Uganda FC Advocates Mobilize in Kampala

Kampala - 23 June 2009

Of all the condoms distributed globally in 2008, 99.6% (10 billion) were male condoms and 0.35% (35 million) were female condoms. This virtual absence of female condoms – to date the only effective, woman-initiated HIV prevention tool available -- in the very regions where they are needed most is an action priority for the Global Campaign on Microbicides (GCM).

On 23-25 June, GCM staffers combined forces with staff of the Center for Health and Gender Equity to facilitate a female condom (FC) advocacy workshop in Kampala attended by representatives of 25 Ugandan NGOs, academic institutions and donor organizations. GCM agreed to Uganda as a site for this intensive effort because a government-sponsored FC re-launch is scheduled to occur there this autumn.

Civil society leaders said that they want an active role in this re-launch, and are planning to call for increased investment in the public education and promotional efforts needed to introduce the FC to their constituencies correctly. To prepare, however, they wanted to build their technical and advocacy skills and needed help developing a strategy. Although it was first introduced in Uganda in 1998, their access to the FC has now become so limited that some workshop participants had never even seen one.

Vastha Kibiridge, coordinator of the condom unit for the Health Ministry’s STD/AIDS control program, was one of three workshop guest speakers. Her office spearheaded the Situational Analysis that led to the government’s decision to re-launch female condoms. She reported that the 1998 launch was funded exclusively by UNFPA and no resources went into ongoing education and promotional efforts. Health care staff were not trained in teaching women how to use female condoms properly resulting in lack of confidence and comfort with the product. Not surprisingly, the unfamiliar product sat on clinic shelves and the myth that “women don’t want female condoms” spread, as it has in many countries.

Kibiridge emphasized that “civil society’s role is to create demand” for FC. Embracing this challenge, participants brainstormed innovative approaches to demand generation. Some suggested asking social marketers to package male and female condoms together in special “introductory packages” so that men purchasing male condoms would take an FC home as well to try. Others pointed out that people often prefer to discuss personal matters with the NGO staff they go to for services, rather than health care workers. For this reason, they said this Ministry should engage NGOs in FC promotion and distribution.

After a day of briefings, strategizing and role-playing, participants made advocacy visits to the three policy-makers (the Health Development Partnership Group, headed by USAID; UNFPA; and the Ugandan Ministry of Health), conveying the “asks” they had tailored to each group and laying the ground-work of ongoing advocacy. In these visits, they came face-to-face with the challenge of trying to expand the space for civil society involvement in bureaucracies.

Guided by the workshop facilitators, they then articulated and prioritized their advocacy goals and objectives, divided up the necessary tasks, and set timelines for their completion. They concluded the meeting by establishing a formal coalition structure and Steering Committee to take the work forward.

During the wrap-up, GCM and CHANGE staff commended the participants on the their clear-headed, pragmatic and determined framework for action. A representative from TAS0 responded. TASO is Uganda’s largest HIV/AIDS organization, serving thousands of clients annually, about 85% of whom are HIV positive women. He said, “We have been waiting a long time. We want to get this done!”

Source: Global Campaign News issue 112: July 13, 2009

Knowledge Base

Countries in this article

Uganda

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.

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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.

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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.

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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