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male engagement

Men’s Engagement in Parenting and Caregiving: Assuming New Roles and Responsibilities for Stronger Families and Communities

Posted on August 29, 2023

View event overview, slides, recordings (available in English, Spanish, and French), and related resources here.

Globally, women perform significantly more domestic work than men—in some contexts, more than three to seven times as much. Women’s traditional role as primary caregiver is sharpening inequities as more women pursue paid work outside the home, which often does not result in shared caregiving responsibilities. Although we are seeing shifts in men’s self-reported caregiving, structural and social barriers continue to limit their full engagement in this work. For example, this year, almost one-third of men and one-fourth of women reported that changing diapers, bathing, and feeding children are a mother’s responsibility. The slow pace of establishing equitable practices in the home fails to reduce the burden on women and can exacerbate stress within families.

The Interagency Gender Working Group’s Male Engagement Task Force will host a webinar examining obstacles to men’s increased participation in parenting and caregiving and sharing recent research and programming around men’s engagement globally on September 12 at 8:00 a.m. EDT. Some programs in sexual and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, and maternal, newborn, and child health include activities that support male caregiving, but more work is needed to build an evidence base and best practices for programmatic approaches. We hope to answer the following questions: What’s needed to increase and improve men’s participation in domestic work, especially parenting, and caregiving? What are the structural and social barriers to increased participation? This webinar will help form a common language and knowledge base and start conversations on ways to integrate men’s caregiving into programmatic activities and policy efforts.

DO’s and DON’Ts for Engaging Men and Boys in Health: A Learning and Exchange Session on How to Apply Relevant Tools and Frameworks

Posted on May 18, 2023

On May 18, 2023, the Interagency Gender Working Group’s Male Engagement Task Force (METF) hosted a webinar, “DO’s and DON’Ts for Engaging Men and Boys in Health: A Learning and Exchange Session on How to Apply Relevant Tools and Frameworks,” for more than 175 attendees. METF co-chair Julie Pulerwitz (Population Council) opened the meeting with an overview of DO’s and DON’Ts for Engaging Men and Boys, a guidance document that describes best practices and lessons learned for engaging men and boys in health promotion and gender equity.

METF co-chair Myra Betron (Jhpiego) shared how the DO’s and DON’Ts were used to engage men in the CHAMPION Project (2009–2014), a USAID-funded HIV prevention program in Tanzania. In interactive breakout sessions, participants applied the guidance to case studies of health programs that have engaged men and boys, identifying successes and areas for improvement. The case studies represented a range of health areas, including family planning/reproductive health (FP/RH); HIV and AIDS; maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH); and gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response.

Participants also shared their experiences engaging men and boys in their own work, troubleshooting how to balance the goals of reaching men to address their own distinct health needs and facilitating gender equity within families and communities. METF co-chairs Dominick Shattuck (Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, Breakthrough ACTION) and Peter Waiswa (Makerere University, Agency for All) facilitated the question-and-answer and discussion portions of the webinar.

The discussions emphasized the following key points:

  • Formative research with both men and boys as well as women and girls is a key starting point to understanding norms of specific contexts and to informing intervention and messaging design;
  • There is a critical need to balance efforts to engage men as partners in FP/RH, HIV and AIDS, and MNCH services, while still respecting women’s choice and agency; ongoing monitoring is required to achieve this balance;
  • Interventions should work through a socio-ecological model to address not just individual-level barriers, but those posed by partners and family members and community and social norms, as well policy or legal barriers;
  • Positive role modeling of men as supportive partners and agents of change (part of the conceptual framework upon which the DO’s and DON’Ts guidance is based) is an effective approach for positive transformation of gender norms and practices; and
  • There is significant potential power in starting early in the life course to shape norms and behaviors.

Challenges and opportunities that emerged in the discussions included:

  • The importance of understanding men’s unique needs and designing services and interventions to meet them;
  • The challenge of meeting men where they are while still transforming harmful gender and social norms rather than emphasizing existing gender inequalities to achieve project objectives;
  • The need for advocacy to strengthen policies and guidelines for engaging men;
  • The opportunity to work with men across health areas to maximize positive outcomes; and
  • The need to identify simple and scalable solutions to engage men, such as leveraging existing groups or structures that already work with men.

Attendees left the webinar with the knowledge to describe effective strategies for engaging men and boys in health promotion and gender equity.

EXPLORE ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Click on the links below to access the recordings and slides from the webinar and other related resources.

