Role of Facilitation in Gender-Transformative Programs That Engage Men and Boys

This learning brief is part of a set of three from Plan International Canada and Promundo; the brief documents lessons learned from Plan International Canada’s Strengthening Health Outcomes for Women and Children (SHOW) project, a multi-country, 4.5-year gender-transformative project—which works to identify, challenge, and shift harmful gender norms—with an aim to reduce maternal and child mortality among vulnerable women and children in underserved regions of five countries: Bangladesh, Ghana, Haiti, Nigeria, and Senegal, and to advance gender equality.

The insights have been gleaned through Promundo’s and Plan International Canada’s experiences with the SHOW project, as well as with similar group-based programs that work with fathers to help them become more involved caregivers and partners. This brief is intended for practitioners in the field of male engagement in gender equality and summarizes programmatic lessons on facilitation, including on the topics of: selecting and training high-quality facilitators, facilitation strategies, and motivating, supporting, and monitoring facilitators.