Dear Friend of DKT,

With this ‘Best of 22’ newsletter, we are looking back on the year. We touch on which countries and regions opened their doors to contraceptive solutions, even as the political climate in the United States became more contentious. We share some fun times, risqué advertisements (as always); and marketing campaigns conceived by local teams advancing their societies. We highlight a few key publications we are proud to have contributed to in 2022. We also re-share some financials that demonstrate how DKT is able to remain highly efficient and decentralized, keeping us on a path towards our goal of 90% sustainability in 2030. 

Thank you again for your support. We hope you have as much fun reading this issue as we had making it all happen. 

Sincerely,



The DKT International Team

In 2022, DKT International further scaled its impact, supporting contraceptive ecosystems in more than 100 countries. We expanded into three new countries (Jordan, Chad and the Republic of Congo, Brazzaville) and opened markets to new products in 27 others. In markets experiencing turmoil, such as Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Iran – DKT teams remained resolute. And in all countries, DKT pushed forward everyday to educate providers and clients, ensure product affordability and availability, and serve communities. Here’s a snapshot of some of the market and product growth from this past year:

In a year of great adversity, DKT persevered 

The year 2022 was marked by a great deal of global political and economic upheaval, but DKT teams and partners kept their doors open and supply lines moving to bring vital sexual and reproductive health products to some of the most challenging markets. 

In Ukraine, DKT WomanCare partnered with women’s health supplier Kleemed to import 1,900 IUDs in the first half of the year, with a second shipment of 2,400 IUDs ordered in October. In Myanmar, DKT remains the only commodity-securing provider in the country, and has even scaled-up promotional campaigns, provider training and sales without raising prices on end-users. After several difficult months, sales reached an impressive 341% of DKT Myanmar’s monthly goal in October. 

In Afghanistan, DKT is a provider of sexual and reproductive health products through DKT Pakistan and our partner inside the country. By October 2022, teams had covered more than 2,300 outlets in most Afghan cities, working with pharmacies, hospitals, doctors, and the public sector, selling an estimated 7 million condoms and 8,000 implants.

Social marketing best practices explored in INSEAD case study and other research articles

DKT values measured learning, which helps refine the social marketing model and advances the global reproductive health community. We are proud to have partnered with INSEAD in 2022 to co-publish “Janani: The Rocky Road from Charity to Social Enterprise,” which explores the financing behind DKT’s program in Janani, India. The case study follows DKT Janani through its transition from a social marketing program dependent on donor funding to its current status as a social enterprise. DKT’s work to build sustainable social enterprises around the world was also explored in a piece in the Social Marketing Quarterly in March and in the International Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Studies’ January/February issue.

Media influencers and talk shows take center stage in marketing

Edgy and groundbreaking ads have always been a hallmark of DKT’s portfolio, but marketing teams leaned into social media this year, via talk shows and media influencers. Three talks shows, in the Philippines, Ghana and Mozambique, featured young, medical and cultural influencers talking about the changing sexual norms in their countries and around the world

Teams in Pakistan, Mexico and the DRC also regularly featured local celebrities and media influencers on their Instagram and TikToks as a way to reach new audiences and speak informally to potential clients. Here are some highlights from DKT’s ad campaigns and social media sites.

Low overhead and innovative financing puts DKT on course to greater sustainability in 2030

DKT remains committed to transparency and shared key financials from our 2021 audit. Over the past year, DKT offset total expenses of $257 million (red) across 100+ countries with $193 million (blue) in revenue from the sale of our affordable sexual and reproductive health portfolio. This represents a sustainability ratio of 75%, positioning DKT well against our goal of reaching 90% financial stability by 2030. The organization also received $60.6 million in critical donor funding (green). We are proud to report that DKT’s headquarters costs accounted for only 1.36% of total expenses and our global fundraising costs were less than 0.2%. This is a testament to DKT’s ability to remain highly efficient and decentralized with a small HQ office of only 13 people.

For a more detailed breakdown of the sales and CYPs generated in each country, check out the 2021 Cost and Results report here. You can also access the full 2021 audit.

DKT Affiliates

In a post-Roe world, carafem proactively responds to the needs of women in the United States 

On June 24th, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v. Wade and ruled the right to an abortion is no longer protected by the US Constitution. This means that pregnant people in the U.S. now have less access to abortion than they have had during the last 50 years. By the end of the summer, 1 in 3 women in the U.S. had lost abortion access, 66 clinics stopped providing abortions, and 20 million women lost access to nearly all elective abortions in their home state.

carafem moved forward in 2022 to proactively make abortion care more available, affordable, and easier to obtain in states where abortion remains unrestricted. With the expansion of carafem, Abortion at Home, clients have the option of a private online visit with a clinician and the discrete mailing of abortion pills in 16 states and counting. In 2022, carafem also saw a 40% growth in the number of clients served and a 153% growth in the number of people provided abortion care at home through telemedicine. We plan to continue streamlining abortion access and better serve even more people in 2023.

65 million global users to Women First Digital sites in 2022

Women First Digital (WFD) had a record-breaking year of growth and impact. WFD's three digital platforms: HowToUseAbortionPill.org, safe2choose.org and FindMyMethod.org counseled 76,000 abortion seekers through livechat and email; supported an additional 67,000 abortion access conversations through automated chatbot; and certified roughly 9,000 healthcare providers in safe medical abortion through our FIGO-accredited eLearning series. Collectively, our three sites hosted 6.4 million visits from global users searching for quality sexual health and abortion information. 

WFD also utilized social media influencers and 2022 was a landmark year for content creation. Despite ongoing digital suppression of sexual health-related content on social media platforms, WFD's regionally-tailored messages reached a whopping 65 million global social users! One video alone, which shares information in Spanish for the safe use of medical abortion pills earned over 4 million views.

Papaya trainings and “LoveMyLevo”: DKT WomanCare expands and defines its brands in 2022

DKT WomanCare had an outstanding year related to product launches and territorial expansion, ending 2022 with sales in more than 90 countries across six continents. The organization further expanded their WomanCare Academy this year and worked with Ipas to promote one of its flagship products, the Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA) kit through “papaya” trainings in the DRC, Senegal and Cameroon. Practitioners practiced providing MVA using papayas, which resemble the female uterus. This was also the year DKT WomanCare launched the “LoveMyLevo” campaign, which further promoted Levoplant – a 3-year hormonal contraceptive device – through social media using more than 30 influencers from around the world who shared their experiences using the product.

In 2023, the organization plans to launch the DKT WomanCare Champions Program, which envisions creating a community where global experts share their knowledge, experience and best practices related to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) technologies.

World Vasectomy Day goes big for its 10-year anniversary

World Vasectomy Day is more than just a day, it’s an important movement to encourage and educate people globally about an often-overlooked form of family planning – one that encourages men to share in reproductive responsibilities and become an active part of the conversation. 



More than 1,000 participating medical personnel from 30+ countries provided vasectomies in the U.S. and globally throughout the month of November. Each year since 2013, WVD has brought its headquarters to a different country and this year, Mexico was the destination. WVD partnered with the Mexican Ministry of Health because of its commitment to this movement, with the goal of having 400 providers provide 10,000 vasectomies.

About DKT

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

DKT International

1001 Connecticut Ave. NW

Suite 800

Washington, D.C. 20036

+1 202-223-8780

info@dktinternational.org