Please share training materials, websites, research, articles, etc., that you have found useful.
What resources have you found to be helpful that you can share with others?
Tue, 03/29/2011 - 7:50pm
#1
What resources have you found to be helpful that you can share with others?
Greetings dear colleagues.
A Global MenEngage Alliance has been forming over the past several years to engage men and boys in effective ways to reduce gender inequalities and promote the health and well-being of women, men and children. Their website is www.menengage.org and they have helped create a resource-filled website at www.engagingmen.net.
Hi Steven!
After the training in Manila, I ve tried to define what should be my intervention in different communities in Burundi. I trained students and invited them to create a Communty Network which is called ISOKO Network for Boys and Men against Gender Based Violence!!! We started with 3 Universities and debates and strategies went well!!! My ally Seconde helped me alot and told a bit a bout it!!! We realised a certain impact and this encouraged us and Fountain Staff !!! We developped a new proposal : "Together for the transformation" in which a Video will be produced and this Video will be disseminated and discussed in different communities in order to develop conscious on the rule of Boys and Men in different communities!!! The objective is to build community capacity to handle GBV!!! This strategy will help us in Institutionnalization of a national network!!! We have 3 community clubs in Universities and in few, with this new funded project, we will create 6 Community network in different areas and this will allow us to evaluate and then to difine approaches and strategies for a National Network for Boys and Men against GBV. In Burundi, the rate of girls who are chased from schools for having been pregnant is coming higher and higher and this new funded project will be implemented in a Pilot Province and will keep you updated!!! A new material is then to be developped and shared!!! Do you have ideas??? They are welcome!!!
Thank you, Christian, for telling us about the ISOKO Network for Boys and Men against GBV initiative. Sounds very promising! I hope it goes well. I am curious - do you know if this kind of network exists in other countries? Is there a model or an example that you are working from? What kinds of activities will the participants of this network be engaged in?
Regarding ideas - we have lots of practitioners that have shared ways that they have engaged young audiences to be stewards of human rights. You could take a look at my recent comment on ideas that came from a past dialogue on Engaging Youth. You may also want to take a look at a few of our tactical notebooks:
Breaking the Silence: Using popular culture to engage young people in human rights reporting
In this notebook, several tactics used by a volunteer organization in Poland, Nigdy Wiecej (Never Again), are featured. Like many organizations, Nigdy Wiecej uses a number of tactics to carry out its work. Two of the tactics explained in this notebook are the use of cultural resources in the community to recruit activists and the organization of activists into an information-gathering network. The experience highlighted here demonstrates ways that these tactics have been used to engage and involve young people, a segment of the population whose attention can be challenging to capture and even more difficult to hold onto.
Using Popular Theater to Break the Silence Around Violence Against Women
In this notebook, Oulimata Gaye, of Réseau Africain pour le Développement Intégré (RADI), explains how she and her organization are breaking the wall of silence surrounding violence against women in Senegal, just as it is happening in numerous other countries and cultures. How are we to begin to "regulate" human rights problems when people will not talk about them? How are we to get people to talk? The tool that we use here is theatre.
I hope these resources can be helpful in inspiring ideas!
There is a great video about the Women's Peacemakers Program's recent training on "Gender Sensitive Active Non-Violence: Exploring Masculinities, Violence and Peacebuilding." It's on the Men's Resources International home page - www.mensresourcesinternational.org (and I'm sure on WPP website as well).
Dear all,
The WPP developed a documentary, which is available in both a short and a long version, and highlights the vision behind the ToT cycle as well as some of the experiences of the participants. The short version is available with subtitles in English, Spanish and French. The longer version is available with English subtitles. Both can be downloaded from the WPP website (www.ifor.org/WPP).
For more information please contact the WPP Information Officer Jose de Vries ( j.devries@ifor.org).
Greetings Jose
Jose,
Thank you for letting us know about this great WPP video from the WPP Training of Trainers Program “Overcoming Violence - Exploring Masculinities, Violence and Peace” that engaged 19 pioneering activist men, from 17 different countries.
I watched this "long" version - 9 minutes - that provided a view into the training.
I think this can serve as a great resource for showing men and women how they can begin to see the world from a different perspective and have a significant role in making changes in their own families and communities.
Hi Nancy
Actually the short version of the doc is 9 minutes - we are currently finalizing a longer version, however this one if not yet online.
