Radiation Dosimetry Parameters and Isodose Curves.pptx
The role of men in nutrition
1. The Role of Men in Nutrition:
Reflections from Malawi
Elizabeth Mkandawire
University of Pretoria
2. How has this influenced nutrition?
• Gender relations are
changing in this
community
• Men are increasingly
becoming involved in
maternal and child
nutrition
• The design of men’s
involvement interventions
undermine gender
equality
3. Malawi’s National Nutrition
Policy and Strategic Plan
•Integrated framework for gender
analysis in nutrition policy (GINA)
• Mismatch in interpretation of
gender
• Reinforces the role of women in
nutrition
4. Women and Gender
• Evidence on women’s role in
nutrition
• Design biases in nutrition policy
• Possibility of cooperation and
complementarity
6. Implications for men’s
participation in
nutrition
• Men have a complimentary role to play in
nutrition
• Ensuring that men’s involvement
advances gender equality
• Tools and experts to support
policymakers
• Traditional leaders' role in challenging
gender stereotypes
Men’s involvement has been on the nutrition policy agenda since 1992
The World Declaration and Plan of Action for Nutrition highlighted that men’s control over household resources had implications for nutrition
The Cairo Declaration on Population development spoke to the important role men play in women’s sexual and reproductive health
The Beijing Declaration re-emphasized men’s shared responsibility for the Family
Early on Malawi integrated men’s involvement into health policies and programmes
Chief Kwataine is a traditional leader in rural central Malawi – Champion for safe motherhood
Established bylaws to encourage men to attend antenatal care – women who attended with their partners are served first
Men’s attendance is important for nutrition because they receive information on health but also the types of food needed during pregnancy
Our study shows that when men receive this information, they begin actively participating in cooking, cleaning and other housework, but they also make additional efforts like taking out loans to make sure that their pregnant partners are getting enough food.
However, these bylaws are counterintuitive because they are punitive towards women. Many women travel long distances to attend ANC. The queues in many of these hospitals are long. When they get pushed back in the queue after having arrived early, it becomes a disincentive
We wanted to see how these emerging challenges were being addressed in nutrition policy
Paucity of tools for conducting gender analysis in nutrition policy
GINA was developed as the method of analysis
The way in which gender is interpreted by community member is mismatched with how policymakers interpret gender
The policy emphasized the role of women in nutrition, reinforcing the idea that only women should be responsible for nutrition
Even in emphasizing women, no efforts were made to address the constraints women face in accessing nutritious food
E.g. The policy highlights that men control household resources, but only promote that women should access three food groups without speaking to how they will overcome household resource allocation
Large body of evidence suggests that women play an important role in household members nutrition, particularly children’s nutrition
Policy-makers who have limited experience in gender mainstreaming end up overemphasizing women
Overlook the complementary role men can play
They overlook the possibility of fostering cooperation between men and women around issues of nutrition
Malawi’s nutrition policy was under review at the time of study
Set out to conduct a policy dialogue to share our research finding and use these to inform the draft nutrition policy
Used GINA to facilitate a multi-stakeholder analysis of the draft policy
This dialogue, a dialogue report and policy briefs were circulated and resulted in changes to the policy statement
These outputs were also used to inform the strategy, which we believe is far more gender-responsive than its predecessor
Its very clear that when men are involved in maternal and child health, positive changes in nutrition are occurring – these need to be quantified
More sector-specific, user-friendly gender analysis tools are needed to support policymakers
Efforts to include men really need to ensure that gender equality is at the core to avoid creating new arenas for inequalities to surface
Traditional leaders, as the custodians of culture, play a fundamental role in re-shaping gender dynamics in the community
Their involvement is essential, and they too need to receive support and training in gender analysis
GINA
This is the first in a six part series that is used as manual to help guide policy-makers in developing gender-responsive policies
Flash drives to share if anyone is interesting in taking a look at the full series