In South Africa, the end of apartheid in 1994 affected many things, including gender relations. Many men support government efforts to achieve the vision of a gender-equitable society as articulated in South Africa’s Constitution and Bill of Rights. However, men still face widespread pressures to express their manhood in more traditional ways, such as authority figures in relationships with their wives and children. While such traditional male norms give men greater decision-making power, they also limit who they are and what they can do. Many men fear being mocked—by men and women—if they enter the kitchen, care for their children or make decisions jointly with their wives. Some fear being seen as weak if they go to a health clinic because they are sick. They may feel pressure to have many sexual partners. And a substantial number are encouraged—by the examples of men around them and by society’s failure to fully implement laws on domestic and sexual violence—to abuse women and children. Harmful male behavior is interlinked with HIV risk and sexual and gender-based violence. But more men are rejecting the stereotypes of manhood in South Africa and are stepping forward to challenge gender roles that compromise their own health and well-being and that of their partners and their families.
Sonke Gender Justice Network created the Fatherhood and Child Security project to mobilize men to play an active role in changing traditional norms that are harmful to men, women and children. Among various activities, the program has an innovative approach to changing norms and behaviors through digital storytelling, which uses the media to give adults, youth, and children an opportunity to share their experiences with violence and HIV. Read the full case study, “Allowing Men to Care: Fatherhood Project in South Africa,” to learn how the organization designed a program to reduce HIV transmission and address related problems, such as gender-based violence, women’s overwhelming burden of care and the preponderance of children in need of care and support.
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Poor women from Zambia and neighboring countries come to these towns to sell sex, using what they earn to feed themselves and send their children to school. These women are vulnerable to HIV and violence because of their limited power with clients. The illegal nature of their work makes it harder for them to access services to protect themselves. Their clients—truck drivers, vendors and traders, as well as uniformed personnel such as police officers, immigration officials and military servicemen—return home to their wives and other partners, spreading HIV throughout towns and across borders.
Soon after the genocide ended, seven women survivors came together in the capital of Kigali to share their experiences of violence and loss, and to provide each other with the emotional support they so badly needed. This eventually evolved into the Polyclinic of Hope Care and Treatment Project which helps Rwandan women cope with the combined after-effects of the genocide. 
Researchers found that innovative programs that adapt to the needs of the communities they work in – such as those that combine HIV prevention or education with income generating projects for women in poor rural areas – were the most successful. Others that proved effective approached and worked with men and women differently, in order to best reach both genders. Programs that integrated efforts to decrease gender-based violence, which is linked to the spread of HIV infection, also showed progress.