Webinar Slides

Webinar Recording (main room)

Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting Breakout Group

Campaign to Increase Contraceptive Use and Male Involvement in Zimbabwe Breakout Group

Working with Boys and Girls to Decrease Risk of HIV Infection Breakout Group

Access to Sexual Health Services for Key Populations Breakout Group

Engaging Men in Antenatal Care in sub-Saharan Africa Breakout Group

DO’s and DON’Ts for Engaging Men and Boys
(English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Kiswahili)

CHAMPION Project

Male Engagement Case Studies

DO’s and DON’Ts for Engaging Men and Boys in Health: A Learning and Exchange Session on How to Apply Relevant Tools and Frameworks

Posted on April 13, 2023

View slides, resources, key takeaways, and the event recording here.

The Interagency Gender Working Group’s Male Engagement Task Force (METF) is pleased to invite you to a learning and exchange session about best practices for engaging men and boys across different health areas. This event will showcase best practices for male engagement and include an overview of tools and frameworks relevant for the health sector such as the METF-developed DO’s and DON’Ts for Engaging Men and Boys. Interactive breakout sessions will allow participants to apply the DO’s and DON’Ts to case studies of health programs that have engaged men and boys—both what they did well and what could have been done differently. Participants will also have the opportunity to engage in information exchange and problem solving regarding their own work engaging men and boys.

By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

  • Identify tools and frameworks to guide the design and implementation of male engagement efforts, particularly the DO’s and DON’Ts for Engaging Men and Boys.
  • Describe what to do and not to do when engaging men and boys in health promotion and gender equity.
  • Apply the DO’s and DON’Ts to case studies of health programs, with a focus on family planning/reproductive health; HIV and AIDS; maternal, newborn, and child health; and gender-based violence.

Positive Youth Development in Health Programming: How Does Engaging Boys and Young Men Fit In? A Technical Marketplace

Posted on September 29, 2022

On September 13, 2022, the Interagency Gender Working Group’s Male Engagement Task Force (METF) hosted the webinar “Positive Youth Development in Health Programming: How Does Engaging Boys and Young Men Fit In? A Technical Marketplace.” More than 100 participants from around the world—including Eswatini, Ethiopia, India, and Nigeria—participated in discussions on how gender transformative positive youth development (PYD) contributes to positive health behaviors related to family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH); HIV/AIDS; gender-based violence; maternal, newborn, and child health; and infectious disease prevention and treatment.

PYD is gaining traction as both a philosophy and a programmatic approach that can support healthy, productive, and engaged youth as they grow into adulthood. To empower youth to reach their full potential, PYD approaches support building skills, assets, and competencies; fostering healthy relationships; strengthening the environment; and transforming systems. By integrating gender transformative approaches, PYD can maximize its effects on youth empowerment, FP/RH outcomes, and gender equality, particularly when applied in early cognitive and relationship development stages for adolescent boys and young men (ABYM).

The webinar opened with two keynote addresses:

  • Michael Reichert, applied and research child psychologist and author of How to Raise a Boy: The Power of Connection to Build Good Mengave an opening keynote address, “The Promise of Human Development in Boys’ Lives”. His presentation emphasized that boys are naturally wired to connect with others, and that relationships are the medium through which successful teaching and learning is performed with boys. The prominent models for boyhood, however, do not nurture these connections.
  • Amy Uccello, senior youth and family planning technical adviser at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), provided an overview of USAID’s recently launched Youth in Development Policy, including its PYD framework. The framework recognizes youth’s inherent rights and results in youth who have assets, the agency to leverage those assets, and the ability to contribute to positive change for themselves and their communities, supported by an enabling environment. In each of these domains, meaningfully engaging adolescent boys and young men is essential.

Two panels with presenters from across the globe shared recent research or programming around PYD for adolescent boys and young men. Presentations explored how ABYM can benefit from the PYD approach through: access, including access to high-quality information, safe services, and livelihood opportunities to build the skills they need to lead healthy, productive, and engaged lives; participation, including full participation as key partners in decision-making to contribute to individual, household, community, and national well-being; and systems, including collective voice in local and national systems to achieve more coordinated and effective services, practices, and policies that embody the principles of positive youth development.    

Panel 1: Engaging Young Men for Positive Youth Development in Health Programming

  • “Leveraging Partnerships With Men and Boys for Optimum Health Outcomes for All,” Ajita Vidyarthi and Mohammed Ibrahim, Plan International Canada.
  • “Modalities for Change: How Youth Are Engaging Boys and Men in Youth-Led Social Accountability Work in Ghana,” Douri Bennin Hajei, Youth Advocacy on Rights and Opportunities (YARO).
  • “An Innovative Approach to HIV Prevention Through Engaging Boys and Young Men in Eswatini,” Mary Mhazo and Gift Dlamini, Kwakha Indvodza: Litfuba Ngelakho (The Chance is Yours).
  • “Promoting Adolescent Boys’ Engagement with Sexual and Reproductive Health, Agency, and Gender Synchronicity Through Gaming,” Kavita Ayyagari, Howard Delafield International LLP.

