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Program Goals and Objectives 203

the country. A small number of net manufacturers produced nets as a sideline,
and other nets were made by local stitchers from a variety of materials—but
insecticide-treated nets were a rarity and unknown to the general public. A 1999
UNICEF project sold ITNs for US$4.50 in 10 states; a second project had NGOs
sell ITNs for $5 in four communities to test the possibility of full-cost recovery.
Although there was strong support in the Ministry of Health for the involve-
ment of the local net manufacturers in NetMark, there was not broad support
for the commercial sector in general. When the tariff on imported nets was in-
creased to 75% in 2002, the Ministry of Health did not back the efforts of
NetMark and other RBM partners to get it reduced.

TA RG E T A U DI E NCES

There were three main target audiences for NetMark’s efforts to build a com-
mercial ITN market:
1. Consumers. This group includes families with women of reproductive age
and/or children under 5 who are most likely to die from malaria. A sec-
ondary group is everyone else likely to get malaria—which constitutes
90% of Nigeria’s population.
2. Public sector policy makers. These are the decision makers who can cre-
ate a facilitating environment for the commercial sector by targeting
free and subsidized ITNs to the poorest segments of the population,
lowering taxes and tariffs on ITNs, and enabling a vibrant commercial
market to develop to meet the needs of those who can afford a com-
mercial product.
3. Commercial distributors and retailers. While NetMark had collaborative
agreements with multinational insecticide and net suppliers, they had to
identify and appoint national distributors that could jumpstart a retail
ITN market for their brands.

P ROG R A M GO A L S A N D OB J EC TI V ES

NetMark’s goals fell into four categories (see Table 9-1). Its projected outputs
changed over time as its end date was extended from September 2004 to
September 2007 and then to September 2009; however, funding for Nigeria was
decided annually.