Men and Reproductive Health Programs: Influencing Gender Norms Prepared by

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Sources

Drafts provided Robert Morrell and Lynn Dalrymple.
ID21—Communicating development research: Mobilizing men to care? Available at the following Web address: www.id21.org/education/EgveMorrell.html. Accessed October 9, 2003.

Men As Partners Program

(several countries in Africa and Asia)

Overview

Outlined in 1996, EngenderHealth’s Men As Partners (MAP) program is an initiative to assist stakeholders in global health to constructively involve men in reproductive health and family planning. In 1998, EngenderHealth and the Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa (PPASA) began a collaborative effort to respond effectively to the synergistic epidemics of gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
South Africa suffers from a number of social and economic woes; in 1999, for example, it had the highest per capita rape rate in the world. According to 2001 figures, the national HIV/AIDS prevalence rate for adults aged 15–49 was greater than 20 percent. South Africans have, however, proved their mettle when fighting for human rights. The country’s rich history of grassroots activism, which can be harnessed to galvanize communities around other issues, provides hope for combating HIV/AIDS and gender inequity.

Scope

Launched in all but one of South Africa’s nine provinces, MAP serves urban, semi-urban, and rural communities.

Objectives

MAP has the following aims:

To mobilize men to become actively involved in countering the HIV/AIDS epidemic and gender-based violence.
To confront the deep-seated patriarchal beliefs and attitudes that place the health and safety of men, women, and children at risk.

Audience

Older and younger persons of both genders, in male-only and mixed-gender groups.

Implementation

Trained PPASA community health educators conduct the workshops in a variety of settings such as workplaces, trade unions, prisons, and faith-based organizations. The workshops vary in length from one hour to seven days. Community health educators are prepared for the workshops through a training-of-trainers model. After identifying institutions in which the intervention will take place, master trainers participate in training-of-trainers workshops, gaining skills in facilitation, leadership, and conflict resolution. This gender-focused training complements many of the community health educators’ experiences as activists in the anti-apartheid struggle. Male and female educators range in age from 20 to 35.
Workshops are based on three core elements of constructive male involvement:

A recognition that men usually have control or influence over the reproductive health choices made by their partners.
An appraisal of how current gender roles negatively affect men by promoting risky behaviors as “manly” and health-seeking behaviors as indications of frailty.
An appreciation for both the personal investment necessary to confront current gender norms and the positive health consequences for men and women of a redefinition of gender roles.

Activities incorporated in the workshops include gender boxes, courage activity, storytelling, role-plays, and discussing the effect of HIV and gender-based violence on children. The discussions are formed and led in the context of South Africa’s socioeconomic circumstances (i.e., in the local histories of apartheid, unemployment, rapid urbanization, and poverty).

MAP seeks to sustain its effect through an adaptation of the “Spectrum of Prevention” approach developed by Larry Cohen^²³ to galvanize community involvement and approval through marches, education, network building, mentoring, and the development of theater pieces, as well as the distribution of condoms.

Evaluation and Outcomes

EngenderHealth recently conducted a longitudinal evaluation of MAP that included pre- and post-intervention interviews with 200 male workshop participants, in addition to a three-month-follow-up inquiry. Fifty female partners of the male participants were interviewed as well. Interviews with participants and nonparticipants in a control group demonstrate the effects of the program:

Seventy-one percent of participants believed that women and men should have the same rights, versus 25 percent of men in the control group.
Eighty-two percent of participants thought that it was unacceptable to rape sex workers, versus 33 percent of nonparticipants.
Eighty-two percent of participants believed that it was not right to beat their wives at times, versus 38 percent of the men in the control group.

Program implementers reported differences in their work with men of different ages. Older men tended to respond better to in-depth sessions of longer duration. On the other hand, adolescent boys were more amenable to accepting alternate views that challenged traditional constructions of masculinity.

Monitoring and evaluation are ongoing, and a promising opportunity to conduct a multiyear study will provide further insights on the effectiveness of MAP’s work.

Funding Sources

The U.S. Agency for International Development, the MacArthur Foundation, and other funders financed this program. However, program implementers cite inconsistent and unpredictable funding as one of the contributors to their difficulty in providing follow-up for former participants.

Contact Information

Men as Partners Programme

EngenderHealth

440 Ninth Avenue

New York, NY 10001

Tel: (212) 561-8394

E-mail: mmehta@engenderhealth.org

www.engenderhealth.org

Sources

Peacock, Dean. 2003. Taking a stand for gender equity and positive male involvement in sexual and reproductive health and rights and against men’s violence against women (PowerPoint and oral presentation). Presented to the Reaching Men to Improve Reproductive Health for All Conference, Dulles, Virginia.
EngenderHealth. 2002. The Men As Partners Program in South Africa: Reaching men to end gender-based violence and promote HIV/STI prevention (a Men As Partners briefing paper). New York: EngenderHealth.
Men’s work working with men, responding to AIDS: A case study collection. London: International HIV/AIDS Alliance. 2003.
Country by Country: South Africa. Available at the following Web address: http://www.engenderhealth.org/ia/cbc/south_africa.html. Accessed October 28, 2003.

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