High level advocacy for female condom in Cameroon

Working to scale up the social marketing of female condoms in Cameroon, a high level delegation visited a number of senior officials from key institutional partners. This delegation consisted of the PSI/ACMS Executive Director in Cameroon along with two representatives of UAFC (Universal Access to female Condom)’s Dutch partners and the Deputy Permanent Secretary of the National Aids Control Committee (NACC).

In that perspective and in order to secure Government support and commitment in the launching of the UAFC project in Cameroon, the PSI/ACMS delegation had the honour to be received by the Minister of Women empowerment and the Prime Minister, respectively on the 23rd and 25th March 2009.

At the audience at the Ministry of Women empowerment
Top : First row from left to right: Dr Nomzo’o DPS of the NACC, Mr Alain Owono Owono from the Dutch Embassy, Mr. Nestor Ankiba ACMS’ Executive Director
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The meetings were designed to present the Project to Cameroon’s leading authorities and advocate for their active commitment during and beyond the project period.
Yet, during the audience with the Prime Minister, he said "I attach a particular importance to various actions taken in fighting against HIV/AIDS, we will launch the female condoms together ...the IEC activities are of specific importance in our country... I will make sure that ministers concerned by the project provide you with the necessary support for its effective implementation."
The UAFC Joint Programme aims at scaling up social marketing activities around female condoms in order to enhance its contribution in reducing the number of new HIV infections and unwanted pregnancies in Cameroon.

At the audience at the Ministry of Women empowerment
From left to right: Dr M. Razanamparany and Mr R Meyers from UAFC Netherlands and The Minister Suzanne Mbomback.
plaatje_nigeria_rino2_400_01 Key aspects of the project include (Advocacy, Mass media and IP communication to promote the use of the female condom and empower women in taking the ownership of female condoms both as HIV preventive and family planning methods. Product supply and distribution as well as product research and development are important aspects as well. Furthermore the project works on quality control by way of contributing of the improvement of the existing in- country quality control system and infrastructure (partnership with the National Laboratory for quality control of drugs).

The project will be implemented for a period of three years in five pilot regions in Cameroon.

Audience at the Prime Ministry. From left to right: Dr Nommzo’o, Dr Michèle Razanamparany, Mr. Ankiba, his Excellency Mr. Enoni Ephraïm and Mr. Rino Meyers plaatje_nigeria_rino3_400

Knowledge Base

Countries in this article

Cameroon

UAFC lobby paper

UAFC has developed a profound advocacy strategy in order to achieve acces to female condoms for all. For background on this strategy and to strengthen your own lobby activities you have access to this paper.

download the document

Breaking down the barriers!

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Ilze Smit of UAFC Joint Programme presented the session Female Condom Programming and Advocacy: Braking down the Barriers! at the NGO Forum ICPD+15.

read her weblog

see the photo's of the Forum

Trainings in Rwanda

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"In our daily work in HIV prevention and even in our sexual and reproductive life sessions with potential users, in trainings and advocay, we talk about female condoms as you can see in these photos. I'm pushing to include FC in our major advocay themes. It recently has been included in the Rwanda National NGO forum on AIDS for the four year strategic plan (2009/2012)," says Fortunée Twiyubahe from ACORD/Oxfam International in Rwanda.

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Knowledge base live

Part of our new website is the revolutionary knowledge base. This is a repository of concepts related to the main theme of UAFC, the female condom. This repository is organized according to themes, geographic location and time. We invite you to start exploring our knowledge base.

If you feel you have anything to contribute don't hesitate to contact us.

ACMS Website

In Cameroon the Association Camerounaise pour le Marketing (ACMS) works on making Female Condoms available to a large usersgroup. ACMS has its own website, with which it reaches especially young people.

Interview with Victoria Archibong, SFH

"I believe the introduction of the male condoms was relatively easier. This could be because it was easier to target men as the “dominant” party in relationships and the ones who will wear the condoms. There was also a lot of support from donors and IPs. The female condom is regarded more as a “woman thing”. Some men may feel threatened as the female condom will empower women in demonstrating their sexual and reproductive health rights. For Female condom programming, programmers have to be more creative and strategic."

read the interview