Research to promote positive masculinity and sexual health among younger adolescents in Zimbabwe

I plan to co-develop and evaluate an intervention for 10-14 year-olds that addresses the causes of gender inequality in adolescent sexual health through approaches that challenge norms that privilege boys/men over girls/women. There is an urgent need for programmes to promote positive attitudes and behaviours related to ?manhood? among boys/men in Africa, where harmful beliefs and practices have wide-ranging societal impact. Working with younger adolescents is likely to effect positive change. The ultimate goal is to develop an effective scalable model. The project will include both girls and boys but will have a focus on boys. I will i) conduct research to identify the issues to be targeted ii) work with younger adolescents to co-develop and pilot the intervention iii) develop tools to measure norms related to masculinity iv) test the intervention to determine if it is feasible and acceptable. If feasible, I plan to conduct a subsequent effectiveness trial.