Gender responsive programming: An approach to planning and implementation
Elena McEwan, Catholic Relief Services
CORE Group Spring Meeting, April 28, 2010
11. Systematic approach for behavior change Planning and Strategy Development Developing and Pretesting Concepts, Messages, and Materials Implementing The Strategy Assessing Effectiveness and Making Refinements 3 2 4 1
Gender refers to our social and psychological identity as males and females. What it means to be masculine or feminine in the society in which we live. Gender is expressed in our behaviors, attitudes, relationships, etc. Gender is learnt through socialization, it is not innate but evolves to respond to changes in the social, political and cultural environment. UNHCR
This OR will be aimed at measuring if behavior change activities with men may contribute to decreasing the first barrier in recognizing and deciding to access timely obstetric and neonatal emergency care and secondly to better understand men’s attitudes about their perceived role, their perception of authority and of family well-being. On the providers’ side, the CSP will strengthen the services by providing MoH staff new skills to diagnose and treat obstetric and newborn emergencies, by re-structuring the health services to become more culturally sensitive, and by including new indicators in the MoH health’s information system to record the number of pregnant women seeking care with their partners and the number of men who asked questions regarding their wives’ health during care. The CSP will also improve the coordination between health units and community structures to improve timely referrals.
The KPC results for men also showed that men do not recognize the danger signs that may put the health of their wives and children at risk. When asked which danger signs would make them seek help for their wives during pregnancy,
KPC and FGD with volunteers baseline
This is based on the quality cycle: Plan, do, check, adapt/refine/ act/implement
Organization: 20 communities selected using pre-established criteria Training CS and MoH team in methodology Field work planning, development of guidelines and interview techniques Invitation to community members Field work 14 FGD participating 36 men whose wives were either pregnant or with children under two 32 in-depth interviews (16 men whose were in postpartum period) and 16 post-partum women. Analysis and discussion of findings: Team compiled and analyzed the information 4 session to present the results to governmental authorities in three municipalities (major office, MoH, MoEd, Police, other organizations) 35 participants 8 sessions at community level with men, women for a total of 64 participants In all the sessions participants made recommendations about strategies could be implemented to overcome barriers
FGD and in-depth interview with men and women
25 men in three municipalities Men with pregnant women’ Men whose wives where in last two weeks of pregnancy: behavior 1,2 Anecdote about the wife didn’t want to go back and wash the baby’s clothes after one months of probing phase The husband convinced it was important to participate in the ANC came to the H/U but the doctor didn’t let him in The H/U staff brainstorming how to declare “husband friendly units”. “welcome all me who love their wives”
When to the health center couldn’t participate during ANC: one decided to do something else and the other one was asked by the health staff to participate in a meeting. Other men couldn’t go with wife, only had money to pay for her wife fare. Men when to the health center and was willing to stay with wife during the delivery of the baby but the doctor didn’t allow him to enter the room Two other couples participating in this behaviors, the women haven’t went into labor yet.