Kinshasa Family Planning Mass Media Campaign

We partnered with the Kinshasa School of Public Health (KSPH) to conduct formative research into the availability of contraceptives, and barriers to their use. The cost of modern contraceptives, particularly long-acting methods, was a common reason people gave for not using them. We addressed this barrier in our radio and TV spots by highlighting the long-term health and economic benefits of modern contraceptive use and birth spacing.

Following focus group discussions and market research we conducted halfway through our first wave of broadcasting radio spots, we found that more work was needed to shift attitudes about family planning amongst adolescents. To address this, we produced two animations, Neighbours and Big Sister, which were broadcast on TV during the second phase of our campaign. ‘Neighbours’, is a story about two neighbours whose lives follow very different paths due to their choices around contraception. ‘Big Sister’, which was shortlisted for awards at the Annecy Animation Festival, features a teenage girl whose ambitions are initially thwarted by having to look after her many siblings, making her determined to make use of the family planning services available to her as an adult.