Articles

07 Oct 2009

The seven countries of the EC/UNFPA Initiative for Reproductive Health in Asia (RHI) have a combined population of more than 424 million. Whilst approximately half of the population is male, their influence in families, relationships and communities is dis-proportionally high. Certain traditions dictate that women are subjected to the decisions of men, pervading almost all areas of their lives. The realisation of this dominance – followed by an appropriate translation into RH programmes – is of vital importance in view of women’s control over their sexuality and reproductive health.

07 Oct 2009

This publication is a companion to Instituto Promundo's Young Men and HIV Prevention: A toolkit for action. It offers a series of tools adapted from various research for young men's reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention needs, from exploring gender identities in workshops to checklists for clinics.

07 Oct 2009

This literature review on men, gender and HIV and AIDS has been carried out in conjunction with a number of policy initiatives that Sonke Gender Justice Network has been involved in over the last 18 months. A growing body of evidence also suggests that men are far less likely than women to access HIV services including testing, treatment and other care and support services. Men’s under-utilisation of HIV services significantly undermines prevention and

07 Oct 2009

While reproductive health is a concern for all men of all ages, the earliest part of the life course—adolescence and early adulthood—is of utmost importance. Promoting the sexual and reproductive health of young men is a keystone to enhancing their health overall, to reducing some of the major health risks they face, and to establishing habits that will protect them throughout their lives.

07 Oct 2009

Patriarchal socialisation and hegemonic masculinity are unacknowledged, preventable causes of most health inequalities.

06 Oct 2009

Indeed, the rights and well-being of the child are best served when relations between men and women in the household are based on mutual respect, equal rights and shared responsibilities. In line with this reflection and taking into account its past experience, UNICEF must broaden its research and programme focus to include men and boys as important actors in programmes of cooperation.

This background paper is part of an ongoing effort to better understand the role that men can play in the lives of children and women. Arguments for UNICEF’s support to activities focused on men and boys are discussed. This is supported by UNICEF’s previous and ongoing initiatives to involve men in development programmes for children and women as well as a general review of current literature.

06 Oct 2009

For a moment my eyes turned away from the workshop participants and out through the
windows of the small conference room and towards the Himalayas, north of Kathmandu. I
was there, leading a workshop, largely the outgrowth of remarkable work of UNICEF and
UNIFEM which, a year earlier, had brought together women and men from throughout South
Asia to discuss the problem of violence against women and girls and, most importantly, to
work together to find solutions.

As I turned back to the women and men in the group, it felt more familiar than different:
women taking enormous chances – in some cases risking their lives – to fight the tide of
violence against women and girls. Men who were just beginning to find their anti-patriarchal
voices and to discover ways to work alongside women. And what pleasantly surprised me
was the positive response to a series of ideas I presented about men’s violence: until then, I
wasn’t entirely sure if they were mainly about the realities in North and South America and
Europe – that is largely-Europeanized cultures – or whether they had a larger resonance.
Here, then, is the kernel of this analysis:

06 Oct 2009

In recent years most of the children'’s and women’'s wellbeing and gender equality programmes have largely focused on women and girls as beneficiaries and agents of change. However, the conceptual shift from Women in Development (WID) to Gender and Development (GAD), which has been taking place since the 1980s, was partly borne out of recognition of the inadequacies of focusing on women and girls in isolation. GAD approaches necessitate a focus on men/boys as well as women/girls. Since the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, international programmes have had a broad mandate to serve the needs of women and men of all ages and to address gender inequities. The belief that it is desirable to involve boys and men in efforts towards gender equality is now becoming institutionalised in the philosophies and programmes of the UN and other international and national organisations.

04 Oct 2009

Rather than focusing simply on ways to increase men’s participation in caring for those with HIV/AIDS, we look first at the causes of the enormous burden of informal care and identify ways to reduce it. We start by analysing the ways in which global economic policies and forces affect how AIDS care is provided and then discuss the relationship between these policies and the lack of health systems capacity available in most high HIV prevalence settings. We then focus on what currently prevents men and boys being more fully involved and identify strategies for increasing their involvement.

04 Oct 2009

A short slideshow discussing the benefits of working on gender equitability earlier in a boy's life, before becoming a man.