Program P by ManCare, a global fatherhood campaign is named after padre and pai, the words for father in Spanish and Portuguese. It provides a direct and targeted response to the need for concrete strategies to engage men in active fatherhood from prenatal care through delivery, childbirth, and their children’s early years.
Authored by MenCare partners Red de Masculinidad por la Igualdad de Género (REDMAS), Promundo, and Fundación CulturaSalud/EME, Program P has three components: offering information and tools for health care providers, developing group activities for fathers and couples, and providing guidance for designing community campaigns. By targeting men, primarily through health sector, Program P engages fathers and their partners at a critical moment – usually during their partner’s pregnancies – when they are open to adopting new caregiving behaviors.
More specifically, the Program P manual contains:
- Introduction: Background research on the latest data on why engaging men as caregivers is an essential part of maternal health and gender equality.
- Section 1: A guide for health professionals on how to engage men in the prenatal consultation space and primary health clinics.
- Section 2: A series of interactive modules for gender-transformative group education with men, and in some instances their female partners.
- Section 3: A step-by-step guide to create and launch a MenCare community campaign.
Working with men as fathers is a key entry point to discussing sensitive subjects around traditional gender norms, and the way in which these norms negatively impact communities. Through discussion guides, role plays, and hands-on activities (such as learning how to change diapers), men and their partners are encouraged to discuss and challenge traditional masculine and inequitable gender norms and to practice more positive social behaviors in their families and communities.
Download the full Program P manual in English and its adaptations in Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian below