Have you followed the rise of social entrepreneurship at all? Under its banner there are quite a lot of startups taking on problems exactly like the malaria dilemma you describe in the piece. They come at the issue from the opposite side of the spectrum: they're reacting to all of the waste and inefficiency in the old fashioned non-profit world, where something gets done because a millionaire's brother's wife is interested in it and done badly because she's not very good at solving the problem. So, they're trying to harness the power of market forces and the attendant efficiencies and motivations that go with them in order to solve these big intractable social problems. The social entrepreneurship movement encompasses everything from micro-finance -- which was pioneered by Mohammed Yunnus at Gramin Bank (for which Yunnus just won the nobel prize) -- to a revolution in funder logic and an increased focus on effectiveness metrics.

I'd be curious to read your thoughts on social entrepreneurship from a startup point of view.