Panel 2: Engaging Boys for Positive Youth Development in Health Programming

  • “Boys’ Engagement in Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) in Rural Parts of Ethiopia,” Masresha Soressa, Pathfinder International.
  • “Sibling Support for Adolescent Girls in Emergencies (SSAGE): Findings From a Brother-Sister Centered, Family-Based Model to Address Violence Against Girls in Humanitarian Settings,” Monica Giuffrida, Women’s Refugee Commission.
  • “Engaging Adolescent Boys to Promote Reproductive Health and Prevent Gender-Based Violence in Nigeria: The SKILLZ Guyz Approach,” Usen Asanga, Youth Development and Empowerment Initiative.

Participants discussed key takeaways from the presentations, shared relevant examples from their own work, and identified critical next steps for research and programming. Key takeaways included:

  • The importance of a family-centered approach/multiple influencer involvement/multilevel programming (for example, bringing parents and ABYM together to meet ABYM needs and involving peers, parents, and institutions).
  • The importance of early intervention with ABYM (ages 10-14) to shift gender attitudes and norms.    
  • The importance of local adaptation/local-level planning to enhance program effectiveness.
  • The need for accountability to engage youth in program design as early as possible.
  • Youth-led programming is a priority with unique challenges and opportunities. For example, it may require one to two years to build youth agency and capacity and to advance an enabling environment.
  • of implemented interventions (for example, more restrictions on girls’ autonomy to prevent potential violence).   
  • The need to apply both quantitative and qualitative methods to measure gender transformative outcomes, including relations between girls and boys and men and women.

Event Recording:

EXPLORE ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Click the links below to access slides from the webinar and other related resources.

Webinar Slides

Related Resources:

  • DO’s & DON’Ts for Engaging Men & Boys.
  • Does Your Program Reflect Gender Transformative or Positive Youth Development Practices? A Checklist
  • Youth in Development Policy | USAID.
  • Positive Youth Development (PYD) Framework | YouthPower2
  • Game of Choice, Not Chance.
  • Sibling Support to Adolescent Girls in Emergencies (SSAGE) Implementation Toolkit | Mercy Corps.
  • Champions of Change for Gender Equality and Girls’ Rights | Plan International.
  • Listening to Girls as They Grow Up–Our Longitudinal Study | Plan International.

Want to Know More about IGWG’s Male Engagement Task Force?

The Male Engagement Task Force (METF) is an information, advocacy, and knowledge exchange network that examines what it means to engage men and boys in health promotion and gender equality. The METF aims to explore why we should engage men and boys, what are the benefits, how to do it, what works and doesn’t work, and what modalities of health services can better reach and include men and boys while addressing gender dynamics that act as barriers to health. Health areas of focus include family planning; sexual and reproductive health; maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health; nutrition; HIV/AIDS; and prevention and treatment of infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. The METF considers relevant social and behavior change, service delivery, research, and policy efforts to improve outcomes across these health areas. For more information, click here.

Rethinking Men’s and Boys’ Healthcare Access and Use

Posted on April 7, 2022

On March 17, 2022, the Interagency Gender Working Group’s Male Engagement Task Force (METF) hosted the webinar “Rethinking Men’s and Boys’ Healthcare Access and Use.”

The ability and willingness of men and boys to access health information, services, and products is influenced by wide-ranging factors, including social and gender norms and health system infrastructure. In this webinar, speakers showcased insights and learnings from global research and programming that supports men and boys in help-seeking behaviors and healthcare access and use across health areas, including family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH); HIV/AIDS; and maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH). Speakers also highlighted how to address gender and power dynamics and other social and structural factors that influence men’s and boys’ access and use. More than 190 attendees learned about best, promising, and emerging practices to facilitate and support men and boys as they seek and receive healthcare, and how to apply these practices to their own work. Featured presentations highlighted work happening globally and specifically in Brazil, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, and Nigeria.

Event recording in English:

Event recording in French:

Marcos Nascimento (Oswaldo Cruz Foundation) delivered opening remarks that provided global framing around how men’s health has been introduced and addressed over time and shared his experience with policy development and implementation in Brazil.

METF co-chairs Julie Pulerwitz (Population Council, Breakthrough RESEARCH) and Dominick Shattuck (Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, Breakthrough ACTION) moderated the panels, detailed below:

Panel 1: Major developments and newest thinking around men’s and boys’ healthcare access and use (including programming elements that seek to shift gender norms and address power dynamics that hinder help-seeking)

  • Kathryn Dovel, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and Partners in Hope-Malawi (PIH)
  • Stella Abah, WI-HER
  • Neeta Bhandari, U.S. Department of State, Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator/U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)

Panelists described their programmatic activities and answered questions that included:

  • If you had to prioritize, what are the top two or three overlooked barriers to men’s and boys’ healthcare use? How can we best overcome them?
  • How salient are the issues of gender norms and power relations for your programming? What recommendations do you have for the field in taking both into account?
  • Where do you think the field is going regarding men’s and boys’ healthcare access and use? What will it take to scale up effective practices and lessons learned at this point? 

