Engaging Men and Boys in Achieving Gender Equality: THE RIO CALL TO ACTION

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The Rio Engaging Men and Boys symposium had an ambitious set of goals, including: increasing men’s and boys’ involvement in promoting gender equality and reducing violence against women by scaling up existing work; building skills and capacity of NGOs committed to working with men and boys for gender equality; promoting dialogue between existing NGO efforts, policy makers and the private sector; highlighting existing policies and best practices that could be reproduced to promote greater gender equality through the involvement of men and boys; and to build, strengthen, and expand a growing international network of programs, activists and policy makers dedicated to engaging men and boys in gender equality.
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Over five days at the end of March and beginning of April nearly 450 men and women from around the world made their way to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Their goal: to chart a course on the next leg of the journey to healthy manhood. The symposium, “Engaging Men and Boys in Achieving Gender Equality,” was hosted by an alliance of organizations with long histories toiling in the vineyards of gender justice. The harvest they brought to Rio included inspiration, hopefulness, excitement and gratitude, eagerly shared with delegates from countries on every continent on the globe. Hosts included the Rio-based Promundo; Instituto Papai, also from Brazil; the White Ribbon Campaign from Canada, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); Save the Children Sweden and the MenEngage Alliance, a global network of organizations and programs engaging men and boys in gender equality.

Delegates met at a hotel across from the Atlantic Ocean where gentle waves lapped along a sweep of beach beneath the legendary 1300 foot-high Pao de Acucar (Sugar Loaf), a mountain at the mouth of Guanabara Bay. Plenary sessions were simultaneously translated into English, Spanish and Portuguese, where “possibility” seemed like a word in Esperanto—conveying the energy of that the gathering might be able to accelerate the pace of change in addressing the symposium’s three overarching themes: 1) Men and violence, including men’s use of physical violence against women, sexual violence, and the gendered dimensions of violence between men; 2) Men and health, including sexual and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, substance use, maternal and child health, and mental health; and 3) Men, care giving and fatherhood, including work-life balance and engaging men to a greater extent in care giving, often in the context of HIV/AIDS.

While a centerpiece of the Symposium was a Global Village of booths showcasing the work of U.N. agencies, governments, foundations, universities and grassroots activist organization — including Voice Male — it was hotel conversations over breakfast and lunch, and late night gatherings at restaurants and cafes in Ipanema and other night spots around Rio that sizzled with international shop talk. Names seen on email listservs for years came to life as colleagues from Namibia and Norway and India and Australia broke bread together.

Throughout the gathering delegates had ample opportunities to view an uplifting global photography exhibit on fatherhood, “Engaging Men for Positive Change,” offering a tender international perspective on men nurturing children.

By the last day, tired, inspired and facing long flights home, the delegates got a final energy boost: the first public presentation of the “Rio Call to Action” read by many voices, in many languages, with a shared vision of a healed, whole world.

A CALL TO ACTION - preamble

We come from 80 countries. We are men and women, young and old, working side by side with respect and shared goals. We are active in community organizations, religious and educational institutions; we are representatives of governments, NGOs and the United Nations. We speak many languages, we look like the diverse peoples of the world and carry their diverse beliefs and religions, cultures, physical abilities, and sexual and gender identities. We are indigenous peoples, immigrants, and ones whose ancestors moved across the planet. We are fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, brothers and sisters, partners and lovers, husbands and wives. What unites us is our strong outrage at the inequality that still plagues the lives of women and girls, and the self-destructive demands we put on boys and men. But even more so, what brings us together here is a powerful sense of hope, expectation, and possibility for we have seen the capacity of men and boys to change, to care, to cherish, to love passionately, and to work for justice for all.

To read the entire Call go to http://www.engagingmen2009.org/24/.