“T-MARC” Launches New Female Condom and OC Pill Brands in Tanzania

Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania: On September 22, 2005, the USAID-supported Tanzania Marketing and Communications Project (T-MARC) launched two new contraceptive products, the Lady Pepeta female condom and Flexi P oral contraceptive pill. Approximately 300 people representing government, the private and commercial sector, and the nongovernmental sector attended the launch. The theme of the evening was women's empowerment, which is what both of these products embodied. The event master of ceremonies was Masoud Masoud, a very well known radio personality. The evening’s guest of honor was the Deputy Health Minister, Dr. Hussein Mwinyi.

The two keynote speeches reflected the private and public sector cooperation that T-MARC orchestrated for these products and the launch event. Mary Rusimbi, the Executive Director of the Gender Network Project, said how important these products were to the women of Tanzania, and how they would allow women greater control over their reproductive health. Umesh Rivankar, representing T-MARC’s commercial partner, Shelys Pharmaceuticals, spoke on “the importance and relevance of forging effective public-private partnerships to address public health issues”. Mr. Rivankar described the effectiveness of the T-MARC- Shelys’ partnership model, and appealed to the government to reduce the barriers for effective distribution of health products—such as OC pills to rural women. He gave the example of the restriction on pill distribution to “Part I” pharmacies, excluding the more popular duka la dawa (“Part II” drug shops). He noted that while there are approximately 10 million women of reproductive age, there are only 400 pharmacies in Tanzania, compared with 5,000 duka la dawa.

Even though USAID Mission Director Pamela White could not attend personally, she appeared at the event via remote video linkup, and spoke to the audience and the women of Tanzania about the importance of these products in saving lives. She noted that maternal mortality in Tanzania is one of the highest in the world. She appealed to women to space their babies for their own health and that of their babies, and to protect themselves by using these products. In her heartfelt speech, she told women that even though “the men in our lives are very important to us … they are not our kings”. She encouraged women to be responsible for their own bodies; and these products are tools to help them do that.

The evening's themes and partner logos—USAID, T-MARC and Shelys—could be seen on several plasma video screens in the hall.

Entertainment for the evening was provided by the musical group, Roots, and the drama troupe Parapanda, which performed an entertaining 10-minute drama reflecting the women's empowerment theme.

The vote of thanks was given by Dr. Halima Shariff, a TACAIDS Commissioner. Among the evening’s highlights was an interactive quiz program, which allowed the entire audience to participate more fully. Each table was challenged to answer one of many questions, which had been handed out earlier in the evening. The questions ranged from difficult to easy, and all related to the products being launched. The quizmaster, Abdul Razak Badru, informed the audience that one table would be selected as the winner, based on whether they answered their question correctly, and how well the table performed as a team. The winning table was awarded a certificate of achievement by Dr. Mwinyi in a short ceremony.

The launch event was the culmination of months of work, which started in March of this year when USAID requested TMARC to develop new brands for its donated oral contraceptive pill, and female condom. TMARC rapidly developed new brand names, conducted audience research to ensure that the names resonated with the target audiences, and sought and received approvals from the appropriate government authorities, including the Tanzania Food and Drug Administration (TFDA), the Reproductive and Child Health section of the Ministry of Health, and the National AIDS Control Program.

The event’s impact was reflected in the outstanding press coverage that it received. The event was covered by Tanzania’s leading English and Swahili dailies, Citizen, Guardian, and Mwananchi. In addition, television coverage included prime time news reports on ITV.