Promundo
Promundo believes that working with men and boys to transform harmful gender norms and unequal power dynamics is a critical part of the solution to achieve gender equality. For the empowerment of women and girls to continue advancing, men and boys must see themselves as allies in the process. Men and boys also benefit when harmful norms are challenged.
“Our research, programs, and advocacy efforts show that promoting healthy masculinity (or positive notions of “what it means to be a man”) and femininity (or “what is means to be a woman”) leads to improvements in men’s own lives, and in the lives of women and girls.
Our programs strive to create change at multiple levels: in addition to working with individual men and women, we use campaigns and local activism to build community support, and advocate with institutions and governments to adopt policies and scale up programs that reinforce personal and social change.
Since its founding in Brazil in 1997, Promundo has worked to advance gender equality around the world through formative research and rigorous evaluation, implementing evidence-based educational and community-wide programs, and partnering with women’s rights groups. Our advocacy campaigns, community mobilization, group education, and group therapy create safe spaces for men and women in post-conflict and high-violence settings to heal from trauma, for youth in over 22 countries to question harmful gender norms, and for men around the world to discuss the benefits of involved fatherhood and shared decision-making, and the costs of violence and exploitation.
Major organizations including the United Nations, World Bank, the World Health Organization and national governments have supported our cause by working jointly on our initiatives or by adopting our programs and rolling them out in other communities around the world.
Promundo is funded by national and local governments, foundations, bilateral and multilateral aid organizations, major nongovernmental agencies, and individual donations.”
Table of Contents
Activities
The activities of Instituto Promundo comprise:
- conducting studies and research;
- developing programmes; and
- advocacy, mainly through the creation and participation in campaigns and events.
The following presents some, but not all, of the activities carried out by Instituto Promundo.
Research
Instituto Promundo carries out research with youth and adults in Brazil and elsewhere on issues related to gender and health, including the promotion of sexual and Reproductive Category:Health and the prevention of gender-based violence.Promundo. “Research”. Retrieved 22 October 2012. It has coordinated qualitative and quantitative studies in different cultural contexts in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe and provided technical support for research studies with the World Bank, the World Category:Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Population Fund (United NationsFPA) (UNFPA), among others.
Some on-going research projects include:
- a qualitative study about how the relationship between fathers and daughters does (or does not) support women’s empowerment;
- a qualitative and quantitative study about masculinity and different forms of sexual exploitation and sexual violence; and
- a four-country (Brazil, Chile , Rwanda and India ) operational study on involving men in the prevention of violence against women.
Program H
In 1999, Instituto Promundo, together with ECOS Comunicação em Sexualidade (São Paulo, Brazil), Instituto Papai (Recife, Brazil), and Salud y Género ( Mexico ) – in collaboration with International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF, Western Hemisphere Region) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) – developed Program H.Promundo. “Program H: Engaging young men in gender equality”. Retrieved 22 October 2012. With men as the main focus of the programme, the reference to “H” derives from the Portuguese, “homens“, and Spanish, “hombres“, which are the words for “men”.
Program H seeks to engage young men and their communities in critical reflections about rigid norms related to manhood. It includes group educational activities (see the Program H manual on activities with young men), Promundo. “Program H manual on activities with young men”. Retrieved 19 October 2012. community campaigns, and an innovative evaluation model, the Gender-Equitable Men or GEM scale,The Gender Equitable Men (GEM) Scale was originally developed by the Population Council and Promundo with young men aged 15-24 years. The original scale includes attitudinal statements about different dimension of men’s gender attitudes. The scale has since been validated in house-hold research in more than 15 countries.See: Barker, G., Contreras, M., Heilman, B., Singh, A., Verma, R., Nascimento, M. (January 2011). “Evolving Men: Initial Results from the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES)”. Washington, D.C.: International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Promundo. Retrieved 19 October 2012. for assessing the programme’s impact on gender-related attitudes. After participating in Program H activities, young men have reported a number of positive changes, from higher rates of condom use and improved relationships with friends and sexual partners to greater acceptance of domestic work as men’s responsibility and lower rates of sexual harassment and violence against women.
