Home > Events/Training > Conference on "Reaching Men to Improve Reproductive Health for All" > Conference Announcement Conference on "Reaching Men to Improve Reproductive Health for All" September 15-18, 2003 Washington Dulles Airport Marriott Hotel in Dulles, Virginia, USA A three-day international conference on the state-of-the-art programming for constructive male involvement in reproductive health. (Optional fourth day for training events: September 18.) Organized by: Sponsored by: Abstracts approved for presentation (PDF: 442KB) Agenda for the global conference, "Reaching Men to Improve Reproductive Health for All" (PDF: 161KB) The Interagency Gender Working Group of USAID, through its Men and Reproductive Health Task Force, is pleased to announce its upcoming conference, "Reaching Men to Improve Reproductive Health for All." This conference is a multi-agency collaboration led by EngenderHealth, PATH, and the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), and is guided by an advisory group of senior developing-nation experts. The conference is cosponsored by CATALYST Consortium, IPPF, PAHO, UNFPA, and YouthNet. A primary objective of the conference is to provide models of programs that have successfully engaged men in reproductive health in ways that have improved the health of their partners and children as well as their own health. It will provide state-of-the-art tools and approaches for implementing gender-equitable strategies to involve men in reproductive health as mandated by the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). The goal of the conference is to ensure constructive male involvement in reproductive health programs; the objectives are to increase participants' (a) knowledge about concrete and effective strategies to work with men on reproductive health issues from a gender-equity perspective; (b) commitment to implementing these strategies; and (c) skills and access to tools for implementing these strategies. The main conference themes include programs, interventions, or training on: influencing gender norms and socialization in adolescent males; working with men on family planning and reproductive health from a gender equity perspective; working with men on dual protection in prevention of HIV/AIDS/STIs and pregnancy; involving men as partners in maternal and child health; working with men to address gender-based violence; targeting specific male groups about gender equity issues with regard to reproductive health: MSM, uniformed services, refugees, and incarcerated men; and program models of monitoring and evaluation, especially for measuring changes in gender norms. About 300 participants are expected and invitees will include program implementers, researchers and evaluators, donors, representatives of NGOs from the South and North as well as governmental bodies, professionals in the sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS communities, USAID Cooperating Agencies, and women's health advocates. Intensive efforts are being made to reach out beyond the current roster of interested agencies to new constituents (such as major international youth agencies, national and multinational uniformed services, refugee agencies). The conference, which is by invitation only, will give priority to individuals whose abstracts have been approved and will be presented. The Task Force especially seeks abstracts on program, training, or operations research interventions that have consciously addressed gender-based power imbalances between men and women and have attempted to measure the impact of program efforts on health outcomes and on gender equity. Specific conference outcomes are: Resources for concrete effective strategies for working with men in reproductive health that will be compiled into an Implementation Guide of "how to" lessons learned. This Implementation Guide will complement the Orientation Guide produced by the Men and RH Subcommittee of the USAID Interagency Gender Working Group (IGWG); A database with contact information and project summaries of existing field-based activities; Literature review that includes published and unpublished documents (research and action) about priority topics; Consensus recommendations for donor technical assistance priorities for 2003-2004. The scientific program will be organized, in part, according to the type of approach used to engage men in reproductive health and disease prevention. These approaches include community-based, service delivery-based, policy and advocacy, behavior change communications (including social marketing, mass media, and traditional/local media), and employment- and habitation-based approaches (including reaching men in uniformed services, prisons, and refugee camps). Training: On the last day of the conference (September 18) an optional day of training in the adaptation of the above-mentioned approaches will be offered. Proposed training activities include: Approaches to initiate male-friendly services Counseling and communicating with men Addressing socialization of young men and boys Working with men and MCH with an emphasis on young married men Addressing gender-based violence with men Conducting needs assessments Using media to reach men Values clarification Strategy development Monitoring and evaluation