13,209 The Drum Beat 735, May 24-2017, Gendered Lenses on Healthy Communication

CONTEXT: HEALTH AND GENDER EQUALITY
WHY GENDER MATTERS: STRATEGIES FOR INTEGRATING GENDER
INVITING YOU TO TAKE OUR SURVEY
INVOLVING MEN
TOOLS AND RESOURCES

• 1. Gender and Tuberculosis: Discussion Paper
  by Katya Burns and Caitlin Boyce
  This discussion paper from the United Nations Development Progrmme (UNDP) summarises the existing evidence base on tuberculosis, «demonstrating the ways in which gender has an impact on the risks and effects of TB (including those that intersect with HIV), and highlighting existing gaps in data and implementation.» [Dec 2015]
• 2. Gender and Malaria: Discussion Paper
  by Katya Burns and Caitlin Boyce
  As stated in this UNDP discussion paper, it is important to tailor interventions materials and information to different groups and to consider social and cultural norms which impact women’s and men’s ability to access prevention and treatment services, depending on gender-specific economic necessity. [Dec 2015]
• 3. The Impact of Gender on Advanced Maternal Age and High-Parity Pregnancy in Niger and Togo
  This Health Communication Capacity Collaborative (HC3) brief presents research findings on how gender norms contribute the prevalence of advanced maternal age (AMA) and high parity (HP) pregnancies in Togo and Niger. Early marriage, remarriage, polygamy, and strong religious beliefs all contribute to AMA and HP pregnancy prevalence. One suggestion: «It is important to work with local organizations and structures to develop holistic, gender-transformative (e.g., those that facilitate gender equity and address imbalanced gender norms) and community-centered programs that address harmful norms…head on to reduce AMA and HP pregnancy prevalence.» [Jan 2017]
• 4. Gender Matters: Overcoming Gender-Related Barriers to Prevent New HIV Infections among Children and Keep Their Mothers Alive
  Noting that key gender-related barriers stand in the way of preventing new HIV infections among children and keeping their mothers alive, this Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) document makes recommendations based upon discussions in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, and Uganda to overcome gender-related and cultural barriers to service. [Oct 2014]

• The CI’s Health Communication Network and The Health Communication Network – Africa convene the communication and media development, social and behaviour change communities. For all content from the supporter of these spaces, HC3, click here.

