"One Man Can": Working with Men and Boys to Prevent Gender-Based Violence and Promote Gender Equality
The OMC campaign’s major goal is to support men to advocate for gender equality, including taking active stands against domestic and sexual violence, and to promote and sustain change in their personal lives that protect them and their partners from HIV and AIDS and that help change the gender norms driving the rapid spread of HIV.
While gender-based violence (GBV) may take many forms, around the world it disproportionately impacts women and girls because of their subordinate status vis-à-vis men and boys. South Africa has amongst the highest levels of GBV of any country in the world. Research conducted by the Medical Research Council in 2004 shows that every six hours, a woman is killed by her intimate partner; this is the highest rate recorded anywhere in the world. In South Africa, only one in nine victims of rape reports it, and fewer than 10% of reported rapes lead to conviction.
Both tacit and explicit acceptance of violence against women within laws, institutions, families, and communities is a manifestation of and an enforcing factor of gender inequality. Inequalities of power between women and men contribute to an environment that accepts, excuses, and even expects violence against women. This violence and the unequal power it reflects between men and women are also among the root causes of the rapid spread of HIV in South Africa.
This disturbing picture is all the more devastating when understood in relation to the day-to-day realities faced by South Africa’s children. Many urban and rural areas in South Africa are characterised by high levels of HIV, violence and poverty, compounded by gender inequality. Many children – including but certainly not only the large numbers of children orphaned or made vulnerable by HIV – face chronic insecurity and have many unmet psychosocial needs. Many children have inconsistent access to food and are often pulled out of school or have to work to care for ill family and community members. This situation leaves children especially vulnerable to already high levels of sexual violence and even less able to cope with the trauma of exposure to domestic violence. It thus poses a special obligation to identify and implement interventions that can break the cycle of gender inequality and gender-based violence.
In order to address this tragic and unjust state of affairs, OMC workshop activities and materials help men to take action in their own lives and in their communities to promote healthy relationships based on a commitment to gender equality and healthy models of masculinity. This includes as a priority changing men’s attitudes and behaviour in ways that result in greater support to the women, young people and children in their homes and communities, including especially orphans and other vulnerable children.
The OMC campaign is innovative because it draws on a “rights-based” rather than a “needs-based” approach, even in its engagement of men in the struggle for gender equality. Rather than enlisting men as partners in promoting gender justice because they “need” to be more proactive for the sake of their own sexual and reproductive health, or because they “should” encourage women’s agency over their bodies and choices, we believe men must be encouraged to realise their right to break free of the confines of rigid and violent gender constructions. Viewing men’s active involvement in these spaces as a “right” engenders a desire to fight for what they deserve, including the right to live in a world free of violence and gender-based oppression. Men are much more likely to vest their interests in a rights framework than in one that assumes men should promote gender justice and seek health only as a duty to women and their community. In other words, achieving gender equality requires us to help men and boys see why it is in their interest too to overcome rigid and violent versions of gender.
About You
Section 1: About You
First Name
Sonke
Last Name
Gender Justice Network
Organization
Sonke Gender Justice Network
Country
South Africa, GT
Section 2: About Your Organization
Is this initiative/innovation linked to any established organization?
Yes
Organization Name
Sonke Gender Justice Network
Organization Website
Organization Phone
+27 11 339 3589
Organization Address
Sable Centre, 41 De Korte Street, 16th Floor, PO Box 31166, Braamfontein 2017
Organization Country
South Africa, GT
Is your organization a
CSO/NGO
How long has this organization been operating?
1-5 years
Your idea
Name Your Project
"One Man Can": Working with Men and Boys to Prevent Gender-Based Violence and Promote Gender Equality
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1-5 years
When was the project initiated? or When are you planning to begin?
Sonke launched the “One Man Can” (OMC) Campaign in late 2006 in partnership with a variety of South African and international organisations including: South African Office on the Status of Women; National Department of Health; National Department of Provincial and Local Government; Treatment Action Campaign; People Opposed to Women Abuse; South African Football Players Union; Targeted AIDS Interventions; International Coalition for Women’s Health; Commonwealth Secretariat; Family Violence Fund and Instituto Promundo.