In 2007, Program H was cited in United Nations Development Program (UNDP) report “50 Jeitos Brasileiros de Mudar o Mundo” (50 Brazilian Ways to Change the World)United Nations Development Program (UNDP) (2007). “50 Jeitos Brasileiros de Mudar o Mundo”. Retrieved 22 October 2012. and in a United NationsICEF (UNICEF) report on the State of the World’s Children.United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) (2006). “The State of the World’s Children 2007: Women and Children: The Double Dividend of Gender Equality”. Retrieved 22 October 2012. In 2008, the UNFPA recognized Program H as an effective strategy for engaging young men in the promotion of sexual and reproductive health in its State of the Population Report.
Program H was developed and validated in Latin America and the Caribbean ( Bolivia , Colombia , Jamaica and Peru ) and in Brazil; the methodology has also been adapted for use in Asia ( India , Nepal , Thailand and Vietnam ); in Sub-Saharan Africa ( Ethiopia , Mozambique , Namibia and Tanzania ); in Central America ( Nicaragua , Costa Rica and Panama ) and in the USA and Canada . Additional partners in what is now called the Program H Alliance are: SSL International (makers of Durex condoms) (UK), World Education (USA), CORO for Literacy (India), Population Council (USA), PATH (USA), and JohnSnowBrasil.
Program M
In 1999 Promundo developed Program M, in partnership with ECOS Comunicação em Sexualidade (São Paulo, Brazil), Instituto Papai (Recife, Brazil), Salud y Género (Mexico) and World Education (USA) – with the support of the Oak Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Nike Foundation and the Brazilian Secretariat for Women’s Policies.Promundo. “Program M”. Retrieved 22 October 2012. With women as the main focus of the programme, the reference to “M” derives from the Portuguese, “mulheres“, and Spanish, “mujeres“, which are the words for “women”.
Program M seeks to promote the health and empowerment of young women through critical reflections about gender, rights and health. The programme consists of educational workshops, community campaigns and innovative evaluation instruments for assessing the programme’s impact on young women’s gender-related attitudes and perceived self-efficacy in interpersonal relationships. The Program M curriculum was originally field-tested in Brazil , Jamaica , Mexico and Nicaragua and has since been adapted for use in India and Tanzania .
Entre Nós campaign
Entre Nós (Between Us), is a multi-media campaign to engage young people in critical reflections on rigid ideas about gender and the ways in which they influence their lives and relationships.Promundo. “Entre Nós”. Retrieved 22 October 2012. The flagship of Entre Nós is a radio-based soap opera which tells the story of a young couple, Beto and Jessica, and their circle of friends. The storyline addresses first sexual experiences, condom use, unplanned pregnancy and adolescent parenthood through the lenses of women’s empowerment and gender-equity. The soap opera is also accompanied by a set of comic books and a soundtrack with songs set to popular music styles, from samba to rap, and lyrics inspired by the campaign themes.
In 2007, the campaign was launched in three low-income communities in Rio de Janeiro in collaboration with the same youth who had participated in its development. The campaign reached approximately 9,000 youth, as well as parents, teachers and other community members, with messages about gender-equity and health. In 2008, Promundo started collaborating with the Education Secretariats and schools in the states of Rio de Janeiro and Bahia in Brazil to adapt and integrate Entre Nós and Programs H and M into the public education sector.
Global Symposium on Engaging Men and Boys in Gender Equality
In 2009, Instituto Promundo was one of the co-hosts of the Event:2009-03-29 Global Symposium: Engaging Men and Boys in Achieving Gender Equality (Rio, Gender Equality in Brazil) in Rio de Janeiro.Promundo. “Global Symposium on Engaging Men and Boys”. Retrieved 22 October 2012. The event brought together 439 activists, researchers, and practitioners from 77 countries to share their experiences in challenging rigid gender norms and engaging men and boys in: reducing violence against women and girls; promoting sexual and reproductive health; HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment; and fatherhood and care-giving.
The Symposium was the first-ever global event dedicated specifically to the issue of engaging men and boys. Bringing together representatives from NGOs, donors, UN agencies and governments, the Global Symposium provided an opportunity for these different actors to reflect on current initiatives and challenges and to collectively define lines of action for scaling-up efforts to reach men and boys. The outcome document, “The Rio Declaration”,“The Rio de Janeiro MenEngage Declaration Global Symposium on Engaging Men and Boys on Achieving Gender Equality Rio de Janeiro March 29 – April 3, 2009”. Retrieved 22 October 2012. expressed the shared desires and goals of the participants for a more equal world.
References
See Also
- Masculinities
External links
- Instituto Promundo – official website
- Instituto Promundo – facebook page
- The Instituto Promundo Story – by Gary Parker (International Director of Instituto Promundo) (2007)