Why a meeting on young men? 

There is growing recognition among the international community that addressing gender inequities in health, promoting SRH and preventing HIV and AIDS and gender-based violence at all levels in society is not possible without efforts to directly engage men and boys as partners in these processes.

This is most notable when we look at many global public health challenges, such as the growing rates of HIV infections and STIs – often increasingly to women in many parts of the world – or the significant number of women who say that their first sexual experience was coerced. 

As such, working with young men has direct benefits for other men (young and old), women and children. 

More recently, work seeking to engage men and boys has increasingly been seen as essential to not only empowering women and improving women and children’s health, but to improving men and boy’s own health outcomes. 

This reflects the increasing acknowledgement, particularly within the sexual and reproductive health community, of men and boy’s own specific SRH needs and rights. 

In addition, research is increasingly highlighting the ways in which gender norms — societal messages that dictate what is appropriate or expected behaviour for males and females— affect health seeking behaviours among males. 

As a result of these developments there has been increasing programmatic efforts and interventions around the world (primarily through health services, workshops, and community advocacy/campaigns) seeking to engage men and boys in questioning social and cultural norms, addressing gender inequalities, and promoting better health outcomes and rights for themselves, other men and boys, women and children.