Past

Global stakeholders recognize that HIV/AIDS policies and programs must advance gender equality in order to effectively slow the spread of HIV. However, few concrete tools have been developed to guide policymakers and programmers in creating gender-responsive strategies at the national level. ICRW is collaborating with partners from civil society, government and donor organizations in Uganda and Cambodia to demonstrate how to develop national HIV/AIDS plans that address the unique needs and constraints of women and men.

In each country, ICRW is analyzing current national policies, strategies and programs to identify strengths and gaps in addressing gender-based vulnerabilities in the context of HIV and AIDS. The project team also is collaborating with a core group of government, donor and civil society representatives to form an advisory board. The board will use findings from the analysis to create recommendations and a plan for strengthening attention to gender in the national response to HIV and AIDS. The advisory board also will host a series of meetings to launch the action plan and garner support for its implementation.

The Men and Gender Equality Policy Project (MGEPP), coordinated by ICRW and Instituto Promundo, was a multiyear effort to build the evidence base on how to change public institutions and policies to better foster gender equality and to raise awareness among policymakers and program planners of the need to involve men in health, development and gender equality issues.

Project activities include:

• What Men Have to Do with It: Public Policies to Promote Gender Equality, a multicountry policy research and analysis
• International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES), a quantitative household survey carried out in 2009 with men and women in six countries (additional countries are implementing the survey in 2010 and thereafter)
• Men who Care, an in-depth, five country qualitative study of men involved in gender activisim and/or non-traditional caregiving roles such as day-care workers

Countries that participated in the project include Brazil, Chile, Croatia, India, Mexico, Rwanda, South Africa and Tanzania.

The project's multiple research components provided policymakers with practical strategies for engaging men in relevant policy areas, particularly in the areas of sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence, fatherhood, maternal and child health, and men's health needs.

The Parivartan program aims to reduce gender-based violence by working with men and boys through India’s popular sport of cricket. The program was based on Coaching Boys Into Men (CBIM), an initiative of the United States (US)-based Futures Without Violence (formerly Family Violence Prevention Fund) that engages coaches as positive role models and trains them to deliver messages to their male athletes about the importance of respecting women and understanding that violence never equals strength. Based on lessons from implementation of CBIM in the US, the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) developed and piloted an India-specific, cricket-based adaptation of the program: "Parivartan", which means transformation. The Mumbai-based program engaged cricket coaches and mentors in schools and the community to:

• Raise awareness about abusive and disrespectful behavior;
• Promote gender-equitable, non-violent attitudes; and
• Teach skills to speak up and intervene when witnessing harmful and disrespectful behaviors.

Findings from the study have been very encouraging—they have demonstrated a distinct positive shift in the attitudes of athletes as well as coaches and mentors towards gender equity and violence against women. Alongside the change in attitudes, there is a promising indication of behavioral change as well; however to sustain and amplify the translation of attitudinal change into behavioral change, a sustained long-term investment in the Parivartan program is an imperative. 

ICRW worked with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), the German development agency, and its private sector partners with helping cotton farmers in sub-Saharan Africa increase their yields and improve the quality of their crops. ICRW assessed all aspects of the project to ensure that men and women equally benefit from project services, and that women are paid for their labor.

By collaborating with private ginning companies and cotton producer associations, the project is providing farmers access to resources such as fertilizer and pesticides, as well as farming and business training to help increase the value of their returns from cotton. Producing higher quality cotton will allow farmers to sell their crop to new and broader markets.