VMMC Demand Creation: Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Meeting, April 2013

This video shows people discussing strategies to generate robust demand for voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) in sub-Saharan Africa at an April 2013 three-day meeting in Lusaka, Zambia. The meeting included perspectives from non-HIV-related fields, including product advertising, social marketing, and behavioural economics, as well as some insights on personally tailored communication to market VMMC to men.

Communication strategies included sending peer educators to bus terminals, taxi terminals, etc., for peer-to-peer discussions using tailored information for the situation and population, rather than a fixed script, and accompanying printed materials.

The role of women as influencers in demand creation means educating women about the advantages to men in terms of health and longevity due to lower risk of life-threatening disease. Clinicians stated that men often acknowledged the influence of women in their decisions around VMMC. The role of traditional, political, and religious leaders in public service announcements, in the press, and in their spheres of influence can be one of leadership promoting VMMC.

Message formation was discussed by marketers who pointed out that demand creation means positioning VMMC as part of an identity belonging to a group of men of whom other men want to be a part. This means placing less emphasis on the functional medical reasons for VMMC and appealing to the men's emotions. The attenders of the meeting formed groups made up of people with expertise in various fields to design new messages and programmes to deliver them.

The meeting also encouraged new partnerships between implementers and researchers and new channels for research results to reach programme implementers and project designers.

Click here to see a short video entitled Demand Creation Visits.