• Sexuality and reproductive rights

Sexuality and reproductive rights

Although attitudes are changing, many South Africans of both sexes see men as superior to women and believe that men should dictate many decisions that affect health, including sexual decisions. A growing body of evidence also suggests that men are far less likely than women to access HIV services including testing, treatment and other care and support services. This document provides a literature review on men, gender and HIV and AIDS in South Africa. The authors argue that the question then is not whether men can change, but rather whether policies and programs accelerate and influence that change.

The documents covers issues including multiple partners, treatment uptake, maternal health, family planning and men in prisons. The authors then consider other health issues aside from HIV and AIDS. Issues surrounding violence against women but also including violence against other men are raised in addition to alcohol, chronic disease, tobacco use and fatherhood. The authors conclude that although much good work has been done to engage men in efforts to reduce gender inequality, most programmes have been small in scale and had limited sustainability. Most have focused on running workshops and community education events. Other conclusions include:

• measurement of impact is crucial to effective rollout – in a field where few initiatives have a long history, it will be important to establish which methods work and which do not in order to design successful scale-up strategies and tailor programmes to different environments
• those campaigns that have achieved results so far have shown that many men are willing to help promote gender equality and that this in turn can improve women’s and men’s health
• if South Africa wishes to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and enhance the physical and psychological health of all its people, it is time to bring men on board.
  

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