This report documents the implementation of a multi-country project to engage men and boys in preventing violence against women and promote gender equality. Project activities in each country varied but all included educational workshops with men and young men on gender equity and training programs with partner staff on evidence-based methodologies for the prevention of violence against women.
The project sought to test and evaluate an array of interventions to engage young and adult men in GBV prevention, namely:
- A community-based intervention (India)
- A sports-based intervention (Brazil)
- A health-sector-based intervention (Chile)
- A work-place-based intervention (Rwanda)
The interventions in three of the four settings – Chile, Brazil and India – were subject to a quasi-experimental impact evaluation. In all three settings, there was a statistically significant change in attitudes correlated with use of violence against women, and a statistically significant self-reported decrease in use of violence against female partners (in the previous three months). Qualitative results further affirmed that the group education and campaign activities used in each site led to increased discussion by young and adult men about gender equality and decreased support for attitudes that encourage men’s use of intimate partner violence. Limitations of the data include the lack of randomization (although there were control groups in similar communities in India and Brazil), and the lack of women’s reports (with the exception of India).
The study found that:
- In India, through youth groups, advocacy campaigns and community outreach more than 1500 men and youth were educated on the consequences of gender-based violence and prevention tools. Themes of masculinity, gender, violence against women and sexuality were central to the efforts. As a result of workshops, men self-reported doing their own washing and participating more equally in household responsibilities and boys self-reported advocating for their sisters’ right to an education.Participants developed individual plans to address the prevalence of violence against women in their own lives. Additionally, the group as a whole devised community education plans for their villages to educate their neighbours on these issues.
- In Brazil, workshops and campaigns aimed to increase awareness about inequitable gender norms and the consequences of violence against women amongst adult and young men. Additionally, a football (soccer) tournament was held amongst participants to bring the messages of the workshops to the communities at a more informal and social level and to encourage higher participation by men in the activities. Results show a change in attitudes among men in the intervention community and in the control community (where “contamination” inadvertently occurred through a football club organizer.) Ninety-two percent of participants in the soccer tournament said that they spoke about the themes of the campaigns with others. The project received the region Nike/Change Makers prize for the competition “Changing Lives Through Football” for its use of sports in mobilizing men and boys to address violence against women.
- In Chile, CulturaSalud conducted educational workshops for 260 young men via the public health sector and in public schools on the prevention of violence against women, alternatives to violence and gender equity. More than 90 percent of participants strongly agreed that the topics covered in the workshops were important and interesting and all agreed that the people in charge of the workshops had a good handle of the issues. Following the workshops participants increased their use of condoms, increased their knowledge of different forms of violence, and were more likely to reject violence against women.
- In Rwanda, the Rwandan Men’s Resource Center (RWAMREC ) worked with three local coffee cooperatives to conduct gender-based violence prevention trainings. The trainings served a dual purpose: when men and women worked alongside each other through the cooperatives they were educated on how to prevent gender-based violence and promote healthy families while also increasing coffee production and related incomes. Following the trainings, there was a reported increase in the questioning of gender-based violence by men, as well as a decrease in the number of gender-based violence cases and more equitable division of labor. Results in Rwanda are informal and not backed up by a control group nor systematized pre- and post-test results.
Common challenges faced by implementing partners across the four countries included:
- Recruiting and retaining participants,
- Actively engaging the surrounding communities,
- Implementing efficient and accurate monitoring and evaluation systems, and
- Ensuring that long lasting, sustainable programs are instituted, that is that effective GBV prevention with adult and young men have been taken up in large-scale institutions.
Recommendations for future work:
- First, there is a need for more joint interventions promoting women’s empowerment together with engaging men.
- Second, more randomized sample sizes are needed to evaluate the impact of the programs and good monitoring and evaluation systems need to be put in place to assess the impact and identify good practices.
- Third, opportunities for scaling up the programs should be explored assuming that the results from this study are repeated in other settings.