Generating Evidence to Inform a New Gender-Transformative Engagement with Boys: Lessons from Formative Research in Cambodia

• In Event: Building the evidence base for better male engagement programming

Proposal

One of the most important reasons for implementing organizations to collect data is to inform the continued evolution of their programs. When a significant shift in programmatic philosophy, approach, or beneficiaries is planned, the need for reliable data to underpin that shift is correspondingly greater.

This presentation will share insights from a program currently experiencing such a transition. It will provide a case study to examine the process by which organizations shift toward an increasingly gender-transformative orientation in their programming, as well as the types of evidence that inform this shift. Building on a long history of seeking to advance gender equality through engagement with adolescent girls in 10 countries, the program is now expanding its lens to include direct engagement with adolescent boys in the same geographies. Boys are understood by the evolving program both as future potential gatekeepers whose conceptualizations of gender and masculinities will over the long term either facilitate or hinder improved life outcomes for girls, and as co-beneficiaries in their own right who face their own gender-specific challenges.

In preparation for this programmatic evolution, the implementing organization conducted formative research in rural Cambodia in some of the same communities where it implements its current girl-focused iteration of the program.

Researchers surveyed boys on a wide array of topics related to their social and emotional competencies, using a collection of assessment tools that had been previously used by the organization with female participants in its programming. The presentation will share lessons learned from both the girls’ and boys’ assessments, with special attention to areas of similarity and difference by gender. The boys’ tool further assessed boys’ attitudes regarding gender across a number of dimensions.

Concurrent with the qualitative assessment, program staff completed a series of focus group discussions in a subset of the same communities with four distinct populations of respondents: boys, girls, male caregivers, and female caregivers. All of the focus group discussions centered on ideas of gender and the respective roles of boys and men vs girls and women, and the types of difficulties faced by each. Adult participants were also asked to reflect on how these roles and challenges have evolved over time.

The presentation will conclude with a discussion of how these findings will be incorporated into the evolving program’s design, as well as plans for further formative research.

Author

• Ryan Hebert, Room to Read