Dear Friend of DKT,

The world is an unpredictable place, but DKT teams continue to push forward on the most important initiatives affecting the sexual and reproductive health field—providing access to contraceptives in new and challenging markets; increasing our trainings on post-abortion and miscarriage management care; and supporting our talented teams working to do their jobs in the face of unimaginable crisis. 

In this month’s newsletter, we are pleased to share knowledge on DKT’s approach to affordability; provide an update on our Sudan program; outline behavior change programs with health practitioners on the use of Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA) in Indonesia and Egypt; and announce the launch of medical abortion ‘combipacks’ in Niger.  

Our newsletters are also a space for us to introduce you to team members, and this month we feature “The Day in the Life” of a sales team member in Pakistan. 

As always, we thank you for your support.

Cheers,

Christopher Purdy

DKT endeavors to price contraceptives such that they are affordable to the vast majority of people in the markets we serve. We use a well-established formula that states that a 1-year supply of any contraceptive should cost no more than 0.25% of per capita GNI adjusted for purchasing power parity. See the graph below to see how this formula is implemented in Liberia.

Our projects in Kenya, Myanmar, Mozambique, and Liberia, for example, are working to achieve this. In countries with lower per capita incomes, it's harder and we sometimes have to subsidize with donor funds. Some products, like emergency contraception, command a higher price.

These guides are helpful for us as we balance the need to reach low and middle income groups with the financial realities of having to cover our costs and staying competitive in these marketplaces. Teams also utilize tools like the Big Mac Index, a survey created by The Economist magazine in 1986 to measure purchasing power parity (PPP) between nations, using the price of a McDonald's Big Mac as the benchmark, to gauge the costs of goods and understand price elasticity from country to country. 

DKT has been selling misoprostol in Niger since April 2022, but medical abortion sales expanded in March to include the first sales of “combipack” misoprostol/mifepristone pills.

Nedjma Benzekri, Regional Director of the Francophone West and Central African region, said DKT conducted a training on the use of misoprostol in Niger in 2022 and have a second training on the use of the misoprostol/mifepristone combipacks scheduled for June. 

The use of Ipas Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA) kits for miscarriage management is a less-invasive alternative to the more common practice of Dilatation and Curettage (D and C), but many practitioners are hesitant to adopt the use of MVAs due to a lack of knowledge and experience.

DKT International has been actively educating practitioners around the world to make the switch to MVA technology, as the technique has been recommended by the World Health Organization and may be used for early pregnancy loss (miscarriage) management, induced abortion, post abortion care (if incomplete or missed), or to obtain samples for endometrial biopsy. The rate of infection is lower than any other surgical abortion procedure at 0.5%.

DKT Egypt/MENA and DKT Indonesia have led the way in our own organization with their extensive training and outreach efforts using this vital technology. In Egypt, the team launched a website in March specifically for health care professionals wanting to learn more about the Ipas MVA Technology. The site is password protected (so please reach out for access), but contains a What’s App button where staff can be easily contacted, as well as a media center of instructional videos. 

In Indonesia, teams launched a series of webinars in April and more are in the pipeline, including a planned seminar in early June on Comprehensive Post-Miscarriage Care Management using Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA), in collaboration with the Indonesian Ministry of Health. The webinars are supported by in-person workshops planned throughout 2023. 

In 2022, DKT trained more than 455,000 practitioners around the world on the use of contraceptives and safe abortion technology, including the Ipas MVA method. 

DKT Sudan has paused operations due to ongoing fighting in the country. Prior to the onset of this most recent conflict, the country was poised to be a DKT success story, as sales reps reported visiting 2,145 pharmacies in March, conducted multiple trainings in the country for MVA and IUD insertions, and worked to establish agreements with the Ministry of Health. Nearly 400,000 condoms, 9,000 IUDs and 1,000 MVAs have been sold in Sudan since operations began this past year.

DKT Sudan’s Country Manager Ali Barakat said that although the situation is difficult now, he is hopeful a peaceful solution can be found and that DKT will be able to resume operations in the near future. Working in Sudan, he said, remains “a golden opportunity for DKT.” 

DKT Sudan being welcomed into a village before onset of conflict

Barakat said he is still on a WhatsApp group with many of the country’s obstetricians and gynecologists, many of whom have been trained by DKT in the past several months. One doctor messaged him to report that when she walked into a remote hospital she saw a DKT-branded chair in the waiting room and DKT products continue to be available in pharmacies, clinics, and shops, although many such shops are now closed as a result of the conflict.

Sofia Hanna, DKT’s Country Manager in Egypt said negotiations are now taking place in Saudi Arabia to stop the fighting and that, “sooner or later, this will come to an end.” 

“When the airport opens back up, DKT will resume its activities immediately,” she said. “Does that mean all business will go back to normal? I don’t think so, but we have a mission, we have an objective and we work for our mission at DKT. We work to help the society.”

DKT International holds out hope for a peaceful solution and in the meantime, will continue to serve the Sudanese people in all possible ways via our regional hub in Egypt. 

Muhammad Qadeer Alam works hard as a DKT sales representative in Pakistan, starting early in the morning with meetings and conducting marketing visits to educate retailers on the importance of family planning throughout the day. Qadeer does it all to serve the cause of making family planning commodities accessible.

DKT is an innovative and adventurous social marketing organization that improves people's lives.

+1 202-223-8780

info@dktinternational.org