The Shifting Roles of Men in Collective Action on SGBV in Kenya: Report of a Movement and Influence Mapping Workshop, Nairobi, 3–5 July 2013

Over a decade and a half on from the landmark declarations of the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (UN 1994) and the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (UN 1995), there is now a growing consensus on the importance of engaging men and boys in efforts to stop violence against women and girls. Kenya’s 2008/09 Demographic and Health Survey indicated that 45 per cent of women aged 15–49 had experienced either physical or sexual violence — mostly committed by their husbands or partners. Some of the causes behind the prevalence of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in Kenya include traditional gender norms that support male superiority and entitlement, social norms that tolerate or justify violence against women, and weak community sanctions against perpetrators. While SGBV has been a feature of all societies throughout history, in Kenya women and girls suffered increased incidences of sexual violence in 2007-08 following accusations that the government manipulated the election process. This plunged the country into turmoil, with Kenya spiralling into a political, economic and humanitarian crisis that resulted in the death of 1,300 people and the displacement of around 300,000 people (Muhula 2009). In order to improve our understanding and knowledge of shifting roles of men in movements to address SGBV through collective action in Kenya, Men for Gender Equality Now (MEGEN), the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) joined together to engage with multiple actors in Kenya for collective learning through this workshop.UK Department for International Developmen

Gender roles and masculinities in leveraging milk for household nutrition: Evidence from two districts in Rwanda

Malnutrition in children remains a significant public health and development challenge in Rwanda. Animal Source Foods (ASFs) provide an important mechanism for supplying children with energy, proteins, and micro-nutrients. Using evidence from a study on the Girinka dairy program in Rwanda, this article adds a masculinities lens to nutrition strategies. It suggests potential ways to engage men in nutrition interventions whilst promoting gender-equitable masculinities that improve children’s access to ASFs and create more gender-equal relations. A qualitative study was conducted in 2020 in two districts in Rwanda. The methodology included 8 sex-disaggregated focus group discussions (24 women and 24 men) and 8 key informant interviews (56 respondents total). Discussions explored gender roles and responsibilities in the household regarding the provision of ASFs for nutrition and exploring potential avenues for engaging men in ASFs nutrition initiatives. The results indicate that norms about ‘appropriate masculine and feminine behaviour’ strongly affect intra-household nutrition. Men are normatively responsible for providing money to purchase food and women to buy and prepare food. However, consumption of ASFs is low. Men do not provide sufficient monies for purchasing ASFs or may sell ASFs they produce rather than allocate them to their families. Women generally feel disempowered through male-dominant decision-making processes. Yet, men who seek to enact more gender-equitable behaviours can be scorned at the community level. Nevertheless, men respondents are strongly interested in being trained on nutrition through village leadership, and in male spaces. We recommend working with male behavioural change frameworks at multiple levels

Population and fertility by age and sex for 195 countries and territories, 1950–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background: Population estimates underpin demographic and epidemiological research and are used to track progress on numerous international indicators of health and development. To date, internationally available estimates of population and fertility, although useful, have not been produced with transparent and replicable methods and do not use standardised estimates of mortality. We present single-calendar year and single-year of age estimates of fertility and population by sex with standardised and replicable methods. Methods: We estimated population in 195 locations by single year of age and single calendar year from 1950 to 2017 with standardised and replicable methods. We based the estimates on the demographic balancing equation, with inputs of fertility, mortality, population, and migration data. Fertility data came from 7817 location-years of vital registration data, 429 surveys reporting complete birth histories, and 977 surveys and censuses reporting summary birth histories. We estimated age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs; the annual number of livebirths to women of a specified age group per 1000 women in that age group) by use of spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression and used the ASFRs to estimate total fertility rates (TFRs; the average number of children a woman would bear if she survived through the end of the reproductive age span [age 10–54 years] and experienced at each age a particular set of ASFRs observed in the year of interest). Because of sparse data, fertility at ages 10–14 years and 50–54 years was estimated from data on fertility in women aged 15–19 years and 45–49 years, through use of linear regression. Age-specific mortality data came from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 estimates. Data on population came from 1257 censuses and 761 population registry location-years and were adjusted for underenumeration and age misreporting with standard demographic methods. Migration was estimated with the GBD Bayesian demographic balancing model, after incorporating information about refugee migration into the model prior. Final population estimates used the cohort-component method of population projection, with inputs of fertility, mortality, and migration data. Population uncertainty was estimated by use of out-of-sample predictive validity testing. With these data, we estimated the trends in population by age and sex and in fertility by age between 1950 and 2017 in 195 countries and territories. Findings: From 1950 to 2017, TFRs decreased by 49·4% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 46·4–52·0). The TFR decreased from 4·7 livebirths (4·5–4·9) to 2·4 livebirths (2·2–2·5), and the ASFR of mothers aged 10–19 years decreased from 37 livebirths (34–40) to 22 livebirths (19–24) per 1000 women. Despite reductions in the TFR, the global population has been increasing by an average of 83·8 million people per year since 1985. The global population increased by 197·2% (193·3–200·8) since 1950, from 2·6 billion (2·5–2·6) to 7·6 billion (7·4–7·9) people in 2017; much of this increase was in the proportion of the global population in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The global annual rate of population growth increased between 1950 and 1964, when it peaked at 2·0%; this rate then remained nearly constant until 1970 and then decreased to 1·1% in 2017. Population growth rates in the southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania GBD super-region decreased from 2·5% in 1963 to 0·7% in 2017, whereas in sub-Saharan Africa, population growth rates were almost at the highest reported levels ever in 2017, when they were at 2·7%. The global average age increased from 26·6 years in 1950 to 32·1 years in 2017, and the proportion of the population that is of working age (age 15–64 years) increased from 59·9% to 65·3%. At the national level, the TFR decreased in all countries and territories between 1950 and 2017; in 2017, TFRs ranged from a low of 1·0 livebirths (95% UI 0·9–1·2) in Cyprus to a high of 7·1 livebirths (6·8–7·4) in Niger. The TFR under age 25 years (TFU25; number of livebirths expected by age 25 years for a hypothetical woman who survived the age group and was exposed to current ASFRs) in 2017 ranged from 0·08 livebirths (0·07–0·09) in South Korea to 2·4 livebirths (2·2–2·6) in Niger, and the TFR over age 30 years (TFO30; number of livebirths expected for a hypothetical woman ageing from 30 to 54 years who survived the age group and was exposed to current ASFRs) ranged from a low of 0·3 livebirths (0·3–0·4) in Puerto Rico to a high of 3·1 livebirths (3·0–3·2) in Niger. TFO30 was higher than TFU25 in 145 countries and territories in 2017. 33 countries had a negative population growth rate from 2010 to 2017, most of which were located in central, eastern, and western Europe, whereas population growth rates of more than 2·0% were seen in 33 of 46 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2017, less than 65% of the national population was of working age in 12 of 34 high-income countries, and less than 50% of the national population was of working age in Mali, Chad, and Niger. Interpretation: Population trends create demographic dividends and headwinds (ie, economic benefits and detriments) that affect national economies and determine national planning needs. Although TFRs are decreasing, the global population continues to grow as mortality declines, with diverse patterns at the national level and across age groups. To our knowledge, this is the first study to provide transparent and replicable estimates of population and fertility, which can be used to inform decision making and to monitor progress. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licens