On 19th April, Dr. Oyun Lkhagvasuren, Head, Health Promotion Department, National Center for Health Development (NCHD/MOH), Mongolia was interviewed for JOICFP eNEWS.

Dr. Oyun is in charge of the UNFPA-supported Asia Regional Project Increasing Male Involvement for RH through Effective BCC Strategies (RAS5R304) in Mongolia.

eNEWS: "What were the problems you wanted to address through increasing male involvement with the BCC project?"

Dr. Oyun: "The baseline survey showed us that even men who had a positive attitude to women's reproductive health (RH) had little accurate information and were not active partners.

"Women were feeling isolated, having to take RH decisions by themselves, and, for example, there were many unwanted pregnancies and abortions."

eNEWS: "What advice would you give to others wanting to increase male involvement?"

Dr. Oyun: "Men were not interested in the woman's point of view in RH. When we started to explain women's RH needs, the men were more concerned with their own needs."

"By combining services, such as RH checks for men by a male doctor, with education sessions, we were able to reach men better."

"It is also important to spend the required time on training men to be key messengers to other men. It effectively works to use men as educators to talk about RH: men feel more confortable and open to discuss RH issues with men."

"It is necessary as well to teach men to value their own health, and then indirectly they will start to take more concern over women's health."

"Local government officials can be good entry points to reach target group, e.g. we used officers from the Social Welfare Department of the local government office, who help gather men from the project sites for the health sessions with the information that many men in the area are interested, such as civil registration and land titling. During the sessions, they first talk about those topics followed by the male educators discussing RH."

Dr. Oyun Lkhagvasuren