Young men’s reflections on their experience of co-developing an intervention to address their masculinities: Siyaphambili Youth Project (“Youth Moving Forward”)
Mkhwanazi, S Washington, L Khaula, S Mannell, A Gibbs, A
Mkhwanazi, S
Washington, L
Khaula, S
Mannell, A
Gibbs, A
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Abstract
"Interventions working with young, poor, black men to ‘transform’ masculinities often exclude the voices of those ‘targeted’, drawing on stereotypical ideas about masculinity, resulting in less effective interventions and mischaracterizing young men. Siyaphambili Youth Project in South Africa worked with young men to co-develop an intervention including their concepts of masculinities.
We conducted a co-development process involving an NGO (Project Empower), two research organizations (South African Medical Research Council, and University College London and 8 young men (18-24 years) referred to as Youth Peer Research Associates (YPRAs), recruited from one rural and one urban community. Over 24 months we co-developed an intervention addressing the overlapping challenges of masculinities, HIV, violence, and poor mental health. YPRAs were involved in three activities: (1) participatory research activities to understand how structural inequalities impacted on lived experiences, (2) co-developing a Theory of Change and (3) intervention design. We interviewed YPRAs about their experiences of being involved in co-development.
The co-development process helped YPRAs explain how they experienced structural marginalisation (racism, economic, and political) and how this shaped their identities and interpersonal practices including their experience and perpetration of violence. Through involvement in the process, some described reflection and starting to change: talking about their problems, rather than resorting to physical violence, recognising how they used alcohol to deal with conflict and stress and starting to talk about HIV-prevention/treatment. Despite this, the co-development process did not address their structural exclusion, and they continued to face and struggle with the wider challenges of their lives, however, potentially with a different set of response options to these challenges.
Co-developing an intervention enabled a more nuanced picture of how structural marginalization shaped young men’s lives, and for YPRAs enabled some to reflect on their masculinities and strategize new ways to address their challenges."
Description
Presented at the Governing Masculinity Conference, at Queen Mary University of London, 21 and 22 February 2024.
Date
2024