• 5. Gender Transformative Approaches: An HC3 Research Primer
  This primer summarises gender transformative approaches (GTAs) in the context of health and social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) so as to «address multi-leveled power hierarchies in communities that impede an individual’s ability to make decisions about his/her health…», for example, women’s access to health services, condom use, partner reduction, and birth spacing. GTAs are designed to create an enabling environment for gender transformation through the integration of gender issues into all aspects of programme and policy conceptualisation, development, implementation, and evaluation; thus, they include benefits for men, for example, encouraging HIV-related service use among men and increasing men’s contraceptive use. [Aug 2014]
• 6. Gender Equity and Family Planning Outcomes in Health Communication Programs: A Secondary Data Analysis
  by Carol Underwood, Zoé Hendrickson, and Anna Leddy
  The analysis, a review by HC3 researchers of existing data sets from the 4 HC3 country programmes, was aimed «to determine if there is a significant relationship between gender equity and current use of family planning, and also whether exposure to communication intervention components is significantly associated with gender equity.» The research concludes that communication programmes designed to influence gender constructs and FP ideation and use «should be more explicit and strategic in addressing the norms they are designed to influence. They also recommended that researchers move beyond the individual when evaluating these programs to integrate other levels of gender equity, including couples, the community and society overall.» [Mar 2015]
• 7. Community Group Engagement: Changing Norms to Improve Sexual and Reproductive Health [SRH]
  The brief explores some of the challenges that community group engagement (CGE) can help countries address and some of the evidence of its impact. For instance, CGE can address gender norms that idealise sexual ignorance for girls and sexual prowess for boys, norms that underpin harmful social practices that contribute to poor health and that are reinforced through family and community. Studies show that CGE can improve both men’s and women’s SRH knowledge and improve women’s decision-making power. CGE is associated with higher levels of contraceptive use. CGE is also described here as a potentially critical component of comprehensive adolescent SRH programming; it is suggested that such programmes incorporate a variety of SBC approaches and service delivery improvements. [Oct 2016]
• 8. Gender Socialization during Adolescence in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Conceptualization, Influences and Outcomes
  by Neetu A. John, Kirsten Stoebenau, Samantha Ritter, Jeffrey Edmeades, and Nikola Balvin
  This paper provides an overview of the gender socialisation process during adolescence – from its basic theoretical foundations to contemporary programme interventions that aim to influence it. Researchers from the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Office of Research – Innocenti develop a socio-ecological framework to bring together the main factors that influence the gender socialisation process and its outcomes, providing practical suggestions on how to use knowledge around gender socialisation in the design of policies and programmes to improve gender equality. [Mar 2017]
• 9. Strengthening Community Platforms to Address Gender Norms
  by Ibou Thior
  Several studies have reported that girls’ and women’s risk of HIV infection is associated with gender inequality and violence. This technical brief from AIDSFree describes the elements of programmatic approaches to strengthen community platforms to address gender equality and harmful gender norms that can lead to risky behaviours, violence, substance abuse, pursuit of multiple sexual partners, and domination of women. It draws examples from successful community platforms for addressing gender-based violence (GBV). Guiding principles for mobilising communities include, among others, a human rights framework to create a legitimate channel for discussing gender norms (e.g., women’s needs and priorities) and to hold the community accountable for treating members as valuable and equal human beings. Another guiding principle is promoting community ownership. [Feb 2016]
• 10. Changing the River’s Flow – A Gender Transformative Programme for Young People
  SAfAIDS in partnership with Sonke Gender Justice is implementing a 2-year gender programme that seeks to transform gender roles and promote more gender-equitable relationships in order to reduce HIV and GBV and promote positive SRH in Zimbabwe. Launched in 2015, the programme is intended for young people in hard-to-reach areas like farms and mining communities. Activities engage all levels of the community through workshops and dialogue sessions that promote positive gender norms and values, transform harmful gender norms, and reduce harmful cultural and religious practices that can lead to unsafe sexual behaviour and HIV infections.
• 11. Towards Gender Equality: The GEMS Journey thus Far
  by Achyut P., Bhatla N., Verma H., Uttamacharya, Singh G., Bhattacharya S., and Verma R
  This evaluation of the Gender Equality Movement in Schools (GEMS), a curriculum for children aged 12-14 in India, observed significant improvements in the children’s attitudes to gender and violence, the interaction between boys and girls, communication with teachers, and reduced perpetration of violence. The GEMS study is a collaborative effort of International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), Child in Need Institute (CINI), and Life Education and Development Support (LEADS), Jharkhand. Findings confirm the value of school-based prevention approaches that begin in early adolescence, when ideas about gender and violence are still being formed. [Dec 2016]
• See also:
  The Drum Beat 723 – Communication to Address Violence against Women and Girls
  The Soul Beat 261 – Addressing Gender-Based Violence Through Media and Communication

