By Seconde Nyanzobe and Christian Ngendahimana from Fountain-ISOKO
Founded in 2006 on the principles of equality, integrity and excellence, Fountain-ISOKO for Good Governance and Integrated Development was created by women and men committed to working as allies in building a just society and bringing positive change to Burundi and the Great Lakes region of Africa. Fountain-ISOKO’s work takes place against a backdrop of a society marked by poor governance and corruption; high unemployment; a lack of political will and sexual and gender-based violence. Its objectives are to:
To fulfill these objectives, Fountain-ISOKO runs multiple projects for men and women. “Mon rôle” (My role), a project supported by CORDAID, aims to promote gender equity in Burundi by targeting both women and men to act as partners in combating gender-based violence (GBV). This project allowed Fountain-ISOKO to institutionalize “ISOKO MenEngage against gender-based violence in Burundi”, a network aimed at getting to the roots of gender violence and tackling GBV through education and male engagement.The latter involves encouraging men to join the nonviolent movements in their respective communities, inviting them to meaningfully and durably invest in addressing gender inequities.
The project “My Role” highlights how men and boys are also harmed by inequitable gender norms, and how they benefit from change. In Burundi, many GBV prevention programs focus exclusively on women and girls. Prioritizing women’s victimization is appropriate given that the majority of victims are women and that women’s disempowerment presents a significant barrier to changing GBV outcomes. Unfortunately, some of these programs often unintentionally reinforce social norms that teach men that it is permissible and beneficial to accept gender-based violence and conceal the ways men themselves are impacted and harmed by it. Ultimately, meaningful change of inequitable structures depends on examining all sides of gender relationships.
Programs that successfully involve men build on rights-based approaches, emphasizing that men too have the right to be free from violent and oppressive gender constructions. In addition, there is a need to stress that men’s work for gender justice benefits men as well, together with bringing positive change for women and the community.
“My Role” uses six strategies to challenge assumptions that GBV is a women’s issue, to build male buy-in and support transformation of men’s gender identifications and practices. These include:
1. Critical analysis of socio-cultural constructions of ‘real men’ that are oppressive;
2. Elaboration of what positive masculinities entails as an emancipatory alternative;
3. Case studies of the forms and impacts of GBV on the entire family;
4. Small-group skits illustrating how men, women and children suffer as a consequence of GBV;
5. Individual testimonies of men’s realizations and experiences of how they and their families have suffered from GBV;
6. Community-based action plans involving men and women as partners to promote gender equity.
The activities connected to these strategies help participants to recognize the violence in their own lives; to identify the structures that normalize this violence; and to perceive inequitable and harmful gender patterns as oppressive to men as well as women, children and the entire community.
“My Role” allows the trainers (men and women co-facilitating the training) to create safe spaces for men to discuss GBV in an open manner. Due to simplistic conceptualizations of GBV in which gender means women and female victims are opposed to male perpetrators, men’s experiences with GBV education or activism may be characterized by suspicion and shame. Consequently, creating spaces that are safe for men to share their experiences, ask questions and discuss openly is key to enabling men to let go of defensiveness and take ownership (Michael Flood, cited in Sonke, 2012, p. 31).
Throughout the positive masculinities workshops, My Role aims to provide safe spaces for dialogue. This entails the following:
“My Role” project builds on positive identifications and affirmations. Numerous project evaluations have demonstrated the effectiveness of engaging men in gender change by using affirmative messages and positive conceptualizations of manhood and men’s roles in addressing GBV (Sonke, 2012, p. 55). Barker and Ricardo suggest that it is fundamental to counter dichotomous and debasing representations of men and gender inequity and to “build empathy for women and girls rather than utilize guilt or shame” (2008, p. 38).
These positive approaches compliment efforts to demonstrate that changing gender norms is in men’s best interest by affirming that doing so is not only necessary or beneficial, but also possible and inspiring. Positive messaging practically builds energy and inspiration to begin the difficult work of confronting harmful social norms and structures. A positive sense of identity is needed in order for men to be actively engaged in preventing gender-based violence. One of the first activities during My Role is to critically analyze cultural practices and proverbs that form a standard negative masculinity and to conceptualize an alternative form of masculinity that is supportive of egalitarian relationships, emotional honesty, personal and interpersonal health, integrity and nonviolence. Throughout My Role, positive affirmations are incorporated into activities and messages, and the last day ends with personal testimonies, confirmations of men’s capacities and roles and attestations of men’s commitment to work to end gender-based violence at the relationship, community and society levels.
One of the first activities during “My Role” is to critically analyze cultural practices and proverbs that form a standard negative masculinity and to conceptualize an alternative form of masculinity that is supportive of egalitarian relationships, emotional honesty, personal and interpersonal health, integrity and nonviolence. Throughout “My Role”, positive affirmations are incorporated into activities and messages, and the last day ends with personal testimonies, confirmations of men’s capacities and roles, and attestations of men’s commitment to work for ending gender-based violence at the relationship, community and society levels.
In 2006, Christian Ngendahimana and Seconde Nyanzobe established Fountain-ISOKO for Good Governance and Integrated Development to promote gender justice in Burundi. They are involved in many national and international projects relating to gender equality advocacy and capacity building. In addition, Christian Ngendahimana is the Chair of the Burundi MenEngage Network (B-Men), of which Fountain-ISOKO hosts the national secretariat. Christian Ngendahimana was one of the male trainees of the WPP’s pilot Training of Trainers Cycle (2009-2010) on Masculinities, Violence and Peacebuiling. Seconde Nyanzobe was Christian’s mentor during this training cycle.
Seconde Nyanzobe and Christian Ngendahimana are the Legal Advisor and Executive Director of Fountain-ISOKO. For more information, visit www.fountain-isoko.org or email to fontaine_isoko@yahoo.fr or info@fountain-isoko.org
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