Webinar recap
On September 19th, 2024, the Interagency Gender Working Group’s Male Engagement Task Force (METF) presented the webinar Where are we at? Where are we going?: The future direction of the METF. METF co-chair Dominick Shattuck (Breakthrough ACTION, Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs) opened the webinar by providing background information on the METF. He then introduced METF co-chair Kendra Davis (Breakthrough ACTION, Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs), who presented a quick overview of the METF Global Survey Results. Participants responded that they are interested in discussing/learning more about gender-responsive approaches to monitoring, evaluation, and learning, as well as research on relationships, how to engage with youth, and political economy of health and gender, among other topics. Overall, the feedback was positive, with members expressing their desire for the METF to continue working as an information, advocacy, and knowledge exchange network with an intentional focus on presentations and information from the global south, which the METF is committed to fulfilling.
Following Ms. Davis’s presentation, Erica Nybro, (Breakthrough ACTION, Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs) shared the recently completed Male Engagement Compendium. The online Compendium is a collection of training manuals, facilitation guides, toolkits and other practical resources that focus on male engagement in SRH. It includes 47 resources from around the globe and can be easily sorted and filtered to find what is most relevant to the user’s needs. Next, Dr. Tim Shand, co-Director of ShandClarke Consulting, and former METF co-chair, presented findings from a recently published SRH policy document he co-authored titled, “Out of Focus: The representation of men in regional and global sexual and reproductive health policy.” Launched September 4th, 2024, “Out of Focus” provides robust evidence that is needed to push men’s (and women’s) sexual and reproductive health (SRH) policy to the next level. Some of the key findings in the report included that 57% of the 37 policies reviewed (did not acknowledge men’s SRH and don’t address a broad range of SRH topics relevant to the needs of men and partners. Only 14% of policies contained SRH indicators or targets for men, with most of those focused on men who have sex with men in the context of HIV and STIs. Dr. Shand concluded with a list of six recommendations from the report, he can be contacted at Tim@shandclarke.com.
Dr. Kathryn Dovel, a behavioral scientist and Associate Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of California, Los Angeles and Technical Science Advisor at Partners in Hope, Malawi, then gave a presentation titled, “Engaging Men as Clients: Understanding systems-level gaps for men, why it matters and what to do about it.” She recently worked with the World Health Organization on a technical document titled, “Men and HIV: evidence-based approaches and interventions. A framework for person-centered health services” released in 2023. The overarching principles of the Framework for effective health services for men includes being inclusive, health systems focused, sustainable and context specific. It includes a person centered care framework with the core components of access to services, quality of services as well as direct support and a list of barriers and solutions on how to address them.
Following each presentation, Dr. Shand and Dr. Dovel answered questions from the participants.
Q & A with Dr. Shand
Q: (Kola Oyediran) Are there any disparities in policies between developed and underdeveloped countries? If so, what aspects of men’s health are most commonly addressed in underdeveloped countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa?
A: (Tim Shand) The data does not exist- not a policy focus in LMICS
Q: (Elizabeth Doggett) It’s so interesting to see the findings on sexual dysfunction and sexual pleasure. Did the review compare the percentage of SRH policies that included sexual pleasure and dysfunction for women compared to men? I would expect the numbers of policies addressing these issues to be similarly low for women, but am curious to know what the data says.
A: (Tim Shand) Hi Elizabeth, thanks for this question. Yes, I didn’t get the chance to say this, but policies were equally poor for women on sexual pleasure. On sexual dysfunction, we were looking specifically at men, but policy is also poor on this for women. Generally SRH policy doesn’t see people as sexual beings and takes a positive approach to that. We have more information on this in the report.
Q: (Lydia Mungherera) Just interested to know if you looked at health care settings to see if they were Male friendly. Just to know if this could have an impact on access to services
A: (Tim Shand) Hi Lydia! Great to see you online. Thanks for this point. We looked specifically at policy, but those obviously directly affect service delivery – individual provider knowledge and skills to address men’s needs (or lack of), structural issues around the clinic environment and lack of drugs/treatment for men, and at leadership level in terms of a lack of focus on men’s SRH. We know from research by myself, Dominick, Kathryn and others on this call that health settings are often not male friendly, and there is not a sufficient focus on this in policy.
Q: (Abdul Rashid) Some countries like Ghana have good policies for male involvement in maternal and child health but socio-cultural practices make its realization difficult.
A: (Tim Shand) Thanks for this point. We didn’t focus on the national level, as the report was aimed to support global advocacy. I think an important next step will be to look at that level. And explore those socio-cultural challenges as well as you say.
Q: (Namukwaya Olivia) My name is Namukwaya Olivia Programs Coordinator for Girls Outloud Luweero-Uganda a non- government organization in Luweero district. The problem we are having here is low men engagement in SRHR practices, HIV/AIDS prevention, Family planning etc, why? We don’t have enough funds to conduct engagement workshops to talk to men. the benefits of health engagements and that’s why there is a high rate of teenage pregnancies in the region, high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, Gender based Violence on the rise, and other negative vices in the communities. And men tend not to be concerned at all about family planning and supporting their women during ANC and childbirth. This is a very big challenge and if possible, continue engaging us in these learning spaces but still we need to walk the talk. Men’s engagement is very very important in community development. Stand with us to keep men informed and to keep girls in schools. we shall be grateful. namukwayao33@gmail.com
A: (Tim Shand) Yes, I agree. The challenge is this is not sufficiently prioritized by donors, and thus not by programs in the country. Your experiences reflects my own research findings in Malawi
Q & A with Kathryn Dovel
Q: (Desire Lucien Dahourou) Are there potential funders for men’s health, especially adolescents?
A: (Kathryn Dovel) I agree funding for men’s health is a major barrier to implementation. While there has been increased discourse and priority setting for men’s health there are very few funds tied to it. I agree it would be helpful to have a repository of potential funders for this work. I unfortunately don’t have it at the moment.
Q: (Lydia Mungherera) Uganda has developed a National Strategy on male engagement and training tools for male action groups cutting across all areas to health
A: (Kathryn Dovel) The Uganda work is fantastic! Thank you for sharing.
Q: (Beth Deutsch) I think that gender transformation is key as its own component. Socialized masculinity norms are at the heart of poor health seeking behavior and self-care
A: (Kathryn Dovel) Great point. Agree that masculinity norms are key to poor health seeking behavior and can be addressed through multiple ways, including within health systems via increasing entry points and intentional strategies to engage men as clients.
At the end, the METF asked the participants to take a short survey pertaining to the future direction of the METF. If you haven’t had the chance to take the survey yet, there is still time.
Webinar engagement:
- 366 individuals registered for the webinar and 125 unique viewers participated in the webinar. These figures do not include panelists or attendees who joined by telephone only.
EXPLORE ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Click on the links below to access the recordings and slides from the webinar and other related resources.
Webinar recording English; French
Other resources:
Health policies must consider gender, including men
Out of Focus: The representation of men in regional and global sexual and reproductive health policy
