EVALUATION OF SOCIAL MARKETING OF CONTRACEPTIVE PROGRAMME OF GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

1. Background

The Department of Health & Family Welfare is responsible for implementation of the National Family Welfare Programme by encouraging the production and utilization of contraceptives and equipment of good quality and standards and distribution of the same to the States both through free supply scheme and Public-private partnership under Social Marketing Scheme. A few concerns about Free Supply scheme include end-user not attaching value to free contraceptives; the quantity supplied under the free supply scheme is prone to wastage; the contraceptives are available on working days only, at limited outlets and that too for a fixed time when the service provider is available.

In view of the inherent weaknesses of the free distribution of contraceptives as also to attach value to the product the Government of India, in 1968, became the first country to initiate a social marketing programme for contraceptives in the area of family health and welfare, with the launch of “Nirodh” brand of condoms. The social marketing of contraceptives was conceived by Peter King and his colleagues at Calcutta's Indian Institute of Management in 1964. Using commercial marketing techniques, social marketing makes a product available and affordable while linking it to a communications campaign geared toward behavioral change. It seeks to influence social behaviors not to benefit the marketer, but to benefit the target audience and the general society. The aim has been to supplement the efforts of providing universal accessibility of the contraception.

The market of family planning products in India has since been strengthened with the combined efforts of the public, private and non-governmental sectors. Today, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) identifies social marketing as a key approach for providing accessible and affordable contraceptive products to low-income families and vulnerable groups. This gave an impetus to Social Marketing Organizations (SMOs) in the early nineties, to start partaking in the implementation of social marketing programmes with funding from government and other organisations. The SMOs’ objective was to promote government as well as own-branded contraceptive products and services.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare requested UNFPA to undertake evaluation of its Social Marketing of Contraceptive Programme to identify current status of the scheme and suggest steps to make it more effective in future. The details about the brands of condoms and Oral Pills and geographical area allotted for marketing of the Government Brands (Super Deluxe/Deluxe Nirodh and Mala-D) to the Social Marketing Organisations are provided in Annex – 1.

The objectives, methodology and bidding process to identify a suitable research agency are outlined in the following sections of the terms of reference.

2. Objectives

The main objective of the study is to evaluate the social marketing of contraceptive programme of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. The study will examine the relevance of the social marketing scheme in general and in the context of similar contraceptive promotion programmes in particular, such as implemented by NACO. In addition, the effectiveness of the scheme will also be assessed in terms of reaching out to the eligible couples, with focus on rural areas.

To achieve the overall objectives of the evaluation, it will involve studying the following three broad aspects –

1.  Assessment of management of the Social Marketing programme, including, procurement, supply chain logistics and product promotional activities
2. Desk review of the sales data maintained by the Social Marketing Organizations (SMOs) and their retail audit for past 3 years to understand the spread and variations of product placement in their allotted geographical areas and market profile of SM brands. The desk review will also include reviewing any relevant document such as special studies conducted by the SMOs or any other document prepared on the social marketing of contraceptives
3. Perspective of the stockist of SM contraceptives and user feedback on the product and its accessibility on a sample basis using appropriate sampling methodology