Describe your idea and explain why it is innovative
The OMC campaign’s major goal is to support men to advocate for gender equality, including taking active stands against domestic and sexual violence, and to promote and sustain change in their personal lives that protect them and their partners from HIV and AIDS and that help change the gender norms driving the rapid spread of HIV.
While gender-based violence (GBV) may take many forms, around the world it disproportionately impacts women and girls because of their subordinate status vis-à-vis men and boys. South Africa has amongst the highest levels of GBV of any country in the world. Research conducted by the Medical Research Council in 2004 shows that every six hours, a woman is killed by her intimate partner; this is the highest rate recorded anywhere in the world. In South Africa, only one in nine victims of rape reports it, and fewer than 10% of reported rapes lead to conviction.
Both tacit and explicit acceptance of violence against women within laws, institutions, families, and communities is a manifestation of and an enforcing factor of gender inequality. Inequalities of power between women and men contribute to an environment that accepts, excuses, and even expects violence against women. This violence and the unequal power it reflects between men and women are also among the root causes of the rapid spread of HIV in South Africa.
This disturbing picture is all the more devastating when understood in relation to the day-to-day realities faced by South Africa’s children. Many urban and rural areas in South Africa are characterised by high levels of HIV, violence and poverty, compounded by gender inequality. Many children – including but certainly not only the large numbers of children orphaned or made vulnerable by HIV – face chronic insecurity and have many unmet psychosocial needs. Many children have inconsistent access to food and are often pulled out of school or have to work to care for ill family and community members. This situation leaves children especially vulnerable to already high levels of sexual violence and even less able to cope with the trauma of exposure to domestic violence. It thus poses a special obligation to identify and implement interventions that can break the cycle of gender inequality and gender-based violence.
In order to address this tragic and unjust state of affairs, OMC workshop activities and materials help men to take action in their own lives and in their communities to promote healthy relationships based on a commitment to gender equality and healthy models of masculinity. This includes as a priority changing men’s attitudes and behaviour in ways that result in greater support to the women, young people and children in their homes and communities, including especially orphans and other vulnerable children.
The OMC campaign is innovative because it draws on a “rights-based” rather than a “needs-based” approach, even in its engagement of men in the struggle for gender equality. Rather than enlisting men as partners in promoting gender justice because they “need” to be more proactive for the sake of their own sexual and reproductive health, or because they “should” encourage women’s agency over their bodies and choices, we believe men must be encouraged to realise their right to break free of the confines of rigid and violent gender constructions. Viewing men’s active involvement in these spaces as a “right” engenders a desire to fight for what they deserve, including the right to live in a world free of violence and gender-based oppression. Men are much more likely to vest their interests in a rights framework than in one that assumes men should promote gender justice and seek health only as a duty to women and their community. In other words, achieving gender equality requires us to help men and boys see why it is in their interest too to overcome rigid and violent versions of gender.
What kind of beneficiaries is your initiative addressed to?
Women, Girls, Youth, Society in general.
Describe the profile of the beneficiaries of this project
The One Man Can campaign aims to benefit women and girls, as well as men and boys, through an integrated set of interventions aimed at challenging traditional norms and practices of masculinity that are based on dominance, privilege and violence. The campaign is implemented in urban, peri-urban and rural areas and with an enormously wide range of men and boys including: religious and traditional leaders; young and adult men in prisons and upon release; farm workers; miners; commercial fishermen; school children and their parents; health service providers, policy makers at national, provincial and local level. Since the campaign’s inception, roughly 7,000 people have been directly trained in the use of its materials, activities and strategies. Thousands of additional people have been engaged by the campaign’s key messages and themes through participation in large-scale public events, and hundreds of thousands through exposure to campaign murals in high-traffic areas. Finally, millions have been exposed to the campaign’s messages through local, national and international print and broadcast media.
What is your initiative’s implementation strategy?
