World Vasectomy Day (WVD) has secured a groundbreaking partnership with the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) to establish sustainable and scalable vasectomy programs in Uganda and Zambia. This three-and-a-half-year project, coordinated alongside Marie Stopes Uganda (MSUg) and Marie Stopes Zambia (MSZ), is a major step toward integrating male engagement in family planning within public health systems. The trust they are placing in us is a powerful acknowledgement of our organization. Congratulations to Sheila Gabeya for her leadership in making this dream a reality.
Overseeing the project’s implementation are WVD’s country directors, Jubilee Zachariah (Uganda) and Daliso Zulu (Zambia). WVD’s primary role is demand generation, ensuring more men are aware of and comfortable with vasectomy as a family planning choice. We’ll be talking about the work in the coming months and years, but much of our success depends on our Responsible Men’s Clubs, whose objective is to transform ‘vasectomy acceptors’ into educators and champions.
We’re labeling our demand generation campaign WETULI in Luganda (the most common of 43 indigenous languages in Uganda) and TAMPEZA in Nyanja (one of hte most common of 73 languages in Zambia. It translates into English as WE ARE HERE FOR YOU which has a double meaning. On one hand, we are announcing to men there is a viable option for them to participate in family planning and on another hand, we are announcing to women that men are stepping up to share responsibility. As always, we’ll be emphasizing a vasectomy as AN ACT OF LOVE.
Our Africa team is working closely with the WVD Academy, led by Lic. Silvana Resendy who is overseeing the production of our first training manuals. More on this in the coming months, but this project, long in the works, is standardizing protocols for teaching our evidence based technique. In Zambia, along with MSZ, we will also be overseeing the training of healthcare providers, including surgeons, doctors, nurses and administrative staff ensuring high-quality services in Lusaka. The long term goal is to train 14 providers as we expand to other provinces in the ensuing 3+ years.
The project builds upon the success of WVD’s first training program in Lusaka in 2022, led by Dr. Michel Labrecque and Dr. John Curington. At that time, Zambia reported only seven vasectomy procedures for the entire year. By 2024, the number had surged past 500, and projections for 2025 exceed 1,200 procedures. The initiative will officially launch at two hospitals in Lusaka, integrating vasectomy into public health services.
Meanwhile, Uganda’s program holds equal promise. Our partners, MSUg, already boast a strong network of skilled providers, allowing for rapid expansion. If the initiative progresses as expected, Uganda may host the WVD 2026 headquarters, establishing a role as a leader in men’s reproductive health in Africa.
For too long, the assumption has been that African men would never embrace vasectomy. However, a new generation is shifting the narrative, recognizing that family planning is not about the number of children one has, but the quality of life one can provide. With this historic collaboration, WVD and CIFF are paving the way for a future where men play an active role in reproductive health.