Panel 2: Emerging innovations and practices for meeting men’s and boys’ needs and priorities around healthcare access and use

  • Ehi Adejo-Ogiri, Jhpiego
  • Charlotte Pahe, Population Services Kenya
  • Vitumbiko Namondwe and MacBain Mkandawire, Youth Net and Counselling (YONECO)
  • Dorcas Manortey, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Ghana

Panelists described their programmatic activities and answered questions that included:

  • In what ways were masculine norms considered within the design of your programmatic approaches?
  • Anonymity was mentioned by several programs. How was privacy and anonymity articulated to the beneficiaries of your program? How important was privacy for men?

EXPLORE ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Click on the links below to access the slides from the webinar and other related resources.

Webinar Slides

Do’s & Don’ts for Engaging Men and Boys (English, French, Portuguese, Spanish)

Brazil’s National Healthcare Policy for Men (PNAISH)

Getting to Equal: Men, Gender Equality, and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

Know, Care, Do: A Theory of Change for Engaging Men and Boys in Family Planning (English, French, Spanish)

Reflection and Action Tool: Integrating a Life Course Approach in Programming with Boys & Men for Gender Equality (English, French, Spanish)

Guide for Promoting Sexual and Reproductive Health Products and Services for Men

2021 State of the Art in Engaging Men and Boys in Health and Development: A Technical Marketplace

Posted on October 19, 2021

In September 2021, the Interagency Gender Working Group’s Male Engagement Task Force (METF) hosted the webinar, “2021 State of the Art in Engaging Men and Boys in Health and Development: A Technical Marketplace.”

Engaging men and boys is critical for promoting gender equality and improving global health outcomes. Both new and recurring challenges and opportunities require that we continue to emphasize men and boys as key actors. This webinar showcased 11 examples of cutting-edge programming and research for engaging a broader diversity of men and boys as clients, partners, and agents of change across global health initiatives and programs. Presentations focused on diverse health areas, including sexual and reproductive health; maternal, newborn, and child health; HIV/AIDS; and gender-based violence. In doing so, they underscored the key role of gender and other social norms in shaping health behaviors and outcomes and the need to engage and shift these norms across individuals, communities, systems, and structures in ways that are culturally relevant and contextually appropriate. Featured presentations highlighted work happening across the globe and in these countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa, Thailand, and Uganda.

METF co-chairs Myra Betron (Jhpiego) and Julie Pulerwitz (Population Council) moderated the webinar, which featured the following presentations:

  • Men as Clients
    • Coach Mphilo Program in South Africa (Shawn Malone, Population Services International)
    • Male Contraceptive Research and Development Activities Snapshot (Heather Vahdat, Male Contraceptive Initiative)
    • iDARE Methodology (Taroub Harb Faramand, WI-HER)
  • Men as Partners
    • Broadening Accountability of Men Campaign in India (Manoj Pal, EngenderHealth)
    • Parenting for Respectability Project in Uganda (Godfrey E. Siu , Makerere University)
    • Advocacy for Male Engagement in Family Planning in Nepal (Erin DeGraw, Health Policy Plus [HP+], Plan International)
  • Men as Agents of Change
    • Secure Futures Program in Kenya (Enouce Ndeche, Vijana Amani Pamoja)
    • Dads and Daughters Project in Kenya (Elias Muindi, Kenya MenEngage Alliance)
    • Engaging Men in Accountable Practice (EMAP) Project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Jean De Dieu Hategekimana, International Rescue Committee)
  • Diversity of Men
    • Transgender Outreach and Engagement through the EpiC and LINKAGES Projects in Thailand (Robyn Dayton, FHI 360)
    • Critical Health and Social Services for Men Have Sex with Men in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kashindi Shabani, Savie Asbl NGO LGBT PGEL)

EXPLORE ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Click on the links below to access the slides from the webinar and other related resources.

Webinar Slides

Do’s and Don’ts for Engaging Men and Boys
(English, French, Portuguese, Spanish)

Coach Mphilo Program–South Africa

Male Contraception and the Sustainable Development Goals

WI-HER iDARE Methodology
*Identify, Design, Apply/Assess, Record, Expand

Parenting for Respectability (PfR) Program–Uganda 

Health Policy Plus (HP+) Male Engagement in Family Planning: Understanding Global Policy Barriers and Enablers

Kenya MenEngage Alliance (KEMEA)


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