Involving men to get gender campaign right

The Gender Department in the Central Region has established three additional Men and Boys Advocacy Clubs (MBACs) to increase the involvement of men in gender-based issues. Six dormant MBACs were also reactivated, bringing the total to 10 clubs in the region.

The beneficiary communities are Ekumfi Ekotsi, Srafa Kokodo in the Ekumfi District, and Nsanfo in the Mfantseman municipality.

The clubs are established for the education and sensitisation of men to their own sexuality, and for them to adopt responsible sexual behaviours.

The event, reported in the Thursday, June 3, 2021, issue of the Daily Graphic, had the Central Regional Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) supporting, while the clubs were established with the support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

At the event, the Regional Director of Gender, Mama Awotsu Adzagba, said 80 per cent of domestic violence was perpetrated by men.

It was, therefore, important to target men and boys for education and sensitisation “if sexual-based violence and teenage pregnancy are to reduce”, she said.

A fact sheet by the World Health Organisation (WHO) states that “violence against women – particularly intimate partner violence and sexual violence – is a major public health problem and a violation of women's human rights.”

The phenomenon impacts women’s mental and physiological health, as well as social and economic circumstances, adversely.

The fact sheet by the WHO also states that one in three women (30 per cent) worldwide have been subjected to either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.

In practical terms, this means that in any gathering with three women, at least one of them has suffered some form of violence at the hands of her intimate partner, be it her husband, lover or boyfriend.

It is even now the practice in our time that fathers abuse their female children and wards.

It is in the light of this public health threat that the Daily Graphic commends the Central Regional Gender Department and the UNFPA for their collaboration in the establishment of the MBACs.

The establishment of the MBACs is a great step that needs to be replicated in all 16 regions in Ghana.

The sensitisation and education of men and boys on their own sexuality and responsible sexual behaviours will result in societies where transactions between men and women, be they political, economic, social or sexual are undertaken peacefully and with respect.

Indeed, the Central Regional Gender Department, by the establishment of the MBACs, implements an international framework for preventing violence against women.

The framework, entitled RESPECT, with each letter standing for one of the seven strategies of the framework, was published by the WHO, UN Women and with the endorsement of 12 other UN agencies, in 2019.

Relationship skills strengthening, Empowerment of women, Services ensured, Poverty reduced, Enabling environments (schools, workplaces, public spaces) created, Child and adolescent abuse prevented, and Transformed attitudes, beliefs and norms, are the strategies for RESPECT.

Some of the strategies prescribe efforts such as what has been initiated by the Central Regional Gender Department and for that matter the establishment of MBACs.

It is therefore our hope that such MBACs would be replicated across the country to get many more men and boys involved in gender-based campaigns.

Women must have men as worthy partners, as they strive for gender equality and parity. Without men, the efforts at recognising women’s contribution in societies would not be successful.

Ayekoo, Central Regional Gender Department and UNFPA.