WHO: Engaging Men and Boys in Achieving Gender Equality and Health Equity

The World Health Organization has released a policy document titled 'Policy Approaches to Engaging Men and Boys in Achieving Gender Equality and Health Equity (2010)'

This policy brief:

• outlines the rationale for using policy approaches to engage men in achieving gender equality, reducing health inequities, and improving women’s and men’s health;
• offers a framework for integrating men into policies that aim to reduce gender inequality and health inequities;

• highlights some successful policy initiatives addressing men that have advanced gender equality and reduced health inequities by generating positive changes in men’s behaviours and relations with women and with other men.

The report finds that to address men’s and women’s health and increase men’s support for gender equality, systematic and substantial interventions, organizational and institutional changes, and local, national and international policies, laws and commitments are required. Policy commitments, processes and mechanisms are necessary to:

• scale up the scope of work of evidence-based approaches with men in this regard;

• guide the conceptual and political agendas of such work;

• integrate policies on men, gender and health into gender policy and address gender in policy-making in general;

• establish partnerships between policy-making bodies and other actors and constituencies; and

• build institutional capacity both within policy-making institutions and outside them.

The report also has a specific case study of interventions for men who use violence against women on page 26.

You can access the full document Flood, M., D. Peacock, O. Stern, G. Barker, and A. Greig (2010) World Health Organization Men and Gender Policy Brief: Policy approaches to involving men and boys in achieving gender equality and health equity. Sonke Gender Justice Network, Johannesburg online here.

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