Successful Social Marketing for Health and Family Planning in Niger

In 2003 the Government of Niger with financial support from the German Development Bank KfW engaged the consortium GFA Consulting Group / Constella Futures to launch a five year Condom Social Marketing Project. Following intensive research and the participation of key partners and the public alike, an attractively packaged Nigerienne condom was developed and placed on the private sector market. Less than five years later the condom brand “Foula” has become one of the most recognizable brands among all available fast moving trade items, with continually increasing sales and sustainable distribution. By the end of the first phase of the project (May 2008), over 16 million condoms have been sold and the distribution system includes over 40 small and large wholesalers as well as over 3,000 individual sales points.

Perhaps more importantly, the program has proven that a professional communication strategy supported by attractive products, affordable pricing and an effective distribution system can positively influence and improve the health behaviour of Niger’s people. Thanks to innovative communication campaigns involving popular sports heroes and performing artists, sensitive products such as condoms and other contraceptives can now be openly presented and discussed even among a highly conservative and religious population.

In order to ensure sustainability, the consortium in 2006 created a national social marketing organization called ANIMAS SUTURA. Now into its second phase (until March 2010) and then it’s third phase (from April 2010 to July 2012), ANIMAS SUTURA continues to be supported by the international consortium of GFA Consulting Group / Constella Futures. In its short lifetime, ANIMAS SUTURA has demonstrated a remarkable capacity to interest other donors. During the life of the first phase of the project, 9 additional short and medium term contracts have been awarded to the project. These supplemental projects have assured additional funding that was used to expand condom social marketing activities beyond KfW’s identified intensive zones and to more effectively work with high risk targets including transport workers and professional sex workers.
Today, the implementers of the Nigerienne Social Marketing Project are expanding its product line to further improve the health of Niger’s population. Thanks to continued support from the German government, an oral contraceptive will be launched nationwide in 2009. The introduction of a medical product will require new distribution networks. And here too ANIMAS SUTURA and its implementing partners, including local and community radio, women’s networks and local NGO’s, have been developing effective and innovative behaviour change strategies.

In 2007 the project worked with over 40 radio stations and 45 NGO’s on an intensive and integrated reproductive health and HIV/AIDS campaign. The four-month campaign entitled “Les Aventures de Foula” was based on the production and broadcast of 15 radio sketches in all three of Niger’s major languages; French, Hausa and Zarma. Each sketch was broadcast three times daily over a one week period and, at the end of the week, a radio debate was produced by each of the participating radio stations. Themes treated in the series included highly sensitive issues such as pre-marital and teen age sex, peer pressure, embarrassment over the purchase of a condom, school-based sex education, early marriages, and difficulties of communication between parents and their children.

In order to ensure more direct community involvement, several partner NGOs were trained to form and manage community listening and discussion groups. Each NGO furnished five discussion leaders who were each responsible for leading a minimum of three discussion groups per week. In addition to creating a long term partnership with reliable NGOs, this campaign approach helped to hone each of the NGOs “animateurs,” who over the four months period become more and more adept at organising and directing lively debates and discussions. The program also helped to give direction and purpose to these NGOs which now have become able to offer an interesting and varied program to their constituents and beneficiaries over a sustained period of time.

ANIMAS SUTURA will continue to work with its NGO base. The introduction of the oral contraceptive and the emphasis on reaching rural women of child-bearing age also means that the program must adapt and expand to reach a larger and more diverse target audience. Using the same strategy and similar materials developed for our partner NGOs, in  ANIMAS SUTURA will begin to work with a number of “Groupements Feminin” which will be trained to organize and lead lively discussions in rural villages. These women will be the face, ears, eyes and voice of the project among rural women. And, in coordination with our communication program, these women will form the core of an effective community-based distribution (CBD) system that will ensure the presence and easy accessibility of all ANIMAS SUTURA health products at the village level. An effective Management Information System tied to regular visits, participation, purchase and use will also allow the project to constantly monitor, adapt and implement new and innovative strategies, themes and ideas.

More information on the success story of Social Marketing in Niger can be found in KfW publications (long(2 MB),  short(0,5 MB)) or in German on KfW website.