DKT International is a global nonprofit that sells inexpensive contraceptives to the developing world. Among the group’s funders are large foundations with pro-abortion and population-control agendas, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
The organization was founded in 1989 by Philip Harvey, the founder of mail-order erotica site Adam & Eve. Harvey told The Economist he sought to use the company’s profits to fund the type of nonprofit family planning work now done by DKT international. 1
Philip Harvey
Philip Harvey founded Adam & Eve, a mail-order retailer of pornography and other adult novelties, while a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Graduate School of Public Health in 1971. Harvey started the company with the intention of diverting some profits towards family planning and contraceptive distribution in the developing world. Harvey notes that he has enjoyed the “Robin Hood” comparison of selling sexually explicit products to wealthy Americans to fund HIV and AIDS prevention in the developing world. Harvey led DKT International as president until stepping down in 2013. 2
Adam & Eve faced a myriad of early legal battles, with Harvey being charged under the federal Comstock Act, a law from the nineteenth century that prohibited distribution of obscene materials through the mail. The company has since become the largest company in America specializing in erotica and pornography and cites DKT International as its largest beneficiary. 3
Background
DKT international was founded in 1989 by Harvey and has become among the largest organizations focused on family planning and contraceptives in the developing world. The name DKT International is an homage to D.K. (Deep) Tyagi, who beginning in the 1960s served as assistant commissioner of Family Planning for the Government of India and is credited with pioneering early communications and marketing campaigns around contraceptive education. Harvey led DKT International as President until stepping down in 2013. 4
DKT International touts a “social marketing approach” to contraceptive and family planning distribution and sales, making it unique among family planning NGOs.
DKT international receives approximately $190 million in revenue and has over a quarter billion dollars in assets. 5
Activities
DKT International is among the largest and most influential nonprofits in the developing world focused on contraceptives. Five of the ten largest contraceptive campaigns in the world are DKT programs. Seventy percent of the organization’s revenue comes from the sale of contraceptives. 6
Due to its social marketing approach to operations, DKT International sells hundreds of millions of contraceptive products to the developing world annually. Examples of campaigns run by DKT International include partnering with the Ethiopian military to require that all soldiers carry a condom with them before leaving a military base. 7 The organization also sells region-specific flavored and scented condoms including coffee flavored condoms in Ethiopia and “condoms scented with the infamously stinky durian fruit in Indonesia, and sweetcorn-fragranced condoms in China.” 8
Prostitution Pledge Controversy
In 2006, DKT international was a central figure in a federal court case that struck down a 2003 federal rule imposed by the George W. Bush administration that required NGOs receiving federal money for international programs sign a pledge opposing sex trafficking and prostitution. The regulation also limited how such organizations spent any money if they wanted to receive federal funds for AIDS initiatives. DKT International President Phil Harvey refused to sign the pledge citing that it was coercive speech and could harm relationships the group is seeking to build with sex workers who purchase contraceptives from the organization. The judges in both cases concerning the pledge found that “extending the requirement to privately raised money went too far, violating the First Amendment.” 9
References
- “Well Endowed” The Economist. October 8, 2004. Accessed January 8, 2020. https://www.economist.com/business/2004/10/07/well-endowed
- Cheshes, Jay. Hard Core Philanthropist. Mother Jones. December 2002. Accessed January 8, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20080306201159/https://www.motherjones.com/commentary/notebook/2002/11/ma_158_01.html
- “Company Info”. Adam & Eve. Accessed January 8, 2020. https://www.adameve.com/t-company_info.aspx
- “About”. DKT International. Accessed January 8, 2020. https://www.dktinternational.org/about/
- IRS Form 990. DKT International. 2017.
- “About”. DKT International. Accessed January 8, 2020. https://www.dktinternational.org/about/
- Cheshes, Jay. Hard Core Philanthropist. Mother Jones. December 2002. Accessed January 8, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20080306201159/https://www.motherjones.com/commentary/notebook/2002/11/ma_158_01.html
- Batty, David. “Coffee condoms promote safe sex in Ethiopia”. The Guardian. November 2, 2007. Accessed January 8, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/nov/02/aids.ethiopia
- New York Times Editorial. “Two Important Rulings on AIDS”. New York Times. June 2, 2006. Accessed January 8, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/02/opinion/02fri3.html