Currently, the sector is not good at challenging gender norms and more often than not the agencies are using techniques which reinforce power and gender inequality.
Discussions of gender in sanitation and hygiene (S&H) often focus on the roles, positions or impacts on women and girls, who bear the greatest burden of work related to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Efforts to improve S&H and change social norms do not always actively engage men and boys in the most effective or transformative way. We must learn more about the roles men and boys actually play now and – if necessary – how they can be modified to make efforts more successful.
This Learning Brief outlines the findings of a review that focused on men and boys: the problems they cause and experience, how to engage them (or not), and how to mobilise them as allies in the transformation of sanitation and hygiene outcomes.