Greetings Jose
Dear all,
The IFOR/WPP Training of Trainers for male peace activists focused on gender-sensitive active non-violence, the theory of masculinities and its relation to violence, and participatory and gender-sensitive facilitation.
The report of the first training block is available via the following link: http://www.ifor.org/WPP/Report_ToT2009_web.pdf
Greetings Jose
Dear all,
The IFOR/WPP Training of Trainers for male peace activists focused on gender-sensitive active non-violence, the theory of masculinities and its relation to violence, and participatory and gender-sensitive facilitation.
The report of the second training block is available via the following link: http://www.ifor.org/WPP/ToT-2010_web-final.PDF
Greetings Jose
Dear all,
The WPP publication entitled "Together for Transformation-Men, Masculinities and Peacebuilding" hopes to contribute to a transformation of the peace-and-security agenda from a radical gender perspective.
It shares some of our own experiences with our Training of Trainers program with male peacebuilders. It features the story of a male ally who looks back at the days when he was not yet on board in terms of the 1325 agenda, and it introduces us to gender theory of war in an article by Cynthia Cockburn. You will be able to read about the inspiring work being done by men and women who are bravely challenging the patriarchal conditioning of their respective societies. Lastly, the Pack will provide you with a number of recommendations in terms of working together with male allies.
The publication is downloadable via: http://www.ifor.org/WPP/may-pack-2010_web.pdf
Greetings Jose
The Summer Peacebuilding Institute ("CONTACT") at the School for International Training in Vermont, USA is a three week program. One of the three electives for the third week is "Women and Men as Partners In Peacebuilding" which I will be co-leading.
I watched this film "Iron Jawed Angels" yesterday.
Iron Jawed Angels is a 2004 film about the American women's suffrage movement during the 1910s. It was filmed in Virginia, produced by HBO Films, and released in 2004. It received a standing ovation at the Sundance Film Festival.The film, directed by Katja von Garnier, follows political activists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns as they use peaceful and effective strategies, tactics, and dialogues to revolutionize the American feminist movement to grant women the right to vote (wikipedia).
The film is available on Youtube as segments for direct watch and download.
You can see two males who were sensitive towards the women's sufrage movement at that time when most of the women and the men were against the women's voice.
Enjoy watching.
Dear all,
I would like to share with you some succesful tactics which were used to engage men. These tactics were discussed during previous dialogues and can be used as good examples, how to involve men in overcoming violence, building peaceful communities and advocating for human rights.
Using a nomination campaign to identify new constituencies for human rights.
This tactic describes the 5-in-6 program in South Africa. The Program raises awareness of the widespread problem of domestic violence through a nomination campaign for male role models. Maisel developed an Everyday Hero campaign to find men who do not commit abuse and involve them in the struggle against domestic violence. By recognizing and honoring local male role models, Charles Maisel taught groups of ordinary men to talk about domestic violence and to see that it is an underlying part of the other problems their communities were facing.
Engaging local leaders to become women’s rights and victim advocates.
The Coalition on Violence against Women (COVAW) in Kenya engages chiefs and other local leaders to become women’s rights advocates and resources for victims. The program was formed because of the lack of women’s rights advocates for women who have been subjected to violence. Women who have been abused usually turn either to local hospitals/clinics or to their chiefs. However, none of these groups were able to adequately meet the women’s needs and the Coalition on Violence Against Women wanted to change this.
Enlisting Local Leaders to End Harmful Customs: Engaging local leaders to use their influence to help end abuse.
This tactic can be useful to those who are seeking to transform or eradicate a wide variety of traditional, customary or other entrenched social practices that endanger or violate human rights—from female genital cutting/mutilation, rites of passage, domestic violence to sexual standards and practices that make HIV/AIDS a growing problem. In countries or situations where laws have been ineffective in making change possible, this tactic of engaging locally respected leaders who themselves can lead the way for communities to voluntarily adopt more healthy and respectful practices is well worth exploring.
Establishing village peace committees to build understanding between internally displaced people and host communities
In order to recuperate from growing tension between communities, a unique approac was adopted, selecting equal number of young volunteers from both communities and trained them on non-violent conflict transformation. 36 of such professionally trained youth were sent back to their respective communities to function as Peace Facilitators. At the end of these programs participants were encouraged to form Peace Committees with a mixed group of members. Most of the elected members were influential persons like priests, village leaders, community workers, NGO representatives, government officers and teachers. These village peace committees were then encouraged to work on their own creative ways in building peace and trust among the communities.