• 12. Strengthening CSO-Government Partnerships to Scale Up Approaches to Engaging Men and Boys for Gender Equality and SRHR: A Tool for Action
  by Jane Kato-Wallace and Aaron Foss
  This tool provides guidance on good partnership practices that can facilitate productive conversations and promote strong relationships between civil society organisations (CSOs) and government representatives on engaging men and boys in gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Developed by Promundo, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the MenEngage Alliance, its goal is to strengthen these partnerships in order to enable the scale up and/or institutionalisation of evidence-based approaches to engaging men and boys. [2016]
• 13. Engendering Men: A Collaborative Review of Evidence on Men and Boys in Social Change and Gender Equality
  by Jerker Edström (ed.), Alexa Hassink (ed.), Thea Shahrokh (ed.), and Erin Stern (ed.)
  This evidence report is designed to help answer the question: ‘what works best when it comes to engaging men and boys for gender equality?’ The review explores, over a timespan of 20 years, the nature of changing social norms and the institutional arrangements and structures which sustain or shift norms and attitudes related to men’s and boys’ support for gender equality. It looks at successful policies and programmes, implications for best practice, as well as future directions across a variety of priority thematic areas. The review was produced by Engendering Men: Evidence on Routes to Gender Equality (EMERGE). [Sep 2015]
• 14. Engaging Men in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Including Family Planning
  This guide from Engender Health and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) «emphasizes the importance of using a gender lens when planning and programming men’s engagement in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), including family planning – which means engaging men as clients of SRH services, as supportive partners (to their intimate partners), and as agents of change in terms of SRHR.» [Jan 2017]
• 15. When Men Change
  «When Men Change» tells the story of 4 men who changed the way they think about gender equality, SRH, and violence. Produced by Promundo, this film illustrates what interventions have proven to be effective when engaging men and boys in advancing gender equality and preventing GBV, from the health sector to the workplace. [Jul 2015]

• 16. Gender and Social and Behavior Change Communication Implementation Kit
  This HC3 I-Kit provides a step-by-step, evidence-based approach to integrate gender into an existing SBCC strategy or marketing plan or to develop a new plan. «By integrating gender into your SBCC strategy, you can make health messages more effective, stimulate equity in gender roles, and improve health outcomes. Since the roles and power relations between men and women affect how an activity is implemented, it is essential that project managers address these issues on an ongoing basis…» [2016]
• 17. Compendium of Good Practices in Training for Gender Equality
  This UN Women compendium «brings together diverse practices from several world regions. It offers in-depth information on ten different good practices, including detailed outlines of training courses; examples of dealing with challenges that arise in training for gender equality; and a collection of tools and activities for use in such training initiatives. The objective is to make both an empirical and analytical contribution to the field, with the overall aim of maximising the transformative potential of training for gender equality.» [Apr 2016]
• 18. A Tool for Strengthening Gender-Sensitive National HIV and Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Monitoring and Evaluation Systems
  by Karen Birdsall
  Together, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS initiated development of this tool for strengthening gender-sensitive national HIV and SRH monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems as part of the implementation of the UNAIDS Agenda for Accelerated Country Action for Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV. «Know your epidemic, know your response» has been the cornerstone of the HIV response. This tool supports this approach by helping identify inequities and underlying drivers and, hence, improve evidence-informed SRH and HIV programmes for all, but particularly for women and girls. [Dec 2016]
• 19. SBCC Resource Collection on School-Related Gender-based Violence
  by Susan Leibtag (ed.)
  This collection of SBCC resources was drawn together as part of The Health COMpass’s ongoing series of «Trending Topics,» this time covering the subject of school-related GBV and providing a selection of tools and project materials designed to address this issue. [Jan 2015]
• 20. Engaging Community Leaders to Provide a Safe and Supportive Environment for Adolescent Girls and Young Women – Train the Trainers and Dialogue Facilitation Guides
  Published by HC3, these two materials have been developed to help community leaders in Swaziland to support adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in their communities and to advocate for modification of harmful cultural norms and practices that place AGYW at risk of HIV infection. [2016]
• See also:
  Typology on Training for Gender Equality
  Training Manual: Gender Leadership in Humanitarian Action
  Gender and Diversity: IFRC

Full list of the CI Partners:
ANDI, BBC Media Action, Bernard van Leer Foundation, Breakthrough, Citurna TV, Fundación Imaginario, Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano (FNPI), Heartlines,Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs, Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP), MISA, Open Society Foundations, Oxfam Novib, PAHO, The Panos Institute, Puntos de Encuentro, SAfAIDS, Sesame Workshop, Soul City, STEPS International, UNAIDS, UNICEF, Universidad de los Andes,World Health Organization (WHO), W.K. Kellogg Foundation

The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.

Chair of the Partners Group: Garth Japhet, Founder, Soul City garth@heartlines.org.za

Executive Director: Warren Feek wfeek@comminit.com