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Nepal Social Marketing and Franchise Project (N-MARC)

PAST PROJECT

The Nepal Social Marketing and Franchise Project (N-MARC), was a five-year (2006–2010), $11.2 million, USAID-funded project under the Private Sector Program (PSP) Task Order. AED's (now FHI 360) central partner under N-MARC was the newly formed local "Partnership for Nepal Social Marketing and Franchising" (the "Partnership"), which comprised two key organizations, the Nepal Contraceptive Retail Sales (CRS) Company and the Nepal Fertility Care Center (NFCC).

N-MARC's mission was to increase the availability and sustained use of family planning (FP), maternal and child health, and HIV/sexually transmitted infections (STI) prevention products and services in Nepal.

Strategy

The N-MARC Project leveraged resources and expertise of a multi-sectoral partnership to increase use of new and existing products and services that improved the health status of at-risk, poor, hard-to-reach, and vulnerable populations.

Public-Private Partnerships

N-MARC formed local public-private partnerships that developed and expanded the reach of health products and services that included condoms, long and short-term contraceptives, clinical reproductive health (RH) services, diarrhea treatment products, and other products and services that improved public health. In addition, as no private-sector health initiative can succeed without government cooperation, N-MARC teamed with the public sector to create and strengthen public-private partnerships.

N-MARC's local partners had distinct, complementary roles with respect to social marketing of health products and social franchising of clinical health services. To complement social marketing efforts, a host of leading commercial companies teamed with N-MARC to achieve sustainable health marketing initiatives. In addition, given the link of behavior change to sustainable health marketing and improved health outcomes, N-MARC also worked with a range of NGOs, community-based organizations, and other USAID projects in coordinated behavior change efforts. AED's PSP partner for N-MARC was EngenderHealth, which played a key role in the franchised private-provider network programs. They oversaw health provider training, quality improvement and quality assurance monitoring of FP/RH and STI treatment services, and ensured compliance with national medical standards and national RH clinical protocols.

A Total-Market Approach

N-MARC used AED’s Full Market Impact™ (FMI™) to achieve project objectives. FMI™ addresses the four P's of marketing, (product/supply, price/affordability, place/distribution, and promotion/demand and appropriate use) to achieve the following outcomes—equity, commercial viability, and sustainable public health impact. N-MARC's FMI™ strategies increased accessibility and affordability of health products and services, behavior change, demand creation, and health marketing and franchising systems to achieve equity and sustainable public-health impact.

Visit the Ghar Ghar Maa Swasthya (GGMS) project page for more information on AED's social marketing activities in Nepal.

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Contacts

Center for Private Sector Health Initiatives
1825 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20009
+1 (202) 884-8334
pshi@fhi360.org