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  • Title: Bangladesh's SMP earns top marks.
    Journal: Soc Mark Forum; 1984; 1(2):1-2. PubMed ID: 12313309.
    Abstract:
    A recent evaluation funded by the US Agency for International Development (AID) confirms that Bangladesh's contraceptive social marketing program has exceeded its planner's goals and demonstrated the ability of such a system to widely distribute contraceptive products at a low cost. The project, which began contraceptive sales in 1975, distributes condoms, oral contraceptives, and foaming vaginal tablets. Almost 25% of contraceptive users in Bangladesh are serviced by the social marketing program. By the end of 1983, the program was providing 1,022,000 couple years of protection; this included 84 million condoms, 1.7 million pill cycles, and 5.1 million spermicidal tablets each year. The program's cost for 1 couple year of protection is US$1.66. Social marketing sales have accounted for all increases in couple years of protection experienced by the country's national population program since 1975. Sales have been boosted by recent efforts to draw rural medical practitioners into family planning activities. Mobile film units have further increased sales. The USAID report identifies 3 elements that have spearheaded the social marketing program's achievements: 1) the existence of a committed core management team, 2) the granting of autonomy to make daily decisions to this management team, and 3) central control fo the product distribution system by management rather than by subcontractors. Overall, the social marketing program is credited with legitimizing discussion of contraception in a country formerly considered too conservative to tolerate open product promotion.
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