Key messages
• Men’s use and experience of violence is a major public health problem, and men and
boys are necessary participants, along with women and girls, in prevention
interventions to reduce perpetration of violence against women and girls.
• Men’s perpetration of violence against women and girls is a constituent element of
gender inequality, and men’s use and experiences of violence are upheld by commonly
held versions of manhood. Violence against women and girls is more common where
men themselves encounter high levels of violence.
• Interventions to address perpetration of violence against women and girls by men vary
greatly in terms of target groups, change objectives, and methods. Evidence on
interventions solely with boys and men is scarce, and most points to some measured
attitudinal changes, but not necessarily change in violence perpetration or social norms.
• Future work should promote more programmes with women and girls, in addition to
boys and men, for eff ective and sustained gender transformation. This work should
strive for several varied change objectives related to violence reduction and the factors
most associated with perpetration, have enduring eff ects, and be based on robust
theories of change.
• Interventions need a coordinated focus on multiple risk factors and ecological levels (eg,
individual, peer/family, and community levels). Approaches that centre on community
norm change have the potential to change versions of masculinity that promote violence.
In so doing, they address power and oppression, and seek to change the mechanisms in
society that support them.