Past

Son preference is well-documented in many countries of the Asia-Pacific region. Sons are seen as essential for the survival of the family and are given greater value than daughters, resulting in skewed sex ratios, female feticide and higher child mortality.

Previous ICRW research has shown that solutions to limit son preference must address the underlying parental motivations for son preference and sex selection. Men can play lead roles in transforming harmful cultural and traditional norms and practices, and it is critical to better understand their unique role in sex selection in order to form effective policies and programs to reduce this practice.

ICRW will partner with the United Nations Population Fund's (UNFPA) Asia and the Pacific Regional Office (APRO) to conduct a quantitative survey in Nepal and Vietnam of men’s attitudes towards gender equity, gender-based violence and son preference. The study will adapt the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES), a comprehensive survey designed to measure men’s attitudes and behavior on gender, health, violence, family dynamics, fatherhood and other issues. The results of the survey will be widely disseminated to guide policies and programs that aim to reduce son preference practices.

Women’s economic empowerment is critical for reducing poverty and achieving broader health and development objectives. However, there is limited evidence on how programs can economically empower women and which measures can be used to know whether programs are effective.  

ICRW, with funding from the U.K. Department for International Development, created a conceptual framework for measuring women’s economic empowerment that takes into account their capacity to earn income as well as their ability to make decisions and control resources.

The framework reflects the latest thinking on economic empowerment, ICRW’s experience and discussions ICRW had with staff and participants during site visits to economic development programs in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos and Nepal. The framework also incorporates feedback from a workshop that ICRW convened with donors, multilateral institutions and implementing partners to discuss the applicability of the framework for measuring women’s economic empowerment.

ICRW, in collaboration with Pact Tanzania, TAMASHA and ViiV Healthcare's Positive Action, aims to understand and address the multiple HIV-related risks and vulnerabilities of girls ages 12-17 in four wards of Newala district in southern Tanzania.

Young women from these wards are trained in participatory research methods to conduct a situation analysis in their communities. The aim of this analysis is to better understand the gender-specific vulnerabilities of older girls to HIV.

Based on this information, ICRW and its partners work with the young researchers and community stakeholders to develop and assess a program model to meet the needs of older girls. The extent to which program activities are meeting these needs, and the opportunities and resources available to enhance programming is also assessed.

Understanding the social norms and expectations that contribute to violent behavior among young men can help shape interventions that aim to change attitudes and reduce violence.

With CARE NW Balkans, Promundo and a number of local nongovernmental and youth groups, ICRW is working in the post-conflict countries of the Western Balkans on the Young Men Initiative (YMI). This program reaches young men ages 15 - 19 through school-based activities and media campaigns that address social norms around gender and promote healthy lifestyles and prevent violence. YMI includes workshops about gender equality, sexual and reproductive health, emotional well-being, and violence and conflict resolution.

ICRW conducted formative research with young men in the community to understand prevailing attitudes about what it means to be a man. Findings were applied to inform the design of a pilot intervention, which ICRW is currently evaluating. Results from the impact evaluation will be used to influence global dialogue around youth policy and programming. 

Women’s control over their own childbearing is a key component of reproductive health and rights. In order to understand the full range of factors that define women’s options regarding childbearing, ICRW designed an innovative, large-scale, household-based study in Madhya Pradesh, India to explore the domestic, societal, service-related and policy-related context of women’s reproductive choices and behaviors.

In partnership with the International Institute for Population Studies, Mumbai, and the Government Medical College, Nagpur, ICRW designed and developed an innovative data collection approach through a survey that combines a unique narrative interviewing technique with rigorous quantitative survey methodology. Data collection took place between 2000 and 2002, beginning with a qualitative phase and culminating in a large-scale, representative survey. In total, data were collected on 11,341 individual pregnancies from 2,444 women aged 15 to 39, providing a unique insight into women’s entire reproductive lives. This approach was shown to produce higher quality and more detailed data than standard household surveys.  

The following central research questions were explored:

• How are women’s reproductive choices and behaviors manifested in the decision-making processes that determine contraceptive use, the occurrence of unwanted pregnancies and the resolution of unwanted pregnancies?

• Under what circumstances are the actions that women take – or fail to take – indicative of their ability to formulate and act upon reproductive choices?

Findings from the data show that the vast majority of women had limited reproductive choices and rights despite the fact that abortion has been legal in India since 1972. The data also point to the unequivocal link between contraceptive access and abortion. Further analysis of the data explores the role of household members in shaping women’s reproductive behavior and better understanding women’s decision-making process regarding fertility control.

The data collection and research were funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation.