Constructive Men's Engagement in Reproductive Health: A Training-of-Trainers Manual

This publication features the curriculum developed as part of a United States Agency for international Development (USAID) Health Policy Initiative, Task Order 1 project focused on building an enabling policy and institutional environment for constructive men's engagement (CME) in reproductive health in Mali.

The project worked with the Ministry of Health and other partners to facilitate creation of national guidelines for integrating CME in family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) and for improving women's and men's uptake of FP/RH services. At the donor level, the project helped institutionalise support for CME by assisting USAID in integrating CME into its existing FP/RH programmes. This effort involved partnering with a local organisation, CARE's project Keneya Ciwara. The project trained a group of trainers, who have since conducted two pilot workshops with "relais communautaires" (community peer educators).

This document contains the manual used in the pilot workshops with relais communautaires. It is designed to enable community health educators to incorporate activities related to CME in RH in their daily work. This includes promoting dialogue among men and women to increase couple communication and shared decisionmaking related to FP/RH. As such, it can be adapted in other settings, based on local needs.

After an introduction and a workshop overview, the document details the "how-to's" of the following sessions:

1. Introduction
2. "Vote with Your Feet"
3. Constructive Men's Engagement in Reproductive Health
4. Couple Communication and Shared Decisionmaking
5. Key Questions About Reproductive Health Among Couples
6. Applying Lessons to Health Educators' Work
7. Next Steps
8. Workshop Evaluation

Corresponding appendices include the following:

1. Suggestions for the Welcome and/or Workshop Introduction
2. "Vote With Your Feet" - List of Possible Statements
3. Images Related to Constructive Men's Engagement
4. Important Points about Constructive Men's Engagement in Reproductive Health
5. Advice for Good Couple Communication and Shared Decisionmaking
6. Scenarios for Exploring Strategies to Improve Couple Communication and Decisionmaking
7. Topics of Discussion Among Couples Related to Reproductive Health
8. Applying Lessons to Health Educators' Work
9. Role Playing
10. Elements of Monitoring and Evaluation
11. Bull's-eye Evaluation