The One Man Can campaign uses interlinking social change strategies that move beyond a reliance on individual or small group change to instead promote changes at the individual level and also in the social, political and economic aspects of people's lives. These strategies are mutually reinforcing, generate important synergies and promote multi-sectoral approaches. They include: a) Community education including One Man Can workshops, digital stories, photovoice, murals, door-to-door campaigns, rallies and marches, street soccer festivals and the use of radio, television and print media; b) Building the capacity of partner organisations and institutions to implement OMC; c) Building effective networks and coalitions; d) Community mobilization to support and/or demand implementation of existing policies or the development of new policies; e) Working with government to develop new policies or to implement existing policies and legislation; f) Research, monitoring and evaluation.
The OMC Action Kit provides men with resources to act on their concerns about HIV and AIDS and about domestic and sexual violence. It is useful for any man concerned about these issues, as well as for representatives from government, NGOs, CBOs and community groups who work with men and women to address issues of gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS. The Action Kit includes materials such as: a) A workshop manual featuring participatory activities intended to get men to reflect on the issues and then develop clear action plans to address them; b) Stickers to increase the visibility of the issues and to highlight what men can do; c) A CD featuring music about men ending violence and addressing HIV and AIDS; d) Video clips demonstrating action men can take at the local level; e) Posters aimed at shifting social norms about men’s roles and responsibilities; f) Fact sheets on gender, violence and HIV and AIDS.
Details of implementation vary somewhat based on context, but generally follow the following model:
1) Formative Research: Conduct formative research to inform the project with relevant local structures in order to identify needs as well as opportunities to tailor planned interventions to context;
2) Project Orientation and Buy-In: Convene one or more key stakeholder meetings at project start-up to secure support for planned activities, further fine-tune the implementation strategy in light of formative research findings, and ensure clarity regarding roles and responsibilities;
3) Materials Development: Review and adapt training and IEC materials for the target audience(s), drawing from a wide range of proven existing materials that include a training manual, fact sheets, stickers, CDs / DVDs, posters, fact sheets, brochures, etc. This may include existing “Digital Stories” (DS) or “PhotoVoice” (PV) materials, and / or the production of new DS / PV materials, again depending on the specific aims, context, budget, etc.;
4) Capacity Building with Local Partners: Where implementing through a local partner, Sonke conducts organizational, gender and skills audits to identify gaps and opportunities, and then works with them to collaboratively develop a plan for technical capacity building support as appropriate.
5) OMC Workshops: Conduct one or more training workshops, generally with groups of 20-30 participants, and using activities designed to encourage reflection on issues of gender, violence and sexuality, and then develop clear action plans to address them. Activities are selected to be age- and aim-appropriate from among an extensive range of activities addressing such themes as:
• Gender equality
• Sexual harassment
• Sexual, domestic and dating violence
• Violence generally
• Gender and socialization
• Bullying
• HIV and AIDS
• Teenage pregnancy
• Sexual and reproductive health
• Substance abuse
• Health services
• Peer outreach
As part of the workshop activities, Sonke works with participants to develop workplans for activities they will implement over the coming months, and provides technical support and in some cases financial resources to support their implementation. Participants are supported in identifying opportunities to engage other local structures in order to “cascade” the capacity-building aspects of the training to others, based on their new skills and knowledge.
6) Support Roll Out of Participants’ Workplan Activities: Support participants in rolling out activities prioritized by them for their own workplans. Specific activities are determined by local context and participants’ creativity, preferences and comfort levels, but often include such things as:
• Scheduled large-group activities;
• Scheduled small-group discussions;
• “Ambush theatre” and other performance-oriented interventions;
• Distribution of printed materials;
• Scheduled and unscheduled one-on-one discussions;
7) Screening / Exhibition of New Materials: For projects where original Digital Stories and / or PhotoVoice materials are produced, Sonke works with local partners and government offices to arrange high-profile public presentations of them to the community, often including through school assemblies to ensure the messages reach boys and young men as a priority target group.