Vineta Polatside
Wow, really great descriptions, thank you Vineta. It was helpful to see these examples and be able to reference them. Many thanks also to Amir for that helpful example on engaging young men. We might draw on these for our upcoming support groups with Iraqi refugee men on issues of SGBV.
Wanted to list some resources as well, hope they are helpful! Some deal much more directly on the topic of engaging men than others, but they typically touch on it and are within the larger framework of gender and peacebuilding.
CDA, Reflecting on Peace Practice (they also developed really valuable materials around the Do No Harm approach from collaborative methodology with practitioners, it's not specific to gender but can be made more and already should already be gender-sensitive of course by the facilitators and participants within the process)
UNIFEM, Gender and Conflict Analysis; Building Peace and Preventing SGBV:
Bridge, Gender and Armed Conflict
CIDA, Gender Equality Peacebuilding
Oxfam, Canada, Gender Fragile States
ICRW, Gender Equity and Peacebuilding
UNDP, Gender Approach in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations:
USAID, Gender and Conflict Websites
WANEP, Women in Peacebuilding:
UNFPA, GBV
WomenWatch, Women and Armed Conflict
UNInstraw, Women Peace and Security Resolutions:
UNWomen, Women War Peace
Peacebuilding Commission, Gender and Peacebuilding:
Some other writers I recommend, most of them address the issue of masculinities, even if some are a bit more academic than practitioner-oriented. I just listed the name and a general topic since they don't all have helpful websites, but I can provide copies of journal entries or publications by them, so let me know if you would like me to email any over to you, would be happy to do so (as with the resouces above as well)!
Carol Cohn: Security Studies and Gender
Andrea Cornwall: Gender and Development
R.W. Connell: Masculinities
Beth Vann: SGBV, Masculinities
Janet Bujra: Masculinities, Conflict, http://www.worldwhoswho.com/public/views/entry.html?id=sl2174497
Judy el Bushra: Gender and Development, Conflict
Kamla Bhasin: Gender and Development
Susan Bird; Rutilio Delgado; Larry Madrigal; John Bayron Ochoa; Walberto Tejeda: SGBV, Masculinity
Hi Olivia,
Thank you for sharing all these great resources. I wanted to add to your great list the following resources.
The WILPF - Women's International League for Peace & Freedom's 1325 Literature Repository. It is a space to get information as well as add information for others to learn about what you are doing.
Here are three other resources that I ran across that I hope will be useful.
1. WOMEN & MEN: HAND IN HAND AGAINST VIOLENCE, Strategies & Approaches of Working with Men and Boys to End Violences Against Women. Here is the direct Link to the Manual in English:
The Arabic Manual is available to download from the KAFA website. The contents of this resource include:
2. Alimou Diallo, one of the participants in this dialogue, and his organization, West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), contributed to is this document which is a Position Paper (49 page document), UNSCR 1325 and Prevention: A Hybrid for Utilizing HR and Early Warning Frameworks in the Campaign to End VAW
3. This a 10 Year Impact Study (a 50-Page Report) by the UN.
Thanks so much Nancy, these are great resources as well, thanks for sharing!
Yes, Kafa does really amazing work in Lebanon on human trafficking and exploitation, as well as violence against women, including around engaging men. (They just also came out with a new report on trafficking of migrant workers that I highly recommend: http://www.kafa.org.lb/News.aspx?Newscode=24.)
Just a few more websites portals/hubs specific to engaging men, in case they are of assistance, apologies if any are redundant with what others have posted:
A few more examples for projects and strategies we have come across in our work before:
From Spain, some organizations working on these issues as we try to address high rates of SGBV there, most of it is in Spanish but for those who might still find it helpful, it's pretty specific to Spain but I thought it still gave good examples and useful materials and publications. It's not a country context that it frequently discussed and they have a lot of creative strategies:
Greetings to all,
as an inpendent researcher and educator from Croatia I would like to share a few resources from the Western Balkans on engaging men towards gender-sensitive peacebuilding and on educating youth on gender and related issues:
Creation of Sex? Gender? questions the creation and usage of terms sex and gender on social and individual levels in the fields of medicine, biology, legislation, education, language, politics, activism, human rights and history. We discuss sex and gender as identities and forms of personal expression, but also as social constructs, roles and norms, and as basis of classification, inequality and discrimination. Creation of Sex? Gender? is envisioned to be interactive, informative and educational brochure/manual which contains exercises, questions and examples from everyday life. It can be used for personal reflextion, learning, and (self)change, as well as for group educational work.
