Celebrate Solutions: Fostering Husbands’ Involvement and Support in Ethiopia

By: Mariko Rasmussen, Communications Specialist at Women Deliver

A few months ago I wrote about a program that works to empower young women in Guatemala by providing essential health, education, and social services to an underserved population. Today I’d like to highlight the flip side: a gender project that works with men in rural Ethiopia.

In Ethiopia, the lifetime risk of maternal death is 1 in 40 and the contraceptive prevalence rate is just 15 percent. HIV prevalence in the Amhara region is significant. The Addis Birhan (meaning “new light” in Amharic) program seeks to promote HIV prevention by changing attitudes and promoting equitable relationships through educating and engaging husbands in issues related to reproductive health, including HIV prevention, family planning, gender violence, alcohol and drug abuse, and domestic responsibilities.

The program follows on the success of previous Population Council programs for vulnerable girls in Ethiopia, including married adolescents. As the programs for married girls became increasingly popular, demand for a support program arose from their husbands.

The curriculum spans roughly three months and was adapted for rural Ethiopia from previous materials from Population Council India, Engenderhealth, and Promundo. Groups of married men attend meetings with trained male mentors on a weekly basis. Mentors range in age from 25 to 40 and must have at least six years of education. The meetings consist of 25 to 30 men and promote dialogue, self-exploration, and expression in a casual setting, and use pictures as teaching aids, as many of the participants cannot read.

The program continues to expand, recently to 11 new project sites where 33 male mentors were recruited and trained. Members range in age from 18 to 85 years, with the majority aged 25-39 years. Since Addis Birhan was established in 2008, nearly 30,000 men have participated.  

Participants and their families have described changes resulting from participation in Addis Birhan, such as increased communication among couples and more two-way rather than directive dialogue. This is especially important for families as they discuss issues of family planning and make sexual and reproductive health choices together.  Men report that they share what they have learned from the group meetings at home with their wives and children. They also report that they have started to change the way they think about distribution of labor at home, with many men now undertaking traditionally female roles, such as fetching water. Many members reported that they changed risky behavior, such as drinking.

Addis Birhan is a project of the Ethiopia Ministry of Youth and Sports, Bureau of Youth and Sport in Addis Ababa and Amhara Region, and the Population Council. The program is made possible through the support of USAID/PEPFAR.

Watch a video on Addis Birhan:

Addis Birhan: Increasing gender equity in Ethiopia from Population Council on Vimeo.