The "One Man Can Campaign"

South Africa has amongst the highest levels of domestic violence and rape of any country in the world. Research conducted by the Medical Research Council in 2004 shows that every six hours, a woman is killed by her intimate partner. This is the highest rate recorded anywhere in the world [i]. Inadequate recording of statistics makes it impossible to determine conviction rates for domestic violence but a recent study of domestic violence homicides in South Africa showed conviction rates no higher than 37.3% [ii] This violence and the unequal power it reflects between men and women is one of the root causes of the rapid spread of HIV in South Africa. Almost one third of sexually experienced women (31%) reported that they did not want to have their first sexual encounter and that they were coerced into sex. As a result, young women in South Africa are much more likely to be infected than men and make up 77% of the 10% of South African youth between the ages of 15 and 24 who are infected with HIV/AIDS [iii].

Men’s violence against women does not occur because men lose their temper or because they have no impulse control. Men who use violence do so because they equate manhood with aggression, dominance over women and with sexual conquest. Often they are afraid that they will be viewed as less than a “real” man if they apologise, compromise or share power. So instead of finding ways to resolve conflict, they resort to violence. We have used the term “men’s violence against women” because it is men who commit the majority of all acts of domestic and sexual violence.

However, research shows that South African men are not monolithic but instead hold a wide range of opinions about violence against women. A number of studies have been conducted to determine men’s attitudes and practices related to sexual violence [iv]. For instance, a recent survey of 435 men in a Cape Town township revealed that “More than one in five men …reported that they had either threatened to use force or used force to gain sexual access to a woman in their lifetime” [v].

A 2006 Medical Research Council survey of 1370 male volunteers recruited from 70 rural South African villages indicated that “16.3% had raped a non-partner, or participated in a form of gang rape; 8.4% had been sexually violent towards an intimate partner; and 79.1% had done neither” [vi]. In addition, a 2006 Sonke Gender Justice survey of 1000 men in the greater Johannesburg area suggested that about equal numbers of men support and oppose government efforts to promote gender equality with 41.4% of men surveyed saying that the government is doing too much to end violence against women and 38.4% of men surveyed saying that government is not doing enough to end violence against women. At the same time, 50.1% of all men surveyed felt that they should be doing more to end violence against women [vii]. This research shows that some men hold deeply alarming attitudes towards women, sex and gender equality. However, it also shows that a growing number of men and boys are strongly opposed to this violence and feel that it has no place in a new democratic South Africa.

While South Africa has alarming levels of gender based violence, it is by no means unique. The recent WHO Multi-Country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence indicates that domestic violence is a grave problem the world over and represents a fundamental violation of women’s rights [viii]. Faced with this reality, efforts have been made to involve men in ending gender based violence and in achieving gender equality. A number of international commitments have been made encouraging member states and signatories to implement strategies for engaging men and boys. International commitments to involving men and boys in achieving gender equality:

A review of international legislation and UN declarations presented at the fifty-first session of the Commission on the Status of Women in 2007 reports that “Equality between women and men is a fundamental principle of international law established in the United Nations Charter” and cites the following commitments:

* The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development affirms the need to “promote gender equality in all spheres of life, including family and community life, and to encourage and enable men to take responsibility for their sexual and reproductive behavior and their social and family roles.”[ix]

* The Beijing Platform for Action (1995) restated the principle of shared responsibility; and argued that women’s concerns could only be addressed “in partnership with men”.[x]

* At the 48th session, the UN Commission on the Status of Women called on Governments, entities of the United Nations system and other stakeholders to:

* encourage men to participate in preventing and treating HIV/AIDS;
* support men and boys to prevent gender-based violence;
*implement programmes in schools to accelerate socio-cultural change towards gender equality.

EVIDENCE BASE FOR INVOLVING MEN AND BOYS IN ACHIEVING GENDER EQUALITY

As new programs engaging men and boys have been implemented, a body of effective evidence-based programming has emerged and confirmed that men and boys are willing to change their attitudes and practices and, sometimes, to take a stand for greater gender equality.

