Welcome to the VMMC Forum
Voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) programmes in eastern and southern Africa have set ambitious coverage goals. These goals are based on estimates that reaching – and then maintaining – 80 percent prevalence of male circumcision in 14 priority countries would prevent millions of new HIV infections.
Some countries have made impressive progress. But it is clear that achieving the coverage needed for dramatic reductions in new HIV infections will require a better understanding of how to motivate men to seek VMMC services.
This forum offers members a moderated space where they can share ideas, learn from each other’s experiences, and improve efforts to create demand for VMMC in priority countries. To view its content, you must first register as a member and log in to the forum.
We invite you to join the discussion.
About the Forum
In April 2013, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation sponsored a meeting on creating demand for voluntary medical male circumcision. Held in Lusaka, Zambia, the meeting brought together programme implementers and researchers with specialists in social marketing, product advertising, and behavioural economics.
More than 200 people from 14 priority countries participated in the meeting, sharing best practices and discussing innovative ideas about how to generate demand for VMMC.
The VMMC Forum was created to continue that discussion and bring others working to create demand for VMMC into the conversation.
Resources
The Clearinghouse on Male Circumcision for HIV Prevention is an important source of information for participants in this forum and others interested in creating demand for VMMC.
Recent additions to the Clearinghouse include dozens of demand creation materials compiled by I-Hub and BBC Media Trust and examples of promising efforts to generate demand for VMMC in seven countries.
Some of these promising practices were presented at the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Meeting on Demand Creation for Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision, convened by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Lusaka, Zambia, 3-5 April 2014. Others were identified during the meeting. All were documented by the BBC Media Trust through trips to Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe from January to July 2013.
A video about the Zambia meeting is available on the Clearinghouse. Additional communication resources on the site include communication strategies, toolkits, and educational materials for clients and providers.
Community Guidelines
Forum members are encouraged to provide information, ask questions, comment on posts, and answer other participants’ questions.
The moderator will review all messages sent to the forum before they go live to ensure that posts are accurate, constructive, and relevant.
Messages will be posted the day they are received, usually within one to two hours. If your post is delayed, you will receive an e-mail notification.
Please read the following guidelines before posting:
Be respectful of community members. Rudeness, profanity, insults, personal attacks, threats, or inflammatory posts will not be tolerated.
Stay on topic. Posts must be relevant and advance the discussion.
Strive for accuracy. Misleading comments or misinformation will not be posted.
Share experiences and resources, not spam. No advertising, spamming, solicitation, or commercial self-promotion will be allowed.
Any user who violates forum etiquette by maligning other forum members — whether intentionally or not — will receive a warning. Continued violation of the community guidelines will result in removal from the forum.