DKT International's Best of 2023 Newsletter

Dear Friend of DKT,

We look back on 2023 with immense gratitude and appreciation for your continued support in our global work, ensuring people everywhere have control over their own reproductive lives.

The year 2023 was marked by steady and notable growth. We expect to close the year with a 10% increase in the number of Couple Years of Protection (CYPs) we provide. A new analysis describes DKT’s role in driving contraceptive market growth in several countries (see details below) and we continue to strive for sustainability and cost-efficiency. We’re proud to report that we reduced our global Cost Per CYP to less than $1. 

We further expanded our product lines in several existing markets and began sales in new and previously-closed ones, such as Iraq, Honduras, Guatemala and several countries within the Francophone West Africa region. And, we kept products available, affordable and accessible against the odds in the most challenging of markets, in the most challenging of times: Afghanistan, Sudan, Venezuela, and the DR Congo. 

Making an investment in DKT is a solid investment towards the expansion of and access to contraception and safe abortion around the world. Enabling couples to make this decision is one of the powerful individual freedoms they have to impact their lives. DKT does this well and we do it at scale.

In this final newsletter of the year, I would like to ask for your financial support. Your money goes farther with DKT. We are extremely cost-effective: our headquarters cost is less than 2% of the global budget and our fundraising budget is a fraction of that. Your donation is combined with DKT’s own sales revenues to cover expenses. The cost to you (and donors) to deliver one full year of contraception is less than $1. Other costs are absorbed by DKT’s sales revenues.

Below, we highlight in greater detail the many accomplishments of 2023.  We hope our work inspires you to both give and get involved. 

Warm regards for the holiday season,

Chris Purdy

New analysis describes DKT International’s role driving contraceptive market growth in several countries

We have partnered with DKT partnered with researchers at the William H. Gates Sr. Institute at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) to estimate DKT’s contribution to a given country’s contraceptive use. DKT’s products account for a significant proportion of the total contraceptive market in several countries, and supported moderate to substantial growth across the total market in the countries analyzed.  

Our data-driven approach was developed in partnership with the team at JHU, which formulated their methodology to monitor their own family planning programs.

We’ll be releasing a full analysis and report in January.

The below graph demonstrates DKT’s ‘market share’ of contraceptive users for select countries by year. 

Graph 1: Percentage of Total Contraceptive Users from 2012-2022 Supplied by DKT

Table 2: Percentage of Total Contraceptive Users Supplied by DKT in 2022

The analysis enhances our understanding of our impact, and informs our decision-making process for future programming. For more information about this analysis or to contact our programs department, please reach out to Stephanie Gallagher, Director of Global Programs and Development at stephanie@dktinternational.org.

DKT’s most notable expansion and growth in 2023 occurred in Latin America and the Middle East, but teams also increased access to medical abortion in Chile, Ecuador, Honduras, and Guatemala and began offering a nearly full-line of contraceptive products in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), DKT Egypt began distributing a limited line of products, including IUDs. 

Long-acting options such as implants and IUDs were also added to existing product lines in the DR Congo, Honduras, and Gabon. Sales of MVA kits were made in Honduras, Sudan, Jordan, KSA, and the Gambia. A new line of injectables were sold in the Janani program in India, in several Francophone and Anglophone West African nations, and in Iraq.

For a full account of DKT’s product expansions in 2023, please see the chart below:

In Mexico, teams launched the DKT School initiative, teaching sex-eduction and positivity to reach more than 400,000 middle and high school students across the country. They also produced sexy and dramatic new ads, including a cinematic black and white spot for Prudence condoms featuring a young couple taking their night to the next level – leaving nothing to the imagination.

In Mozambique, local influencers sat for a round-table discussion about abortion, de-stigmatizing long-held beliefs by including both men and women.

In Indonesia, teams devised a humorous, four-part campaign to encourage IUD usage amongst married and newlywed couples, working in partnership with the Indonesian government to turn one of the four ads into a public service announcement. Nigeria also focused on IUDs to change contraceptive behavior, with an ad featuring two mothers talking about birth spacing. 

In Kenya, local male and female rappers brought the Kiss condom brand to life with original raps, launched as music videos.

To view more of DKT’s ads and campaigns from the year, head over to our YouTube page. 

Leading in partnership with the SRH community on the future of reproductive health

• Participation in a panel at the National Press Club on an Ipas-sponsored panel as to why negative attitudes towards sexual and reproductive rights persist in the United States. DKT President Chris Purdy answered questions from reporters and spoke on a panel alongside Ipas President and CEO, Anu Kumar, Dr. Christine Ryan, Legal Director of the Global Justice Center, and Jamie Manson, President of Catholics For Choice. The event was moderated by Bethany Van Kampen Saravia, Senior Policy and Legal Advisor at Ipas.
• Co-hosting a webinar on the Impact of “Social Marketing 40 Years On” with the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition, to officially transfer production of the  Contraceptive Social Marketing Statistics report 30 years after DKT began compiling and publishing CYP totals around the world.
• Publishing two op-eds in Devex, authored by Chris Purdy, the second of which was written in collaboration with Dr. Samukeliso Dube at FP2030. The call-to-action piece, These 7 specific actions will help improve reproductive health offers a vision for streamlining programming and activities in the SRH field to move progress forward with less hindrance. In January, we focused on medical abortion and leveraging new technologies with “On reproductive health in 2023 — stay the course, it’s working”.
• Working in collaboration with colleagues across the SRH field to publish Examining reuse and replacement procedures for Ipas manual vacuum aspiration and cannulae in nine countries in the International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics.
• Supporting the European Consortium for Emergency Contraception (ECEC) in their research process with the publication of Emergency Contraception Pills Sales in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Data from Social Marketing Programs, an analysis of EC usage using historical Contraceptive Social Marketing (CSM) statistics report data. 

Meet our teams!

Of course, nothing we do at DKT would be possible without our dynamic country teams. We had fun this year showing them off in “team” videos highlighting key staff – giving the world a glimpse of the talent in our midst. 

From Pakistan to Liberia, we thank and congratulate everyone for a successful and robust 2023!

Meet the DKT FWACA Team

Meet the DKT Liberia Team