What Works for Women and Girls

What Works—Strengthening the Enabling Environment: Transforming Gender Norms1. Training, peer and partner discussions, and community-based education aboutchanging gender norms can increase HIV protective behaviors.2. Mass media campaigns concerning gender equality as part of comprehensive andintegrated services can increase HIV protective behaviors.Promising Strategies:3. Changing norms regarding the acceptability of concurrent partnerships can besuccessful.EVIDENCE1. Training, peer and partner discussions, and community-based education about changinggender norms can increase HIV protective behaviors.A campaign in South Africa, One Man Can, by Sonke Gender Justice Network, whichprovided training over the period of one year to engage men in gender awareness, implementeda range of communication strategies to shift social norms about men’s roles andresponsibility, engaged in advocacy and worked with local government, and resulted inmen’s increased utilization of VCT and increased use of condoms. Phone surveys witha randomly selected pool of previous One Man Can Campaign workshop participantswere conducted with 2,000 men and boys. Focus group discussion, in-depth interviewsand key informant interviews were also conducted. Following the training workshops,25% of the men and boys had accessed VCT, 61% increased condom use and 50%reported acts of gender-based violence that the men had witnessed so that appropriateaction could be taken to protect women. Workshops included 20 to 30 participantsand took place over four to five days, using interactive and experiential activities. TheOne Man Can Campaign used community events, workshops and peer education tocreate positive models of masculinity around PPT, VCT, HIV prevention, home-basedcare, violence, multiple concurrent partnerships and alcohol abuse. Pre- and post-testsurveys showed positive changes toward gender equitable attitudes that would assistHIV prevention: prior to the workshop, all the men thought they had the right to decide,as men, when to have sex with their partners; after the workshop, this decreased to 75%;prior to the workshop, 67% of the men thought they could get HIV from kissing thatinvolved the exchange of saliva; after the workshop this decreased to none; prior to theworkshop, 63% of the men believed that it is acceptable for men to beat their partners;after the workshop, 83% disagreed with the statement; prior to the workshop, 96% of292 CHAPTER 11 STRENGTHENING THE ENABLING ENVIRONMENT