In April 2013, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation sponsored a meeting on creating demand for voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC). Held in Lusaka, Zambia, the meeting convened programme implementers, researchers, and specialists in social marketing, product advertising, and behavioural economics. About 180 people from 14 priority countries participated, sharing best practices and discussing innovative ideas about how to generate demand for VMMC.
On the third day of the meeting, 3ie facilitated a “matchmaking” event that brought together people implementing demand creation projects and campaigns and researchers so that they could develop innovative demand creation pilot interventions with robust research strategies for evaluating impact. Descriptions of the projects that were awarded funding can be found on the 3ie website.
