In spite of over a decade of attention to mainstream gender concerns in development policy and practice, gender inequalities that disadvantage girls and women persist in South and Central Asia. The litany is by now well-known. Girls and women have less access to services such as health and education and less control over resources. Girls and women face various forms of gender-based violence, such as rape, sexual harassment, female foeticide and infanticide and honour killing. Even though most forms of gender discrimination affect girls and women, international research has clearly demonstrated that dominant forms and perceptions of masculinities among young boys become the most impelling force for male risk-taking behaviour including street violence, unsafe sexual practices and misogyny.
Save the Children Sweden-Denmark (SCSD) have made a commitment to address gender discrimination and violence against children by working with boys and men-- in partnership with girls and women- to challenge root causes of rights violations such as unequal gender and power relations and hegemonic forms of masculinities. Save the Children Sweden-Denmark is also committed to link various forms of discrimination and address them holistically from a child rights perspective. To be able to promote gender equality and a society free of violence, boys and girls have to be involved in designing and monitoring these interventions and in addressing the responsible actors such as family members, community leaders, teachers, religious leaders, governments and the private sector.
With this objective, Save the Children Sweden-Denmark, Regional Office for South Central Asia organised a three-day workshop on 'Strengthening partnership with men and boys to promote gender equality and end violence against girls and boys' on 23-25 March in Kathmandu. Around thirty participants from the region met and shared their practical experiences of and theoretical insights into working with men and boys on issues (masculinities that promote gender equality and non-violence towards children and women). They also developed strategies and concrete action plans for increasing partnership with men/boys to address violence against girls and boys and for promoting gender equality from a child rights based approach.
This publication provides an overview. It also contains some ideas on possible areas of future work. This is a relatively new area in South and Central Asia, and we hope that this publication will provide guidelines along with serving as a document for the current 'state-of-the-art' in the field.
Please see below for the attachment, in PDF.
Citation: Malik, B., L. Karlsson, and R. Karkara. (2005). Working with Men and Boys to Promote Gender Equality and to End Violence Against Boys and Girls: A long report of a workshop (March 2004 Kathmandu). Kathmandu, Nepal: Save the Children Sweden-Denmark Regional Programme for South and Central Asia.