This document discusses strategies for involving men in family planning programs in order to promote gender equity and responsible fatherhood. It recommends training healthcare providers to counsel men and couples, introducing family planning methods like the Standard Days Method that engage men, and reaching out to men through their existing social networks and community groups. Evaluation of programs found they improved couple communication, increased modern contraceptive use, and led to men having more positive attitudes toward supporting their partner's family planning choices. The document concludes that working with men through their own networks and expanding family planning options for men can help achieve the goals of supportive male partners and engaged fathers.

1. Building Gender Equity and Promoting
Responsible Fatherhood in
Family Planning Programs
Rebecka Lundgren, MPH

2. Begin with the end in mind:
Involve men in planning their

3. Involved men will be invested
in the health of their
children…

4. …and have the opportunity
to be supportive partners

5. To be engaged fathers and
supportive partners, men need
to:
 Have positive attitudes towards healthy timing and spacing of
pregnancy
 Be aware of FP methods and support their use
 Communicate with their partners about FP and family health
 Be linked with FP and other health information/services

6. Men are underserved
 Limited role for men in FP service
delivery model
 Programs and providers exclude men
 Prevailing “anti-men” paradigm
 Provider bias against male clients,
failure to welcome them or provide
them accurate information

7. The Standard Days
Method®
 Helps couples prevent pregnancy by knowing which days they should avoid
unprotected intercourse
 Identifies days 8-19 of the cycle as fertile
 Works best for women with menstrual cycles from 26 to 32 days
 CycleBeads help identify fertile days, track cycle length & communicate with

8. Strategies
 Gender training for
providers
 Counseling for
men and couples
 Male promoters
 Communication &
outreach
 Address partner
issues with women

9. Provide information on FP and family
health to men through print and radio

10. Men obtain information from their
peers rather than the health
system

11. Reaching men through men’s
networks
In Philippines and
Guatemala, FP info
provided through:
 Agricultural cooperatives
 Microfinance groups
 Community development
committees

12. CARE India: Male Volunteers
Male and female
volunteers provided:
 information to men’s and
women’s groups
 counseling to men,
women and couples

13. El Salvador: Incorporating FP
into
Water and Sanitation Programs
 PCI included FP
topics in water/
sanitation and
agricultural education
 Home visits by
volunteers
 SDM, OCP and
condoms offered in
the community with
referrals for other
methods

14. “Planificando Juntos”
Results
 Increased couple communication among program
participants, and throughout community
 Significant increase in contraceptive prevalence from
45% to 58%
 Increased support for:
 male involvement in family health
 women’s autonomy in FP choice

15. Attitudes, couple communication
and contraceptive use reported by men
before and after “Planificando Juntos”*
Attitudes Baseline Endline (%)
(%) (n=175)
(n=151)
Men should not participate in family health 60 11
matters
Discussed in the previous six months
Number of children 38 47
Using family planning method 20 37
Which method to use 20 34
Men’s role in family planning 5 23
Risk of sexually transmitted disease 24 47
Contraceptive use
Use of contraception 44 Lundgren63 al, 2006
et
*Significant, p<0.001

16. Introducing SDM can
help providers to…
 Broaden the FP paradigm to
include men
 Address couple issues that
influence FP use

17. Reaching Men with Family Planning
Counseling
Program Country % of male SDM users
counseled by a
provider
Project Concern) El Salvador 39%
(n=142)
CARE Rural India 30%
(n=431)
KAANIB Philippines 88%
(n=78)
ASHONPLAFA Honduras 37%
(n=82)
Lundgren et al, 2006

18. Men participate in SDM use by…
 Using a condom or
abstaining during fertile
days
 Following wife’s
instructions
 Keeping track of fertile
days
 Purchasing CycleBeads
and condoms

19. SDM Use
Husband received counseling
Yes No
El Salvador (n=56) (n=86)
Completed 13 cycles* 16% 7%
Pregnancies* 5% 16%
Unprotected sex during
2% 7%
fertile days
(p<.05)* Exit interviews with SDM
users

20. SDM Continuation: Male Participation vs.
Women Focused Villages
10 0%
Misrikh
Kha iraba d
9 0%
8 0%
7 0%
6 0%
Porcentaje
5 0%
4 0%
3 0%
2 0%
1 0%
0%
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Me se s de uso
CARE India p < .05

21. In their words…
Influence on their relationship
“SDM has helped us to “I feel good that my
come closer, understand husband now
each other’s needs. Unlike understands how my
earlier, we now discuss body works. He pays
intimate things with each attention to my
other and this has added suggestions and respects
pleasure to our otherwise my wishes. For the first
monotonous sex life.” time he asks me if we can
have intercourse. I am
- Male SDM user, India happy that he cares about
me.”
- Female SDM user, India

22. Principles of
Success
 Work with men: male
networks, change agents and
providers
 Expand FP
options/services for men
 Go to the men: community-
based information and
services, weekends and
evenings
 Organizational
commitment: monitor and
reward efforts to reach men,
flexible work hours

23. Reach out to men
through their
networks to achieve
supportive partners
and engaged
fathers