Launched in 2002 and implemented in at least 36 countries, Program H & M (also called Manhood 2.0 and Sisterhood 2.0)ย targets young people, ages 15-24, in group education to encourage the critical interrogation of traditional gender norms, and build skills for community organizing.
Based on research of young men in Brazil with more gender-equitable attitudes, the Program H methodology, first created in 2002, promotes group education sessions combined with youth-led campaigns and activism to transform restrictive ideas about manhood. In 2006, Program M (for mulheres and mujeres, words for women in Portuguese and Spanish), was launched as a companion to Program H to work specifically with young women, ages 15 to 24, to empower girls to question restrictive norms and power imbalanced and to build solidarity for collective action. The Program HMD Toolkit,ย includes recommendations and more than 70 validated sessions; partners usually implement 10 to 16 activities, once a week, over a period of several months in conjunction with youth-led community awareness campaigns.
As organizations deploy Program H, M and D in their communities, they can use the widely validated ย Gender Equitable Men (GEM) Scale for evaluation before and after interventions and campaigns to assess effectiveness. The GEM Scale has been applied in more than 20 settings and has shown to be highly useful as an instrument to assess attitudes about gender. A recent meta-analysis of 14 Program H implementations with documented findings found that when implemented well and culturally adapted, Program H leads to self-reported changes in attitudes and behaviors related to intimate partner violence and sexual and reproductive health.
Recent adaptations of Program H include Programme Ra, the first-ever Program H adaptation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region;ย Manhood 2.0, developed for young men in the United States; and the Many Ways of Being Curriculum, a combination of Programs H and M, currently being developed for use in Washington, DC area public schools.