http://www.carenwb.org/index.php?sadrzaj=1&task=viewsubcat&skid=27&catid=3
Amir Hodžić, independent researcher and educator, Croatia – Gender Focal Point in GPPAC Western Balkans
Dear all,
I would like to share with you a document, I came across, regarding Gender and Peace - Building. These guidelines "Gender Guidelines: Peace building" are developed by the Australian Agency for International Development and intended to help advance gender equality and to ensure that a gender perspective is incorporated into Australia's aid activities.
The guidelines include elements of conflict situations and possible gender dimensions in pre - conflict situations, during conflict situations and during reconstruction and rehabilitation process.
These gender dimensions, which are analysed in the guidelines, in my mind, could be very useful to include in any peace building trainings to raise awareness and to engage men as allies in gender-sensitive peacebuilding.
The guidelines give also tips how to promote gender equality in peace building and analyze popular myths regarding gender sensitive peace building.
Best regards,
Vineta Polatside
Here are two documents with many case studies from around the world.
International Planned Parenthood Federation case studies (Liberia case study is written by Men's Resources International).
http://www.ippf.org/NR/rdonlyres/36B8FD71-BB77-45D6-8424-B887323D6ED7/0/MenAreChanging.pdf
MenEngage case studies (Rwanda and Nigeria case studies written by MRI).
http://www.genderjustice.org.za/menengage-africa-case-studies-collection
I am pleased to share a position paper which I co-authored on a hybrid model: Utilizing Human Rights and Early Warning Frameworks in the campaing to end violence agianst women.
Direct Link to Full 49-Page Document:
http://www.fasngo.org/assets/files/CSW/UNSCR1325andPreventionPaperdraft-FASedited09022011.pdf
Greetings!
The successful initiative of involving men to end violence against women was the White Ribbon campaign (WRC) in Canada. It was started in 1991 by a small group of men. The campaign engaged in public education in order to end men’s silence about men’s violence against women, to raise awareness among men and boys, and to mobilise them to work for change through their schools, workplaces, and communities. The WRC received tremendous attention in the media. This was, in part, because of the strategy of asking prominent Canadian men from across the social and political spectrum to add their name to the founding statement. WRC quickly became a national institution and has spread to over thirty countries around the world.
Michael Kaufman, a founder of the White Ribbon Campaign and the author of books on gender issues, analyzed the reasons, why the WRC was so successful, and he suggested strategic approach to mobilize men and boys to work in partnership with women and girls in order to transform destructive masculinities and to end oppressive gender relations.
The framework Michael Kaufman suggests is based on a number of conceptual tools, and series of principles to guide the development of programmes and interventions involving men and boys. I believe this framework can be used successfully in involving men in gender sensitive peace building as well.
These principles, with some examples from the White Ribbon Campaign, are:
1. Whatever we do, the primary aim should be to work to end discrimination against women and girls, to achieve gender equality and equity, and to promote the human rights of women and girls.
Otherwise, we risk undermining the efforts of women, and we fail to transform the very system of patriarchy that is at the root of the problems we address. For example, in some countries the messages of the White Ribbon Campaign focus on the links between men’s violence and the discrimination women suffer. Campaigns work to establish links with women’s organisations, to support those groups, to develop joint initiatives, and to encourage men to listen to the voices of women.
2. Successfully reaching men requires constantly navigating through men’s fear. We should never underestimate the huge individual investment some men can make in maintaining power and control. Our approaches must find ways to appeal to some of the very values we are ultimately challenging. An example is reaching men and boys with the message, ‘You have the power to end violence against women in your community’. White Ribbon posters attempt to affirm the positive.
3. Strive to use the language of responsibility rather than blame. Similarly, we need to avoid using generalisations and stereotypes when discussing men. Generalised blame reduces sexism to individual relationships and individual identity, rather than understanding patriarchy and sexism as also being systemic and institutional. Nor is blame pedagogically useful. Language that leaves males feeling responsible for things they haven’t done or for things they were taught to do, or feeling guilty for the sins of other men, will alienate most men and boys and promote backlash. Rather, we challenge men and boys to take responsibility for change, and we focus on the positive benefits to all. One example is a Canadian White Ribbon poster which has been widely translated. It has the headline, ‘These men want to put an end to violence against women’ followed by a number of lines. Some lines are ‘pre-signed’ by prominent men from that country, the other lines waiting to be signed by men and boys when the posters are put up in schools or places of work.
