Using lessons learned from implementation to expand male participation and engagement in HKI's Nurturing Connections (NC) gender-transformative behaviour change curriculum in Cambodia.

Summary:

In order to realize long-term, sustainable achievements in nutrition, health and women's empowerment, programmatic frameworks must move beyond targeting women, to transformative approaches that challenge gender-based power relations. Gender Transformative Approaches (GTAs) are increasingly recognized as necessary approaches to achieve these goals, as they acknowledge and address the multi-dimensional, systemic and structural barriers that women face to achieving their full rights. HKI's Nurturing Connections gender-transformative curriculum responds to this need by engaging women and men, as well as community leaders in participatory activities that challenge perpetuating perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs around gender divisions of labor and discriminatory expectations that lead to malnutrition and negative health outcomes. Over a four-year implementation period, routine monitoring and surveillance identified reoccurring challenges regarding male attendance and participation. Indeed, multi-stakeholder engagement determined that across the board, male attendance and engagement with GTA's is a continued challenge. While results are positive for female beneficiaries, with increases in women's household decision-making and financial and asset management, these results can only be maximized and sustained if men actively participate. Explanations for limited male participation included labor-migration and agricultural work schedules, as well as perceptions that Nurturing Connections was a women's group. These findings indicate the need to accommodate to the schedules to rural farmworkers, and also tailor and target the program to male beneficiaries. HKI has begun working on more accessible and inclusive approaches though digital conceptualizations of the curriculum, as well as targeted activities and discussions.

Background/Objectives

Gender Transformative Approaches (GTAs) are increasingly recognized as the pivotal pathway to achieving gender-equitable outcomes for development interventions, as they challenge and transform the root causes of inequality. As more projects begin to adopt GTAs into programming, a common challenge for all is male participation and engagement. While GTAs are contributing to positive results in various domains of women's empowerment, such as self-efficacy and decision-making, these results could be maximized if men were also engaged to discuss and participate in conversations regarding gender norms and roles.

Description Of Intervention And/or Methods/Design

Over a four-year period, HKI has been implementing a three-arm randomized control trial in Cambodia. The three arms included (i) Enhanced Homestead Food Production (EHFP) + women-centered approach; (ii) EHFP only [gender blind]; and (iii) control arm, with the aim to test the hypothesis that a woman-centered, gender-transformative EHFP (arm i) would have better nutrition food security and empowerment outcomes than an EHFP with no women-centered activities (arm ii). For arms i and ii, HKI conducted a series of technical trainings and discussion for women on nutritious vegetable and poultry production, as well as sanitation and hygiene household practices, with arm i also receiving HKI's Nurturing Connections gender-transformative curriculum. Nurturing Connections is unique in its approach, with participatory activities built on a continuum of learning that bring together men, women and community leaders in multiple conversation-based sessions to challenge discriminating social norms and household inequalities that result in negative outcomes.

Results/Lessons Learned

Preliminary findings from quantitative monitoring indicate that women in arm i show increases in decision-making around spending and crop-harvesting, with husbands understanding the importance of women's contributions and assisting more with household chores. However, male attendance was as low as 16% compared to an 84% female attendance rate. With evidence from past implementation in the region showing that male engagement leads to women's increased participation in decision-making at both the household and community level, project gains could be maximized if male participation increased (ICRW, 2018 & CARE, 2016). These findings expose the need to adapt the curriculum to suit men's and women's expectations so that the task of behavior change does not result in a double-burden for women and the outcomes of the Nurturing Connections curriculum can be maximized.

Discussion/Implications For The Field

Building on the experience from the Nurturing Connections implementation in Cambodia, the need to make gender programming inclusive of men is paramount. To increase male engagement, more accessible approaches must be considered, such as tailoring activities and digital development of content. These approaches would increase the appeal of Nurturing Connections for men while expanding the reach of the program by allowing greater accessibility, regardless of work-schedules. HKI Cambodia is already exploring tailored modalities and digitization and examples may be showcased in the presentation.

Abstract submitted by:

Alexandra Head - Helen Keller International

Ramona Ridolfi - Helen Keller International