From deal to delivery : lessons learned from SOMARC about building partnerships with the commercial sector

This study describes the process by which USAID"s Social Marketing for Change (SOMARC) project was able to interest potential commercial partners in project participation in five countries (Brazil, Jamaica, Uganda, Jordan, and Turkey); the "deal" that was finally struck with each partner; and the degree to which the partnership succeeded or failed in making modern contraceptives more widely available and more affordable to middle- and lower-income consumers. Partnerships with commercial sector entities have proved "successful" in a variety of ways and to different degrees. Overall, partnerships with the commercial sector have contributed to USAID"s family planning service delivery objectives as follows: (1) Reliance on commercially available contraceptive products in many social marketing programs has reduced USAID/Washington"s commodity costs by more than $47 million over the last 10 years. (2) The availability and accessibility of modern contraceptive methods have been increased in many project countries. (3) The range of contraceptive methods readily available to consumers has been increased in a number of project markets. (4) Reliance on public sector resources for family planning products and services has been decreased in some markets. (5) Project activities have encouraged some contraceptive manufacturers to begin marketing contraceptive products to lower-priced mass markets rather than to higher-priced niche markets alone. Lessons learned on the reasons for greater or lesser "success" from one commercial partnership to another or from one marketplace to another are grouped under 10 categories: advantages to partner; importance of brand to commercial partners; advertising; the role of corporate head offices; the place of contraceptives in the pharmaceutical business; mass market for contraceptives and consumer marketing; private providers as commercial partners; donor/host government supervision and support of commercial marketing programs; legal/regulatory/policy issues; and uniqueness of markets and replicability.