About the Strategic Plan

UNFPA CO Iraq is developing an actionable strategy for Iraq for working with men and boys for gender equality and promoting positive masculinities for the period between 2023 and 2026. 

The strategy will address the work on the transformation of gender stereotypes and harmful social norms contributing to gender-based violence and the barriers to access and utilisation of family planning by engaging men and boys to achieve the following:

A Complemented ongoing effort by civil society and government actors in Iraq to address gender inequity and GBV. 

B Systematised approach to better engage men and boys throughout UNFPA Gender and GBV-related programming, from the prevention to the response and the normative actions around promoting a more conducive legal and policy framework.

C Achieved change in behaviour and detrimental social norms within Iraq's humanitarian and development contexts.

Vision and Mission

Vision: BY 2026, Iraqi men and boys will be actively engaged in transforming harmful social norms and gender stereotypes to prevent and reduce GBV and increase access to SRH services 

Mission: UNFPA is improving the capacities of strategic partners, including key government ministries, donors, media networks, academia, private sector, and civil society organisations, including faith-based institutions and youth-led organisations, within the country and the region, in particular of health systems and woman machinery, on positive masculinities work, for the implementation of programmes addressing emerging development and humanitarian needs, through engaging men and boys, in preventing GBV and promoting gender equality and SRHR.

Programme Description

Overall Goal:  Social protection, health systems, and civil society machinery have the capacity for effective male engagement to prevent GBV and promote GE and SRHR in humanitarian and emerging contexts by 2026.

Male engagement (ME) is part of a holistic approach to responding to and preventing GBV, ensuring positive SRH outcomes, challenging negative notions of masculinity, promoting healthy, gender-equitable relationships, and facilitating effective interpersonal communication and shared decision-making. The process includes creating opportunities for men, including youth, to be involved in social development and to learn and practice how to be advocates for gender equality.

Result area 1: The evidence base for the future development of programmes and advocacy focused on engaging men and boys in preventing GBV and promoting GE and SRHR.

Output 1: Enhanced knowledge of main stakeholders on various ME-related topics in preventing GBV and promoting GE and SRHR.

Findings from context-relevant research on crucial gender equality and masculinities issues, such as gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health and rights, reproductive labour and participation in caregiving, and fatherhood, provide evidence to drive and inform government policy at a local, regional, and national level, and operate concrete programming in the field. 

Result area 2: Normative actions around promoting a more conducive legal and policy framework by civil society and government actors in Iraq to address gender inequity and GBV.

Output  2: Established a platform for the sustainable programme and policy support to ME in preventing GBV and promoting GE and SRHR.

A joined male engagement advocacy platform is a space for civil society members to come together, build inclusive collaborations from local to regional to national levels, develop joint actions in partnership with institutional partners, and take collective action toward policy and political agendas for transforming harmful notions of masculinities. Evidence from the research provides action-oriented steps and guidance on how institutions, with the support of civil society partners, and United Nations key players, can implement policies and programs to bring about change to achieve greater gender equality.

Result area 3: A systematised approach to engaging men and boys throughout UNFPA SRHR, Youth and GBV-related programming, from the prevention to the response.

Output  3: Increased knowledge and skills of prominent stakeholders in transforming masculinity and addressing stereotypical gender norms to prevent  GBV and promote  GE and SRHR in the targeted governorates.

A set of common institutional standards for the work of transforming masculinities and gender justice work with men and boys, including engaging men and boys to address stereotypical gender norms, eliminate violence against women and girls, oppose harmful practices fostering injustice and increase access and utilisation of sexual and reproductive health services, are promoted with civil society and institutional partners. Capacities of the CSOs and government institutions are built for gender transformative approaches engaging men and boys. Training Curricula and protocols are developed or adapted with built capabilities for their use. Services and community-based interventions are gradually piloted and scaled up. Corporate interventions to promote family-friendly workplaces are developed. 

Result area 4: Boys and men are less violent, more engaged in community change, have more gender-equitable attitudes, exhibiting greater self-efficacy and knowledge for preventing GBV and promoting GE and SRHR.

Output 4:  Improved knowledge and practices of men and boys around preventing GBV, promoting GE and SRHR, and dismantling detrimental social norms around masculinity.

Integrated gender-based violence prevention pilot interventions for engaging men and boys are piloted and evaluated:

Health sector and community interventions and campaigns promoting men's caregiving, 

Community-based programmes that promote women’s economic empowerment, together with sensitisation activities for their male counterparts and other male relatives, 

GBV prevention and SRHR promotion curricula for youth, parents and staff of schools, sports clubs and youth centres, using group education modules focusing on men and boys’ abilities to think critically about transforming inequitable gender norms and harmful practices. 

PSS for victims of violence, paired with secondary prevention for the perpetrators and bystander intervention programmes in which men become part of speaking out against GBV.

Community-based interventions that change violence-supportive norms by engaging community leaders (especially faith-based leaders) in preventing violence, promoting SRHR, and holding men who use gender-based violence accountable. 

Activism and leadership (primarily through youth-adult partnerships) gear community-based campaigns that promote gender equality. Powerful social marketing tools reinforce local, regional, and national campaigns using different, innovative media outlets, including traditional and innovative approaches.

Summary

UNFPA Iraq will strengthen national capacities for male engagement, particularly social protection and health systems and civil society machinery, to address emerging development and humanitarian needs, contributing to GBV prevention and response and SRHR promotion. It will achieve this by the end of 2026.

Initially, complementing the evidence base on gender transformative programming and advocacy with men and boys through high-impact country representative quantitative and additional focused qualitative research on men’s attitudes and practices - along with women’s opinions and reports of their own experiences on men’s practices. Prominent global and local research partners will conduct this work. A technical advisory group made up of prominent institutional, academic, and civil society partners will support the contextualisation of the methodology and uptake of the results. The findings of the research will inform comprehensive advocacy and programming action plan.

The civil society platform, informed by the accountability vision of the MenEngage Global Alliance, will be established. The platform members will exchange and disseminate new and existing knowledge and information on engaging men and boys in gender equality. In collaboration with governmental entities, the platform will provide a space for capacity development and be a collective for joint actions for gender justice.

As a result of increased capacities for preventing GBV and promoting GE and SRHR, interventions for men and boys as allies in achieving gender justice will be piloted in various contexts to improve behaviour and transform community norms on masculinities toward more positive ones. These rigorously monitored and evaluated actions will inform the future institutionalisation and sustainability of GT approaches with men and boys.