How
We Work

When it comes to reproductive health, our priority is to provide women with contraceptive options and support them in the decisions they make about family planning. In this effort, we are constantly adapting our implementation strategy in response to consumer needs and preferences. Our initial consumer research revealed that self-inject users view contraceptive self-care in terms of power (learn more here). We leveraged this insight to design our DiscoverYourPower marketing campaign, which equips young women with the information, options, and support she needs as she navigates her reproductive health journey. In the first year of the campaign, we have helped drive more than 80,000 self-inject visits.

Improving her journey toward
self-injection

We work in partnership with women and local health systems to:

Achieving consumer-centered healthcare isn’t possible without the help of skilled healthcare providers who are ready to train women on self-care methods. We learned early on that many providers lacked the confidence or sufficient training to help women overcome common anxieties around self-injection. In response, we developed an empathy-based training module on self-injection that is currently being scaled up across 15 states in Nigeria and 21 districts in Uganda. Our DiscoverYourPower campaign connects women with providers in her community who are trained on self-injection, and our DiscoverYourPower website and Facebook pages offer a vibrant online community where she can stay connected for ongoing support throughout her user journey.

Through our DiscoverYourPower campaign, we have set up new channels through which women and their partners can discreetly access accurate information about self-injection and other family planning topics of interest. In doing so, we’ve de-monopolized the flow of family planning information and helped make young women less susceptible to provider biases or stigmatization from community members. In recognition of the digital divide and its inequities, we have prioritized in-person and digital channels, giving clients a wide range of options on where to learn more.

OUR APPROACH

Our work combines demand generation and provider capacity-building interventions to sustainably scale up self-inject contraception. Our core objectives are to increase the prevalence of self-care in family planning and support women to ‘discover their power’ by adopting a method that places control directly in her hands. Our DiscoverYourPower campaign offers women and their partners information and real-time support through a wide array of in-person and digital channels including Facebook pages specific to Uganda and Nigeria. We are working through partners to scale up empathy-based training for providers.

Our Presence in

Uganda

Since 2020, DISC’s presence in Uganda has more than doubled. Originally, we worked in nine districts with two scaleup partners. Now, we’ve expanded to 21 districts with four scaleup partners (FPA, PATH, JSI, and AMREF).

Nigeria

Since 2020, DISC’s reach in Nigeria has increased fivefold. Originally, we worked in three states. Now, we’ve expanded to 15 states, which include four ‘foundation’ states and nine ‘seed’ states where we’re driving catalytic impact through robust partnerships.

OUR Impact

82K

self-inject visits (as of August 2022)

9

Scaleup partners

1,4M

Consumers Engaged

1,090

health facilities trained on empathetic self-inject counseling (as of September 2022)

MEET OUR CONSUMERS

Young Urban Women

Young Urban Mothers

DISC’s consumers primarily live in urban and peri-urban areas, have some degree of disposable income, and have access to digital channels and mobile phones. However, our use of non-digital channels such as radio and in-person events has also enabled us to reach women who may not have digital devices at their disposal.

Cover

01 #PeoplePowered

02 Breaking Taboos

03 Moving Care Closer to Consumers

04 Innovating on Investments

ICFP Q&A:
Let's Talk About Sex

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