Women's equality in household financial decision-making

CARE's EMERGE Program uses economic initiatives as an entry point to work more closely on gender with households. It provided training to married couples to enhance their communication with respect to matters such as money management, positive parenting, support for household work and decision making. Through this project, male change agents engaged with political and religious leaders to create space for a dialogue about gender based violence and develop alternative definitions of masculinity.

Journeys of Transformation in CARE Rwanda, CARE Uganda and CARE Burundi, and Indashyikirwa in CARE Rwanda, offer models that invite men and couples to reflect on rigid gender norms, to examine their personal attitudes and beliefs, and to question traditional ideas about household decision-making and division of labor.

Young Men Initiative in CARE Balkans, CARE DRC and CARE Burundi is a ground-breaking program working with young men to deconstruct masculinity in their cultures and determine how gender norms and male socialisation lead to inequitable attitudes and behaviours;

Abatangamuco in CARE Burundi, is a social movement of men supported by their wives or partners who speak out to their communities about their own transformation. Positive male change agents share their stories of positive personal change with their peers and communities to help influence others to critically reflect on and change their own beliefs and behaviours around violence and respect for women and girls;

Husband schools in Niger, which has been implemented by UNFPA as well as CARE, bring men over 25 together to discuss health issues, discuss how to support women's participation in community life and develop action plans;

Family Business Management Training (FBMT) in Papua New Guinea works with smallholder coffee producers' families that typically run their business at the household level, sharing tasks inside the family. Women bear the burden of both productive and reproductive work, while men control the budget decisions. The FBMT engages both men and women to improve their financial and management skills and, at the same time, share the workload inside and outside the house in a more equitable manner that makes the whole family happier and more productive.