MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP

Male Involvement In Family Planning Campaign

4th February 2008

Background

According to the Demographic Health Survey (2004), Uganda’s population is growing at a rate of 3.2% per annum and continues to grow. Uganda therefore continues to have a high fertility rate (6.5) and hence a high unmet need for Family Planning (40.6%), although the use of modern contraception has more than doubled from 7.85% in 1995 to 18.5% in 2006

Men are particularly uninvolved in Family Planning, yet women feel the need for the husband’s approval before adopting a Family Planning method. Quantitative information shows that 25% of non-users of Family Planning think their husbands disapprove and that only 57% of married women have ever discussed Family Planning matters with their husbands (Uganda Demographic and Health Survey)

There is a need to provide men with information on reproductive health services and family planning methods as well as benefits derived from family planning practices

Communication Objectives

• Increase the number of men who understand the link between family size and resources (quality of life) and who approve having smaller families (Knowledge and attitude)

• Increase the number of men with accurate knowledge of Family Planning methods, their benefits and safety i.e. address rumors, myths and misconceptions. (Knowledge)

• Increase the number of men who know where to go for Family Planning services (Knowledge

• Increase the number of men who act on their desire for spacing and limiting the number of their children and adopt Family Planning (Behavior)

• Increase the number of male partners who participate in reproductive health issues and discuss Family Planning with their partners/wives (Behavior)

Concept

The key to driving the Men’s Championship campaign (male acceptance to be more involved in family planning) will capitalize on the competitiveness and high energy drive displayed by men, especially during their participation in competitive sports.

Target audience : sexually active, men 18-35 years old, rural, all levels of education

The Men’s Championship’s event will take place at the district level in the local languages during the weekend: a combination of both indoor and outdoor activities. Each activation in each district will have 3 phases: Stakeholder Mobilization, Pre-Publicity and Main Event

The audience will be engaged in education-entertainment sessions regarding family planning and related issues, which will be complimented by interactive games sessions, culminating in a Football Mini-League. All participants will be rewarded with prizes and there will be a significant prize for the Mini-League winning team.

Concept

The main event will be preceded by the Stakeholders Mobilization

and Pre-publicity activities to ensure community buy-in as well as high audience turn-out.

Given that we are targeting an attendance of 400 or more men, the audience will be divided into groups of 50 members (8 groups or less), around which all the activities will take place i.e. the educative sessions, the indoor games, mini-league team selections. Each team will be coordinated by an elected leader.

Both the educational sessions will run simultaneously as the games sessions. For instance, if there are a total of 8 groups, 4 groups will be outdoors having the games sessions while the other 4 attend the educational sessions, which will not run for more than an hour. The groups will then swap and those who were outdoors will then have their educational sessions and vice versa.

Concept

The educational sessions will be conducted by a team of 2 Agency

members as well as other officials approved by client. The Behavioral Change Communication (BCC)/Product talk sessions will be supported by use of large visual storyboards to accommodate any people with low literacy levels.

Dramatization in the form of Forum Theatre will give the audience an opportunity for participatory role playing. The technique allows for individuals to be aware of family planning behaviors and solutions that they can model in their lives.

Q & A time will make the sessions more involving and interesting for the group members. After this, there will be a recap time to review has been presented during the session.

Having a smaller groups in such a manner will allow for higher levels of inter-personal communication that would not be easily achieved when addressing a larger audience.

Concept

The final highlight of the day will be the Mini-League Football

competition. Football is a popular male sport that builds team spirit and encourages communication in order to win– virtues necessary in a home setting for planning a family.

The elected team members from each group forming a football team of 6 will be pitted against each other, while the rest cheer them on.

The ideal venue for this Event will be an educational institution such as a primary or secondary school. This would enable us to make use of the playing field for the outdoor activities and the classrooms for the educational sessions. However in the event that this is unavailable, enclosed tents set up outdoors can be used to conduct the educational sessions.

Mechanics

Stakeholders Mobilization: Activities1. Visit identified stakeholders in the sub-county including District

Health Officers, Family Planning Officials, Popular Opinion Leaders, etc by an agency member to primarily:

• Create Awareness of the upcoming event• Obtain information on problems faced by the local communities

that are directly related to population sizes / lack or absence of family planning practice

• Invite stakeholders to participate in the event

2. Advance preparation for the event: • Venue identification and booking• Processing local council / police permits

• Putting up posters announcing the event in venues such as

markets, colleges, popular retail outlets, churches, etc

Mechanics

Pre-publicity: Activities1. One-on-one mobilization of the audience in targeted areas

where they can be found such as their work places (garages, workshops, boda boda stages), trading centers

2. Distribution of IEC materials

3. Announcement of the event through the local community radios

Mechanics

Main Event: Activities: 9.00am-12noon1. Venue branding and setup (indoor setup)

2. Morning drive through the town in the sub-county where the event will take place, inviting the men to attend the event; create hype, awareness and excitement about the event. The drive will take about 2 hours; the event should also be supported by announcements on major local radio stations

3. Distribution of IEC materials at various points during the drive

4. Engaging the people in one-on-one dialogue about the event during the drive, inviting them to attend

5. Putting up additional posters

MECHANICS

Main Event: Activities: 12noon – 6pm6. Arrival of invited and other guests. Agency team members

will hand each participant the day’s program and a numbered tag indicating the group he will be in for the day

7. Entertainment by the Agency team

8. Introductory remarks from the MC on the overall purpose of the day as well as inviting the sub-county Chief to address the crowd

9. Address by the sub-county Chief or LC3 Chairman

10. Program explanation by the MC

11. Session for participatory games involving entire audience

Mechanics

Main Event: Activities12. Invitation for specific groups to attend the Educational session,

while the other groups commence the mini-league football knockouts

13. Interchange of the groups between the educational session and the football knockouts

14. On-stage skit communicating the recap of what has been learnt during the educational sessions and a strong call to action

15. Final match for the league

16. Prize giving to winning team

17. Final address and closure of the event by MC; invitation to all to watch a night film (Time To Care) at an identified location

Mechanics

Proposed content for the Educational Sessions

1. Skit (Forum Theatre)

2. Discussion on: 1. Local problems faced by the communities and the link to

population sizes 2. Family Planning as a solution to the problems (Benefits of

Family Planning)3. Methods of Family Planning and management of side

effects

3. Games

4. Information on local sources of Reproduction Health Services

5. Q & A session

Mechanics

Mini-League Football

Team A

vs

Team B

Team C

vs

Team D

Team E

vs

Team F

Team G

vs

Team H

Team B

vs

Team C

Team F

vs

Team G

FINAL WINNER

Each group will select 6 team members to play in the matches.

Each knockout match will last for only 10 minutes. The Teams that draw will have a penalty shootout to decide a winning team

Entire league will last between 1 ½ - 2 hours depending on the number of teams.

Team C

Team G

vs

Evaluation

Evaluation will enable us to measure how well our activations are contributing towards the achievement of the project objectives.

The Evaluation will be done: •Through rapid assessment: simple questionnaires to obtain immediate feedback on effectiveness of the activations

•On an ongoing basis during the implementation (up to 2 weeks after each activation)

•Involvement with HCP’s M&E plan for this project

Integration

During the pre-publicity, link up with local & community radio stations to re-emphasize the event and call for coverage

Involvement of local key stakeholders such as DDHS officials; family planning health officers, LCs, etc to ensure ownership and endorsement of the event

Promotion (by name) of the local health centers where family planning information and services are available, during the activation