The Medical Research Council’s evaluation of the Stepping Stones initiative implemented in the Eastern Cape showed significant changes in men’s attitudes and practices. With two years follow up, men who participated in the intervention reported fewer partners, higher condom use, less transactional sex, less substance abuse and less perpetration of intimate partner violence. [xi,xii]

In Brazil, Instituto Promundo’s intervention with young men on promoting healthy relationships and HIV/STI prevention, showed significant shifts in gender norms at six months and twelve months. Young men with more equitable norms were between four and eight times less likely to report STI symptoms with additional improvements at 12 months post intervention. [xiii]

Following upon these findings, the World Health Organisation recently released a report endorsing the efficacy of working with men to achieve gender equality [xiv].

Aware of these findings and as a signatory to many international commitments on involving men and boys in achieving gender equality, South Africa has made significant efforts to engage men and boys. The South Africa country report submitted to the 51st session of the UN CSW (http://www.genderjustice.org.za/sa-country-report-2007.html) chronicles the efforts of many government and civil society organisations.

One such initiative described is the One Man Can Campaign developed and coordinated by Sonke Gender Justice.

SONKE GENDER JUSTICE NETWORK AND THE ONE MAN CAN CAMPAIGN

The South African NGO Sonke Gender Justice (Sonke), works within a human rights framework to promote gender equality and reduce the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS.

To increase men’s commitment to gender equality, Sonke Gender Justice is currently implementing its One Man Can (OMC) Campaign in all of the country’s nine provinces and a number of 8 Southern African countries.

The purpose of the OMCC is twofold: to challenge the attitudes and behaviours held by men that compromise their own health and safety as well as the health and safety of women and children; and to encourage men to become actively involved in responding to gender based violence and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Sonke Gender Justice currently implements OMCC workshops with various groups of men in communities across South Africa and has provided training on the OMCC to a broad range of key stakeholders including government departments at the national and provincial levels as well as to traditional healers, faith based leaders, the police, youth serving organizations, in and out of school youth, teachers and other CBOs and NGOs.

DEVELOPING THE ONE MAN CAN CAMPAIGN

The One Man Can Campaign supports men and boys to take action to end domestic and sexual violence, to reduce the spread and impact of HIV/AIDS, and to promote healthy, equitable relationships that men and women can enjoy—passionately, respectfully, and fully.

The campaign was created to promote the idea that all men have a role to play, that “each one of us can create a better, more equitable and more just world. Formative research supporting the OMC Campaign

Sonke’s research showed that many men and boys are concerned about widespread domestic and sexual violence and want it to stop. Sonke heard that men and boys do worry about the safety of women and girls—their partners, sisters, mothers, girlfriends, wives, coworkers, neighbors, classmates, and fellow congregants—and want to play a role in creating a safer and more just world.

To decide on the content of the various “action sheets”, containing suggestions for action men and boys can take, a youth research team conducted a survey with 945 men in Johannesburg to get their views on what role they see for themselves and the government. Additionally, a formative research team conducted literature reviews to identify similar approaches used elsewhere and then ran many focus group discussions with survivors of violence, faith based leaders, teachers, coaches and young and adult men.

The project team also carried out a number of street surveys, stopping men in shopping malls, restaurants, barber shops and bus stations to find out how they understood the problem of men’s violence against women and what they would be willing to do about it.

For the campaign Sonke developed a kit to provide men with resources to act on their concerns about domestic and sexual violence. This includes materials such as stickers, clothing, posters, music, video clips, and fact sheets. In addition, the One Man Can Action Kit provides specific information and strategies on how men can: support a survivor, use the law to demand justice, educate children early and often, challenge other men to take action, make schools safer for girls and boys, and raise awareness in churches, mosques or synagogues.

IMPLEMENTATION TO DATE
Following its launch at the end of 2006, Sonke Gender Justice has started to successfully implement the OMC Campaign and use the Action Toolkit in various parts of the country.

In the Western Cape, Sonke has utilised the action kits with men in Khayelitsha and Nyanga Districts – including coaches, religious leaders, fathers, teachers, taverners, ward councillors and young people. The CDs have been introduced into jukeboxes in Cape Town taverns and shebeens and are being played extensively. The kits and workshop activities have also been used with hundreds of inmates and correctional staff in prisons across the province.

In rural areas in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape Sonke is using the materials to develop the capacity of men to be more involved in meeting the needs of children made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS. Specifically, the kits are being used to provide guidance to fathers and social fathers on what they can do to support orphans and vulnerable children. The materials are also used by teachers to carry out HIV/AIDS and gender based violence related activities with learners. In addition, the action kits also form the foundation for boys groups being run in schools that focus on the role boys can play in supporting orphans and vulnerable children.

