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James Lang, Coordinator of Partners for Prevention, gave a seminar at UNDP Headquarters to discuss the successes and challenges of the UNDP, UNFPA, UN Women and UNV regional joint program that includes the core strategy of working with boys and men to prevent violence against women in Asia and the Pacific.

The event was made accessible within the UN family as well as to the public in real time via www.ustream.tv. Participants logged in from Antigua, Canada, Mexico, Pakistan, Guyana, and Fiji, and were able to post questions and hear the responses to them.

What do masculinities have to do with gender-based violence? This is the question that brought together representatives from civil society, academic, research institutes and UN agencies from across the Asia-Pacific region last week to launch Partners for Prevention’s ground-breaking Gender-based Violence and Masculinities Research Project.

NGOs and communications experts met in Bangkok recently to explore the latest cutting edge platforms, tools and theories on using social media for social change. Seventeen participants from India, China, and Indonesia took part in the meeting, along with representatives from UNIFEM and Demand Media, a leading online media company and expert in developing social media platforms.

“Agents for women”, the male refugees whispered, as they observed male staff from the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) Gender-based Violence Programme go about their activities in the community. Other men, on being encouraged to share housework responsibilities, agreed, “They are not real men”.

When programming to addresses violence against women is introduced into a community it often takes time for community members, especially men, to understand and accept it. Starting IRC’s program in the refugee camps for ethnic Karenni from Burma was no exception.