NetMark News

NetMark Supports African Net Manufacturers’ Efforts to Improve Quality

AFRICAN NET MANUFACTURERS ARE critical to reducing malaria
in Africa; but to be successful in the long-term, they must produce products that can compete with the quality and variety of imported nets.

To help African net manufacturers apply international quality assurance standards to their factories, NetMark organized a workshop from September 27- 29, 2004 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Staff members responsible for quality control from 10 African net manufacturers attended the workshop. The workshop was led by two textile experts from Global Textile Partners, Geert de Clercq and Dan McCreight, with assistance from Will Shaw of NetMark. The participants were from net manufacturers in Kenya, Nigeria,
Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.

Representatives from Bayer ES and Sasol Ltd. discussed their LLIN technologies. In a discussion of the future of African net manufacturing and NetMark’s potential role in helping them, the participants proposed the creation of an Association of African Net Manufacturers that would help them share technical information, cooperate on filling net orders, and represent their interests in international forums. A working group was formed to move the creation of an
association forward. NetMark agreed to play a supportive role if the companies
took the leadership role in establishing the association.

The workshop was funded by USAID’s REDSO and WARP offices.

Staff from ten African net manufacturers in Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe attended the quality control workshop.

Net manufacturers work on quality control statistical exercises.