Effectiveness of Demand creation promotions and demand creation personnel in creating demand for Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision in Chitungwiza district, Zimbabwe in 2016

Zimbabwe is one of the 14 countries in eastern and southern Africa that have adopted Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) as an HIV prevention intervention in response to WHO’s recommendation for countries with generalised high HIV epidemics and low VMMC prevalence. However, since 2013 when VMMC was scalled up in Zimbabwe, there was a general low uptake of the VMMC programme particularly on the target age group 20-29 years which has an immediate reduction in the HIV burden. The failure of VMMC uptake in the priority age group prompted the need to analyse the effectiveness of demand creation promotions and personnel used in creating demand for VMMC in Chitungwiza district, Zimbabwe. We employed judgmental sampling, a non-probability sampling technique where we interviewed VMMC clients (n=50) and service providers (n=10) using self administered questions, and community mobilisers (n=10) and demand creation teams (n=3) using face-to-face interviews based on their experience, knowledge and professional judgment. We also randomly analysed client records in the form of 50 Client Intake Forms (CIF) books. We found out that Community mobilisers and Demand creation officers were effective in mobilising clients in the age group 10-15 years and 16-30 years respectively. The use of clinicians (nurses) was also found to be useful in creating demand for VMMC. We also found out that intensifying campaigns during school holidays, the use of tent-based/caravan campaigns and the door to door campaigns were most effective strategies under demand creation promotions. We concluded that there is need to increase demand creation officers and qualified community mobilisers. To regulary train and motivate current community mobilisers as well as increasing the use of clinicians(nurses) in demand creation. We recommended the need to increase the number of mobile caravans and intensifying on the door to door campaigns in the district.