In Limpopo Province, the campaign and materials have been adapted for use with commercial farm workers. In Gauteng, Sonke staff are using the materials in our work with refugees and migrants in Johannesburg’s inner city areas of Yeoville, Berea and Hillbrow where a team of 25 peer educators engage men and women on issues related to condom use, reduction of multiple sexual partners, HIV testing and ending gender based violence.

Most recently, Sonke partnered with Constella Futures and the National Department of Health to host a One Man Can national imbizo with 300 men from all nine provinces to explore their sexual and reproductive health experiences and needs. This meeting was followed by a technical consultation to develop national policies on men’s health and gender equality including on sexual and reproductive health.

Sonke has also used murals extensively to get the word out about the One Man Can Campaign. As an organisation, we are convinced that arts-based approaches can break through the monotony of many conventional educational and communications strategies.

The murals provide vibrant, colourful, community-designed messages about gender, HIV/AIDS and human rights in communities across the country – one in Gauteng with Khulani Primary in Soweto, three in the Free State, in four Western Cape prisons, at two schools and a community centre in Khayelitsha, and another four in Hoedspruit, Limpopo, done with farmworkers and with staff from Hoedspruit Training Trust. Leo Mbobo, a peer educator with PPASA who participated in painting a One Man Can mural across from a shebeen in Khayelitsha’s Town Two, had this to say about the impact of the mural: “The mural is stimulating debate in the community about gender-based violence and the role that communities can play in ending it. It is good that the message will be there in the community for a very long time to come.”

South Africans have a rich tradition of working for social change and social justice. We’re pleased that the OMC campaign seems to resonate with that history.

* Dean Peacock is Sonke Gender Justice Co-Director
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

For more information on the One Man Can Campaign, visit http://www.genderjustice.org.za/onemancan/images/publications/factsheet/factsheet_eng_lowres.pdf
v S. C. Kalichman, L. C. Simbayi, D. Cain, C. Cherry, N. Henda, A. Cloete (2007) Sexual assault, sexual risks and gender attitudes in a community sample of South African men; AIDS Care, Jan. 2007, Vol. 19,1, pages 20 – 27.
vi Rachel Jewkes, Kristin Dunkle, Mary P. Koss, Jonathan B. Levin, Mzikazi Nduna, Nwabisa Jama, Yandisa Sikweyiya; Rape perpetration by young, rural South African men: Prevalence, patterns and risk factors; Social Science & Medicine 63 (2006) 2949–2961
vii Donald Ambe and Dean Peacock, (2006). “Understanding men’s perceptions of their own and government’s response to violence against women. Findings from a survey of 945 men in the greater Johannesburg area. Sonke Gender Justice Network; December 11, 2006 and PlusNews Special: “Closing the gap: Gender-Based Violence in South Africa: Men slowly turning away from gender-based violence”. Downloaded from http://www.plusnews.org/webspecials/PNGBV/6643.asp on February 21, 2007.
viii WHO multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence against women: summary report of initial results on prevalence, health outcomes and women’s responses. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2005.
ix See paragraphs 4.11, 4.24, 4.25, 4.26, 4.27, 4.28, 4.29, 5.4, 7.8, 7.37, 7.41, 8.22, 11.16, 12.10, 12.13 and 12.14 of the Cairo Programme of Action, and paragraphs 47, 50, 52, and 62 of the outcome of the twenty-first special session of the General Assembly on Population and Development.
x See paragraphs 1, 3, 40, 72, 83b, 107c, 108e, 120 and 179 of the Beijing Platform for Action.
xi Jewkes R, Wood K, Duvvury N. ‘I woke up after I joined Stepping Stones’: meanings of a HIV behavioural intervention in rural South African young people’s lives. Social Science & Medicine (submitted)
xii Jewkes R, Nduna M, Levin J, Jama N, Dunkle K, Koss M, Puren A, Duvvury N. Impact of Stepping Stones on HIV, HSV-2 and sexual behaviour in rural South Africa: cluster randomised controlled trial. British Medical Journal (submitted)
xiii Pulerwitz J, Barker G, Segundo M (2004). “Promoting Healthy Relationships and HIV/STI Prevention for Young Men: Positive Findings from an Intervention Study in Brazil. Horizons Research Update”. Washington, DC: Population Council.
xiv World Health Organization (2007). Engaging men and boys in changing gender-based inequity in health: Evidence from programme interventions. Geneva