8) Review Meeting: As implementation winds down, Sonke re-convenes key project stakeholders in order to review progress and challenges, and identify options and recommendations regarding possible replication and expansion.
9) Monitoring and Evaluation: Throughout, Sonke conducts ongoing monitoring, evaluation and dissemination of project findings.
Within the overall campaign strategy, specific materials and interventions target specific constituencies that play key roles in the socialization of young men and boys, and / or who otherwise occupy positions of influence in their communities and societies, including fathers, teachers, coaches, government leaders at all levels, traditional and religious leaders, etc.
The OMC Campaign is informed by extensive qualitative and quantitative formative research and by ongoing monitoring and evaluation to assess impact and to fine-tune each intervention.
In your opinion, what are the main barriers or obstacles in connection with this theme?
Changing deeply held gender and sexuality related beliefs and practices is extremely challenging and requires comprehensive, multifaceted strategies. A significant body of contemporary research indicates that effecting sustained change requires addressing the many forces shaping individual and community norms and practices-traditions and cultures, government policies, laws and institutions, civil society organisations, the media, the family as well as the economic, political and social pressures that shape and reinforce those values. The multi-faceted implementation model described above is designed in response to this complex set of challenges.
What type of partnerships you have or intend to generate strategic alliances with for the development of this initiative? Choose all that apply
State departments or areas, International organizations, Non-Government organizations, Private companies, Social organizations, Universities, Schools.
Describe with whom you have generated these alliances and how
Sonke has provided training and technical assistance on the OMC campaign to more than thirty partner organizations across South Africa, as well as in several other countries across sub-Saharan Africa. Partners are selected based on a track record of gender-transformative and / or HIV / AIDS work, and technical assistance includes gender and organizational audits to identify priority areas for organizational strengthening.
Sonke also conducts policy research and advocacy in support of the campaign, producing a wide range of research and policy studies on men’s and boys’ attitudes and behaviours on gender, sex and health, and of various policy regimes affecting these. Sonke has provided training and support to policymakers through a wide range of fora and venues. In 2007, Sonke partnered with Constella Futures and the National Department of Health to host a “One Man Can” national imbizo with 300 men from all nine provinces to explore their sexual and reproductive health experiences and needs. Sonke is also in the process of developing a guide to the South African Sexual Offences Act of 2007 and a review of the South African National Strategic Plan on HIV and AIDS.
What are the main results generated and/or expected to generate by means of this initiative?
An independent evaluation of the OMC Campaign indicated that it leads to many positive changes, including:
- Uptake of HIV Testing: 27% of participants got an HIV test soon after the workshop.
- Reporting of Gender-Based Violence: About half of participants (53%) reported witnessing an act of gender-based violence in their community after the workshop and 86% of these people reported the incident to police, NGOs or other community structures.
- Increased Condom Usage: Two-thirds of participants reported increasing their use of condoms after the workshop.
- Improved Access to Information: More than 3/4ths of participants said they learned important new information at the workshops and about the same percentage said they spoke with family or friends about the messages of the workshop. When asked an open question about the impact of the campaign, most people said that the increased information they received was the biggest benefit.
- Promotion of Dialogue: They also said that the workshops had an impact because they "got people talking" in ways that they had never talked with each other before.
What is the main impact that your initiative might generate?
Based on the demonstrated impacts to date (noted above) we believe that expansion / replication of campaign activities, and continued refinement of campaign materials and strategies, can lead to ever-wider changes in knowledge, attitudes and behaviour among men and boys throughout Africa and elsewhere Sonke is already collaborating actively with partners across sub-Saharan Africa and more broadly through its role as Global Co-Chair of the MenEngage Alliance and as Coordinator of the MenEngage Africa Region and South Africa network. In October 2009, Sonke convened a pioneering “MenEngage Africa” Symposium in Johannesburg with nearly 300 civil society leaders and policy makers from nearly 30 countries, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, to review existing policy commitments and opportunities with a view toward identifying “best policies and practices” and building support for progressive policy in this area in all participating countries.
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