4. Successful approaches depend on creating and nurturing groups of men. This is not only so that men will be organised to take action, although it is important. It is also that in challenging patriarchy, men working in such groups begin to shift their relationships with other men. Looking around the world, such new organisations tend to develop a supportive and noncompetitive environment, and often include support groups and close informal ties with other men. Although some groups maintain links with ‘old boys’ networks,’ the direction of their work is to challenge the institutions of patriarchy.
5. Men’s and boys’ voices have an important place. Men assess their masculinity through the eyes of men, boys measure their masculinity through the eyes of other boys and men. It is critical to mobilise the voices of males to speak to other men and boys. We must also involve them to help to design the message to their peers. Of course, many men who come to feminism do so because of the impact of women in their lives, but if we are to reach large numbers of men, men themselves must take responsibility. The sheer diversity of white ribbon activities in Canada alone is a good example of this, with each school or union or sports team itself deciding what it will do to reach the men or boys in their community.
6. Create a politics of compassion, and work with men and boys to develop their emotional life and a language of emotions. In our work to end the oppression of women, we must not shrink from compassion and empathy with men and boys. This means never losing sight of the negative impact of contemporary patriarchy on men and boys themselves, even though they gain many privileges as males.
7. Reaching particular age groups requires finding specific entry points. To be effective, we must understand what are, at different ages, the specific links of men and boys to gender issues. Speaking to teenage boys about domestic violence is important, but speaking with them about building healthy relationships is an even more effective way to make the same points, for it actually speaks to their most pressing concerns. The participatory model of WRC facilitates this by encouraging specific groups to design their own campaigns.
8. Find ways to measure men’s attitudinal and behavioural changes and the effectiveness of new initiatives aimed at men and boys, as much of our work in recent decades has been rather intuitive and impressionistic.
Vineta Polatside
Dear all,
Its great to read so many valuable resources, thanks!
I wanted to add a few more as well:
The historical record indicates that nonviolent campaigns have been more successful than armed campaigns in achieving ultimate goals in political struggles, even when used against similar opponents and in the face of repression. Nonviolent campaigns are more likely to win legitimacy, attract widespread domestic and international support, neutralize the opponent’s security forces, and compel loyalty shifts among erstwhile opponent supporters than are armed campaigns, which enjoin the active support of a relatively small number of people, offer the opponent a justification for violent counterattacks, and are less likely to prompt loyalty shifts and defections. An original, aggregate data set of all known major nonviolent and violent resistance campaigns from 1900 to 2006 is used to test these claims. These dynamics are further explored in case studies of resistance campaigns in Southeast Asia that have featured periods of both violent and nonviolent resistance. Downloabable via: http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/18407/why_civil_resistance_works.html
Here's a great concept paper on how to align work with women and girls and work with men and boys from the International Gender Working Group:
http://www.prb.org/Reports/2010/gendersynchronization.aspx
Greetings,
I would like to add the following two resources to those that have already been shared from the ICRW website:
Evolving Men: Initial Results from the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES)
http://www.icrw.org/publications/evolving-men
What Men Have to Do With It: Public Policies to Promote Gender Equality
http://www.icrw.org/publications/what-men-have-do-it
Amir Hodžić, independent researcher and educator, Croatia – Gender Focal Point in GPPAC Western Balkans
As we come to the close of an awesome dialogue I want to add two resources:
IT's ALL ONE CURRICULUM: Guidelines and Activities for a Unified Approach to Sexuality, Gender, HIV, and Human Rights Education.
This curriculum developed by IPPF, CREA, Girls Power Initiative, IWHC, Mexfam and Population Council was written by the International Sexuality and HIV Curriculum Working Group. It's available for free download at: www.popcouncil.org/publications/books/2010_ItsAllOne.asp.
Second, in October 2011, there will be a Masculinities conference in NYC, no registration fee:
rsvp@masculinitycomplex.com
Looking forward to speaking with you all again in the future. Thanks to New Tactics + WPP!