"A Man without Money Getting a Sexual Partner? It Doesn't Exist in Our Community": Male Partners' Perspectives on Transactional Sexual Relationships in Uganda and Eswatini

"Transaction dominates the male partners of adolescent girls and young women's understanding of sexual relationships, and inequitable power dynamics are reinforced..."

Transactional sexual relationships, where the primary motivation is material support, take place in a context of distinct gender norms for men and women and often take place within age-disparate partnerships. Research on transactional sexual relationships has largely focused on women's perspectives. This article draws on the voices of men in two sub-Saharan countries - Uganda and Eswatini - to understand men's perceptions, experiences, and motivations for transactional sexual relationships with young women in their communities. The study took place in the context of the DREAMS partnership, which aimed to reduce HIV incidence among young women in 15 countries with substantial HIV epidemics, including Eswatini and Uganda. Adolescent girls and young women (i.e., those between the ages of 15 and 24) in the region are disproportionately at risk of HIV.

In 2017, the researchers conducted 134 in-depth interviews with the male partners of girls and young women aged 19-47 years, 94 in Uganda and 40 in Eswatini. They recruited respondents at venues such as bars and boda boda (motorcycle taxi) stands; in Uganda, they also recruited the male partners of adolescent girls and young women enrolled in DREAMS.

Overall, the themes highlighted by participants were broadly similar across both country samples. For example, men expected sex within these transactional relationships, regardless of whether they were short or longer term.

Participants in both Uganda and Eswatini commonly shared the view that the main way in which relationships between men and women were established and sustained within their communities was through transactional exchange, in which men assumed the provider role. They often attributed a need to be supported financially/taken care of, and women's interest in money, to a female identity. They felt pressure to provide and stress about losing access to economic resources and income.

Overall, respondents perceived young women as strategically using men to access money as well as the material luxuries neither they nor their families could afford. That said, there were some groups of young women they felt were vulnerable to predatory behaviours of older men - in particular, very young, economically impoverished, and migrant women. In these cases, respondents were highly critical of the men, calling them manipulative, "which provides a potential opening to work to shift norms and reframe this type of manipulation as unacceptable."

Men described conflict with longer-term partners as a driver to seeking younger partners, who were more compliant. Also mentioned was that adolescent girls and younger women were likely too young to have acquired HIV; thus, HIV risk reduction behaviour (e.g., condom use) was not needed with them.

Only a small group of men thought alternatives to exchanging gifts and money for sex (e.g. a love-based relationship) were possible. These results reveal how men themselves - even from two different social contexts/countries - feel constrained by gender dynamics: Per the researchers, "factors influencing transactional relationships - as reflected in men's perspectives on limited relationship options and young women's role in seeking these relationships - are rooted in gender-based power relations and gender inequitable norms."

The researchers indicate that the study's findings offer avenues for future programmes and interventions, suggesting that:

• It is important to provide opportunities for men to openly share their dissatisfaction with transactional sexual relationships and their critical views towards transactional relationships they perceived to be exploitative, as well as for men and women to collectively engage in critical reflection around this. More consistent scale-up of existing evidence-based gender-transformational programmes is the next step, the researchers argue.
• In light of the interviewees' expressed connection between discord within marital and other longer-term relationships and their desire to seek new (especially younger) partners, programmatic responses could include applying evidence-based models that strengthen men's, women's, and couples' skills to communicate more equitably and resolve conflicts in relationships.
• There is a need for intervention to support economic autonomy for adolescent girls and young women.

In conclusion: "HIV prevention programmes should directly address the underlying drivers of transactional relationships (e.g. gender norms) and work with men who question the practice....[U]nless we confront these dynamics directly, high levels of HIV vulnerability are likely to persist."