Skip links
Donate

What We Do

OUR KEY STRATEGY

ACCESS

Increase availability and affordability of quality condoms, contraceptives, and maternal and child health products by strengthening the supply chain and improving method mix

SUSTAINABILITY

Apply entrepreneurial, risk-taking and results-oriented commercial marketing strategies, enabling the private sector to provide more family planning and reproductive health products and services

DEMAND

Increase demand for sexual and reproductive health products and services through media and educational campaigns

CAPACITY

Increase capacity of health providers to offer high quality healthcare through training and support for clinic networks

Programmatic Focus

DKT’s social marketing program focuses on four thematic areas:

Increase Use of Modern Family Planning

DKT increases access to and demand for a full basket of short- and long-acting contraceptives for millions of couples and individuals through social marketing. DKT regularly reaches tens of thousands of private health facilities with contraceptive product distribution. DKT also undertakes 360-degree marketing activities to improve demand for contraceptive brands. Skilled trainers in DKT’s Technical Department train hundreds of professionals every year on a range of topics. DKT’s 100+ member Partner Clinic Network  is one of DKT’s key strategies for increasing long-acting contraception and maternal health in private clinics.

Reduce Incidence Of HIV/AIDS, STIs And Unplanned Pregnancy

To advance the Government of Ethiopia’s HIV/AIDS National Strategic Plan, DKT improves access to and use of high-quality condoms and lubricants. DKT sells condoms to tens of thousands of private medical and non-medical commercial outlets and leverages the Young Marketers’ (YM) clubs to make condoms available in tens of thousands of hotels, bars, pensions/guesthouses, and kiosks across Ethiopia. Distribution of condoms and lubricants is supported by extensive television and radio advertising, billboards, lightboxes and targeted BCC campaigns and branding.

The NSP identifies several key and priority populations that DKT works with through targeted initiatives, including:

  • Female sex workers and mobile people
  • Youth and adolescents, including students in higher education institutions
  • Construction and industrial park workers
  • Military and police

Improve Use Of Maternal Health Products

Hemorrhage, hypertension in pregnancy, abortion, and sepsis continue to be the leading causes of maternal death in Ethiopia, which can only be averted through skilled institutional care and universal access to safe and equitable services for abortion and prevention of postpartum hemorrhage (PPH). A number of studies show improvement in maternal indicators since the 2005 expansion of Ethiopia’s abortion law .

Article 551 of the Penal Code of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia allows for termination of pregnancy where:

  • Pregnancy is a result of rape or incest
  • Continuation of the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother or the child or the health of the mother or where the birth of the child is a risk to the life or health of the mother
  • Fetus has an incurable and serious deformity
  • Pregnant woman, owing to a physical or mental deficiency she suffers from or her minority is physically as well as mentally unfit to bring up the child
  • Pregnant women at risk of PPH

 

DKT increases access to safe abortion products, including medical abortion (MA) kits, manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) kits and misoprostol tablets for the prevention of PPH. DKT also develops informational materials about safe abortion and prevention of PPH as well as training thousands of service providers on MA and comprehensive abortion care.

Reduce Child Mortality And Morbidity

Ethiopia has made enormous progress towards reducing child morbidity and mortality. The achievements are mostly attributable to the adoption of preventive and curative primary health care, including prevention and management of malaria, community-based nutrition, the establishment of neonatal intensive care units, and proper case management of acute respiratory illness and diarrhea. Strong economic growth has also helped.

DKT contributes to this progress by selling branded oral rehydration salts (ORS) for the treatment of diarrhea, one of the leading causes of child mortality in Ethiopia. ORS, which can be given at home and is available over-the-counter, prevents dehydration through the replenishment of fluid and electrolytes in the body. Despite progress, just three out of ten children receive ORS for diarrhea in Ethiopia.