When men are involved as parents and caregivers, it can have wide-ranging benefits for the health and well-being of their families and themselves. Lessons from around the world indicate that thoughtfully designed group-based interventions – which aim to identify, challenge, and shift harmful gender norms – can help mobilize social change. Specifically, programs that work with new and expectant fathers to critically reflect on what it means to be a man and a father can create positive, gender-transformative changes in their lives and the lives of their partners and children.

A new set of three learning briefs from Plan International Canada and Promundo 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 aiming 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.