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LUSAKA, Zambia, Sept. 27, 2004 — The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded the Society for Family Health (SFH), PSI's affiliate in Zambia, $24 million for the next six years to step up its efforts to use social marketing to improve health among low-income and vulnerable Zambians in the areas of HIV/AIDS, malaria, safe water and family planning. The award will ensure that this effective and diverse social marketing program — PSI's first major success in Eastern and Southern Africa — continues creating health impact into the next decade. In 2003, PSI's Zambia program averted an estimated 44,125 HIV infections, 90,545 unintended pregnancies and 11,769 child deaths from malaria and unsafe water. Furthermore, Zambia was PSI's seventh most cost-efficient program overall, preventing an HIV infection for $77 and an unintended pregnancy for $43. PSI partnered with the Pharmaceutical Society of Zambia in 1998 to form the Society for Family Health, a registered Zambian trust. For the past six years, SFH has been the implementing partner of the social marketing component of the USAID-funded Zambia Integrated Health Programme. With 250 staff and field offices in each of the nine provincial capitals, SFH has a national presence and is poised to penetrate even the most rural communities with affordable products and behaviour change messages. USAID remains the core funding source for SFH's basic organizational infrastructure and key programs in HIV/AIDS, malaria, family planning, safe water and voluntary HIV counseling and testing (VCT). But SFH has also succeeded in attracting funding or in-kind donations from the Department for International Development (DFID), the Federal Republic of Germany through KFW Entwicklungsbank (the German development bank), the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and UNICEF. Most recently, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) provided funding for VCT, targeted condom promotion to priority groups like commercial sex workers and truck drivers and for mass media advocacy campaigns. PSI/Zambia launched its first product, Maximum condoms, in 1992 as part of an HIV/AIDS prevention project, and has since expanded the product line to encompass PSI's other four program areas — family planning, safe water, malaria and nutrition. Today, SFH brands include Safeplan oral contraceptive pills, Clorin home water purification solution, Safenite and Mama Safenite ITNs, Vibrant micronutrients with iron, New Start VCT centers and care female condoms. Major Accomplishments The HEART Campaign: This campaign, targeted at young adults aged 15-24, promoted abstinence and consistent and correct use of condoms. Research has shown that viewers of the HEART campaign were 1.7 times more likely to report abstinence and almost twice as likely to report condom use than non-viewers. This campaign is regularly cited as an example of effective behaviour change promotion to young people, and was even mentioned as the kind of program that need to be replicated in Congressional testimony. HIV prevalence is now declining among some key groups. Correct and Consistent Condom Use: PSI/SFH has sold over 93 million condoms from 1992 to July 2004. The percentage of youth who reported using condoms with a regular partner increased from 48% in 2000 to 63% in 2004. Also, the percentage of youth who reported using condoms with a non-regular (casual) partner increased from 54% in 2000 to 61% in 2004. Reduction in Urban Fertility Rate: The urban total fertility rate has dropped from 5.1 in 1992 to 4.3 in 2001-2002 accompanied by an increase in pill users from 15.2% to 34.2% of currently married women 15-49 using family planning methods over the same period, according to the latest DHS. Twenty-two percent of all urban pill users were found to be using Safeplan, PSI/SFH's social marketing brand. Clorin Safe Water: PSI/SFH's safe water system is southern Africa's first, and the world's largest, point-of-use safe water initiative. Clorin has sold nearly 6 million bottles to date, more than any other country in the world, and has achieved 98% urban brand awareness and 27% urban use. New Start Voluntary Counseling and Testing: Zambia's first branded stand-alone VCT center targeting young people has tested over 21,000 clients since 2002. Research has shown high client satisfaction — 96% for quality of service through all four stages of the test — including, most recently, Zambian Vice President Nevers Mumba who was tested and commended SFH staff at the New Start center for their professional manner. — Staci Leuschner, PSI/Zambia; David J. Olson, PSI/Washington.
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