Addressing Masculinities and Violence in the Post Conflict Western Balkans: Lessons Learned from Eng

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Addressing Masculinities and Violence in the Post
Conflict Western Balkans Lessons Learned from
Engaging Young Men and Youth Service Agencies
Global Symposium for Engaging Men and Boys in
Gender Equality Rio de Janeiro, Brazil April
1st, 2009
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BALKANS CONTEXT

• Yugoslavian wars of 1991-2001
• Gender-based violence
• - Mass rape of women
• - Sexual abuse like castration of men and
  boys
• in war prisons
• Masculinity crisis
• Youth
• - 1/4 of primary school children in Serbia
  exposed to violence by peers 1/3 exposed to
  violent behaviors from teachers
• - Montenegro youth face humiliation, slaps
  on face, cursing and
• scorn by teachers
• - 38 of girls in secondary schools report
  sexual harassment in
• Croatia
• - 44 of all 6-8th grade girls in Bosnia
  and Herzegovina report some type of bullying
  and harassment in school.

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PROJECT GOAL
Male youth aged 13-19 hold attitudes and
demonstrate behaviors which support more gender
equitable social norms and discourage violent
behavior against women and peers
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PROJECT STRATEGY

• Capacity building of Youth Service Agencies
• Formative participatory research
• Intervention design
• Baseline survey
• School-based interventions
• Impact evaluation
• Scale-up

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Exploring Dimensions of Masculinity and Violence
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Research Questions

• What are the current social constructs, attitudes
  and experiences for young men, especially with
  regard to hegemonic masculinity?
• What are the ranges of young mens attitudes and
  behaviors towards women and their relationship
  with women?
• What social institutions influence you mens
  constructs of masculinity?
• How are social constructs of masculinity related
  to mens violent use of power?
• What opportunities exist to support young mens
  more gender-equitable constructions of
  masculinity, especially alternatives to the
  violent use of power?

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What we learned

• Hegemonic Masculinities
• Several sites identified multiple
• hegemonic masculinities
• E.g. traditional, family guy,
• modern guy, mythical peer
• Young men themselves did not
• necessarily aspire to fulfill these
• norms, though their attitudes,
• behaviors options for action
• are shaped by them

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Building Capacity

• 6 Youth Service Agencies
• - Bosnia Herzegovina
• - Croatia
• - Montenegro
• - Serbia
• Training workshops
• - Gender sexuality
• - Gender, masculinity violence

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Lifestyles Campaign and Education Program

• Working with young men in 4 countries, a
  specialized local NGO on social marketing, TA
  from Instituto Promundo will design a
  comprehensive campaign focused on school and
  community
• Program Muski program man is an educational
  manual developed and adapted from program H with
  support from Promundo for the Balkan context on
  working with young men on issues around gender
  equality, violence, fatherhood, HIV/AIDS, and SRH

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Baseline and

• Baseline and endline
• Longitudinal cohort study
• Qualitative research (more PLA)
• GEM scale and others
• Country research teams with support and TA from
  ICRW

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Regional Young Men Forum

• An informal network of young men
  from each
  country who have shown
  interest to be
  champions on the
  ideas of
  the project
• Focus is to give opportunities for
  
  participation and ideas for young
  men
• Leadership development and promotion of
  activities
• Joint development experience this summer with
  young men from Northern Ireland

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Challenges and Successes

• Challenges
• Dealing with own feeling around sexism
• Post war issues still on the surface
• Use of humor and jokes to avoid some of the
  uncomfortable issues
• Identifying the right facilitators

• Successes
• Increased understanding of gender and sex, gender
  roles and expectations, social constructions of
  gender, hegemonic masculinity, power,
  discrimination and GBC
• Good start for YSA representatives to
  self-reflect on sensitive issues
• Positive engagement and participation by YSA
  representatives

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Lessons Learned

• Time and space required for self analysis and
  reflection
• Group facilitators very important and commitment
  of YSA leadership
• Knowledge of concepts of sexual and reproductive
  health rights important
• On-going mentoring and capacity building
  (learning never ends)
• Research and evaluation critical at all levels