Cameroon - Quarterly Report 1stQ 2011
From January to March 2011 the UAFC Joint Programme in Cameroon evolved to a great extent around communication activities for the International Women's Day (8th March), such as educational talks, trainings and participation in the parade with a female condom mascot! New in this quarter was ACMS' (Association Camerounaise pour le Marketing Social) identification and involvement of two sex workers associations, thus increasing the UAFC Cameroon target group. The contract negotiations with these organisations are on track. Sales figures lagged somewhat behind in this quarter. However, several measures have been taken by ACMS in order to boost sales figures in the next quarter.
Capacity building and training
In total 21 new peer educators have been trained, and 188 retrained within the distribution network of hairdressing salons and Community Based Organisations (CBOs). In total 365 new sales points (of which 17 hairdressing salons) were created in this quarter and 950 sales points were reactivated.
Creating awareness and demand
With the International Women's Day (8th March), another phase of the media campaign “I have thing under control” has been implemented: 3 TV channels broadcasted the promotional UAFC Cameroon clip 294 times from 2nd till 30th March. Furthermore 38,042 leaflets with information about the use of the female condom were distributed during various talks and to private partners and partners coming from government, and 1878 posters were distributed to CBOs and hairdressing salons for their sensitization activities. A total of 215,227 people were reached by information, education and communication activities organised by peer educators and ACMS promoters in this quarter.
Sales and free sampling
Hairdressing salons continue to be very successful in selling female condoms. A total number of 163 hairdressing salons and 16 CBOs realized a sales figure of 163.900 units, or 90% of total sales in this quarter! Commercial sales outlets and pharmacies realized a sales figure of 19,536, bringing the total sales (all FC2) for this quarter at 183,436. In addition, 23,700 units (all FC2) were distributed for free bringing the total number of sold and distributed female condoms in Cameroon in Q1 2011 at 207,136. To boost the sales figures further ACMS took a number of measures, such as new clauses of performance with contract partners and introduction of a competition element between partners in terms of amount of female condoms sold.
Advocacy
Within the context of the UAFC International Steering Group meeting in Yaoundé from May 11th to 13th, several meetings with high political leaders and some donors were held. In addition, for the new phase of the media campaign “I have things under control” in March 2011, and thanks to advocacy efforts in 2010, a number of advocacy meetings were held with media managers. This resulted finally in 4 TV channels accepting to decrease the broadcasting costs of the UAFC Cameroon promotional clip.
