Premature ejaculation is a sexual and biological condition, during which a man ejaculates sooner and at most times involuntarily during sexual intercourse than he or his partner would like. Estimates vary, but as many as 1 out of 3 men say they experience this problem at some time. Both psychological and biological factors can play a role in premature ejaculation. Although many men feel embarrassed talking about it, premature ejaculation is a common and treatable condition. Medications, counseling and sexual techniques that delay ejaculation — or a combination of these - can help improve sex for you and your partner. Some drugs slow down the onset of ejaculation. However, these drugs are recommended to be prescribed in combination with the psychodynamic and behavioral approach, and seen as a temporary help.

The Moroccan Family Planning Association (AMPF) placed focused efforts to address this complaint and provided a balanced solution to their clientele by partnering with the Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka (FPASL) and IPPF’s Social Enterprise Hub (managed out of FPASL).  The collaboration unfolded as follows:

In November 2017, the Executive Director of AMPF, Fadoua Bakhadda attended a global workshop sponsored by IPPF’s Technical Assistance Network (TAN), which was hosted and facilitated by FPASL’s Social Marketing unit (SMP unit). The workshop focused on ‘Social Marketing of Contraceptive’ and also covered recommended social entrepreneurial practices in line with the main topic.

Following the workshop, AMPF was keen to adopt and implement the learnings from the workshop and submitted a proposal to TAN and FPASL on their plan to conduct additional research on premature ejaculation and a market study on introducing FPASL’s flagship product – ‘Stamina’ condoms as a potential solution (Stamina is a condom with a lubricant that contains benzocaine that prolongs sexual pleasure) to the Moroccan market. Being a social enterprise focused organization, a side objective of this for AMPF was also for them to diversify their self-generated income stream. AMPF’s proposal was approved by TAN and the Social Enterprise Hub (SE Hub) joined to support the project and provide technical assitance where required.

Over a follow-up period of eight months all concerned teams worked cohesively to drive the project forward. Mentionable contributions from those involved were as follows:

• AMPF conducted the themed research, gathered required data from a considerable sample of clients and prepared the feasibility study. Based on the analysis and customer information gathered, they made a strategic decision to go ahead and introduce Stamina to their market.
• TAN supported with a seed grant for AMPF’s initial research.
• SE Hub managed the collaboration between all teams, extended administrative support, and technical consultation related to the study, readiness assessment, business planning and budgetary management.
• FPASL’s SMP provided the initial shipment of Stamina stocks at a fair cost, handled the international transport logistics and shared marketing best practices and local promotional material used for Stamina.
• The Arab World Regional office assisted with Arabic translation support and attending to the remittance formalities for the initial consignment of Stamina stock.

Since February 2020, on receipt of the Stamina stocks, AMPF introduced Stamina into the Moroccan market and has leveraged on their service delivery points and other sales bridges to distribute the product across the capital city and main towns. Initial observations and results indicate that the product has been well-received. There has been an increase in demand for the product as a (rare) positive impact of the COVID-19 restrictions, customer satisfaction has been good and the issue of pre-mature ejaculation being addressed to an extent, word of mouth feedback has been helpful to promote it further and new clients steadily joining their customer base (including female patrons).

The teams continue to be in touch to explore on what further can be done to help each other out on this collaboration. AMPF plans to order a second consignment of stocks from FPASL before end of this year; and the SE Hub has also invited AMPF to join in as a pilot team to market their products (including Stamina) and services on IPPF’s Online store that is being developed.

"With regard to overseas sales of SMP products, this is the first time we were involved in direct export. Our products are regularly exported to countries such as the Maldives etc. through third parties. This overseas sale was a new experience for us, But if are to get in to regular exports there are few formalities which will have to be followed. As Stamina is one of our own brands, designed and developed by FPA Sri Lanka, it’s a great achievement and satisfaction to know that it has global presence" – Suhail Junaid. Director Marketing