Category Archives: Mozambique

In late August, VillageReach welcomed a team of Wharton Business School students to work on a short-term pro bono consulting project, aiming to develop a diversification strategy for VillageReach in Mozambique.  Although the team spent only nine days on the ground in Maputo, the project had been months in the making, starting with an initial dialogue between Ruth Bechtel, the Mozambique Country Director, and Wharton team leader Joelle Birge back in fall 2015. Coming from a variety of backgrounds, these four students were inspired to travel to Mozambique by their common interest in international development and global health. Joelle describes the work this team accomplished:

Project planning began with a series of calls between VillageReach and the Wharton team to refine the project scope and map out work plans and deliverables. Together with VillageReach, we decided that one of the best ways to leverage the team’s time in Maputo would be conducting interviews with public health stakeholders to gain an outside-in perspective on current areas of need and opportunity.  Over the course of the spring and early summer, we conducted research on donors, NGOs and government organizations operating in Mozambique public health and used this research to work with VillageReach on defining a list of priority stakeholders to interview.  This interview list served as the jumping off point for structuring the our on-the-ground work in Maputo.

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