Guinea worm plight in the eyes of the rul-
ing forces by changing their data stream. That’s why to this day
the very first step any Guinea worm eradication team takes is
to gather data.
“Data is extremely important in the campaign against
Guinea worm,” reports Hopkins. “We start by getting baseline
information about nationwide infections.” Actually, they’re look-
ing for counterintuitive, eye-popping statistics to catch people’s
attention. For instance, in Nigeria national leaders assumed that
there were only a few thousand cases nationwide. In 1989, after
village coordinators from around the country reported the num-
ber of infections in their region, leaders were horrified to discover
that there were well over 650,000 cases. They had been off by
as much as 3,000 percent! This made Nigeria the most endemic
country in the world. With that new piece of information alone,
support for eradicating the worm skyrocketed.
Since managing the data stream relies on numbers to
change people’s cognitive maps (as opposed to personal expe-
rience), the data have to be fresh, consistent, and relevant if
they’re going to have much of an impact. Hopkins is quick to
point out that with such a small team working at The Carter
Center, much of their influence comes from providing leaders
with powerful information. Working closely with Dr. Hopkins
is Dr. Ernesto Ruiz-Tiben, the technical director of the Guinea
Worm Eradication Program. He oversees The Carter Center’s
efforts and has been key in tracking and communicating the
status of the global campaign. Dr. Ruiz-Tiben makes Guinea
worm eradication data available through publications such as
the Guinea Worm Wrap Up, which is published every month
by The Carter Center and The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. This report summarizes the progress and set-
backs in each country.