Male Motivator Training Curriculum: Malawi

Engaging men in family planning programs can improve access to and use of family planning, improve gender equity and improve marital harmony.

The Male Motivators approach was developed by Save the Children and first used in Malawi with men and adolescent girls in cross-generational marriages. The approach engages men to break down gender norms, leading to improved male-initiated couples communication about family planning.

This curriculum was developed to train male peer outreach workers to catalyze social and gender norm change, increase couple communication about fertility desires and family planning and ultimately increase family planning use. The approach identifies men who use modern contraception and trains them to be “male motivators”. Over the course of eight months, trained male motivators visit other men in the community an average of five times to discuss the socio-economic benefits of birth spacing, provide information on contraceptive methods, practice skills to discuss fertility desires and birth spacing with wives, explore perceptions of men who use family planning and identify local resources to access family planning.