Task Forces Gender, Access, and Quality of Care Task Force Gender and HIV/AIDS Task Force Men and Reproductive Health Task Force Research/Evidence- Based Task Force				Home > About > Task Forces > Men and Reproductive Health Task Force Men and Reproductive Health Task Force Background Nearly a decade ago, the global action plans adopted at the Cairo and Beijing conferences emphasize that men's shared responsibility was essential to improving women's health. In 1996, USAID's Office of Population commissioned a survey on the extent and nature of men's involvement in its family planning and reproductive health programs. The resulting report, "Involving Men in Reproductive Health: A Review of USAID-funded Activities," indicated that USAID cooperating agencies (CAs) lacked clear guidance on the priority that they should place on this issue, and needed models on how to integrate men into existing programs in a way that enhanced services to women. The report recommended that USAID provide direction on cost effective and gender-sensitive approaches to reaching men, ensure universal availability of condoms, and give higher priority to information and services for young men. In 1997, the Office of Population convened the Interagency Gender Working Group (IGWG), with broad participation from CAs, donors, and other individuals and agencies working in the field of reproductive health. The Men and Reproductive Health Subcommittee was formed, and met quarterly until June 2002. The Men and Reproductive Health Subcommittee has now been restructured into a task force. The mandate of the Men and Reproductive Health Task Force (M&RHTF) was to implement a global conference, "Reaching Men to Improve Reproductive Health for All," on best practices for gender and men in reproductive health (RH). This conference, which was guided by a Conference Advisory Group of international experts, was held September 15-18, 2003, in Dulles, Virginia adjacent to Dulles International Airport. It provided state-of-the-art tools and approaches for implementation of strategies for involving men in RH that reinforce gender equity. This conference was implemented by a consortium of three NGOs: EngenderHealth, PATH, and the Population Reference Bureau in collaboration with many other NGOs and cooperating agencies. Values The task force shared the core values of the Men and Reproductive Health Subcommittee: To promote women's empowerment and gender equity, particularly concerning reproductive health; To increase men's support for women's reproductive health and children's well being; and To promote the reproductive health of men and women. Priority Themes The subcommittee focused on three priority themes: meeting the needs of adolescent boys; dual protection gender-based violence and reproductive health. All statements found on the Reproductive Health Outlook website: www.rho.org/html/menrh.htm. Products The subcommittee has given small grants to produce six products: CD-ROM (Helping Involve Men, HIM). A resource for developing countries, with 11,000 pages of full-text documents on men's roles, programs and research. (Johns Hopkins University Communications Program, JHU/CCP, www.jhuccp.org) Website. The subcommittee supported the Men and Reproductive Health section of the Reproductive Health Outlook website: www.rho.org/html/menrh.htm. Arabic Publication on Men and Reproductive Health. A 44-page resource for Arabic health providers and policymakers. Full text is now available online at www.fhi.org/ar/networka/ntgrpngag.html. (Family Health International, FHI). Men and Reproductive Health Orientation Guide. A training workshop on the rationale for men's involvement in family planning, STI/HIV prevention, safe motherhood, and fatherhood, and on the socialization of adolescents and gender-based violence. (FHI and Margaret Sanger, International) Contact Sam Clark (sclark@path-dc.org) or Michele Burger (Mburger11@aol.com). Provider Training Curriculum. Partial funding for a comprehensive curriculum that EngenderHealth is developing to train service providers to involve men and address men's own reproductive health needs. (EngenderHealth, contact mmehta@engenderhealth.org) Indicators for Programming — Men and Reproductive Health (PDF: 32KB). Illustrative performance indicators for monitoring and evaluating male involvement programs. Contact Nancy Yinger (nyinger@prb.org) Current Projects A second phase of projects is completed or near completion on three themes: Adolescent Boys: Support to IPPF/WHR for young men to participate in a NYC Youth MI Consultation; support for development for a Salud y Genero workbook for male adolescents, translation of four resource manuals into English; support to PATH to develop a male adolescent RH board game, "Young Man's Journey." Dual Protection from Gender Perspective — Understanding Condom Use in the Dominican Republic: Support to the Population Council on a study to help us identify and understand "succesful" condom users, how they achieve success, learn the context and conditions of that success and explore how these factors could be translated into creative condom promotion strategies. Gender-Based Violence (GBV): Support for travel for three experts on men and gender-based violence to attend and develop a summary report on Bellagio conference on Men and GBV. There will be consultations and presentations at quarterly updates by experts from CAs, IPPF/WHR, and UNICEF regarding working with men to reduce GBV. Cross-cutting issue projects include: Support for and participation in the "Power and Sexual Relations" conference and subsequent report publication; three case studies on gender-sensitive programming with men to be published by PRB (SIDH, Stepping Stones, and Salud y Genero); support for research and evaluation for Salud y Genero; support for the KEM Hospital project for male-oriented community education on reproductive health in Maharastra, India; and completion of the Margaret Sanger project to develop teaching tool for men and RH (presented at Barcelona AIDS conference). To learn more about the work of the Men and Reproductive Health Subcommittee, please visit www.rho.org/html/menrh_igwg.html.