Leaders Religieux : Alliés pour le Bien-être des Jeunes et des Femmes

The webinar aimed to understand the importance of religious leaders in interventions focused on changing social norms and behaviors related to reproductive health. The discussion centered on how religious leaders and communities can support the evolution of norms for better health outcomes. Social norms influence what we do and how we do it, and they are applied by the "reference groups" to which we turn for guidance. In many contexts, religious leaders and communities can be our reference groups. Organizations with a religious affiliation have a wide range of health programs, but there is limited evidence on the added value of their participation. The engagement of religious leaders has been more frequently documented recently, but it is challenging to demonstrate the positive change attributed to their actions. This finding presents an opportunity to discuss how to involve them, hold them accountable for promoting values such as equality and equity, and work with their extensive networks to transform social norms. The webinar featured several presentations and panel discussions, including a session on "Masculinity, Family, and Faith: Partnership with Religious Leaders to Transform Social Norms." This session highlighted the "MFF" intervention, a religious-based initiative to change social norms that engages religious leaders and communities through participatory workshops and small-group discussions with young married couples and new parents to address underlying gender-in equitable norms to reduce intimate partner violence and increase family planning use. The MFF intervention was an adaptation of the "Transforming Masculinities" program by Tearfund, initially piloted and tested in Kinshasa, DRC, in partnership with the Institute for Reproductive Health of Georgetown University and the Church of Christ in Congo, within the Passages Project funded by USAID. AMU partnered with Passages through MFF to effectively address family planning with over 100 churches with which it works in Rwanda. Despite initial concerns from religious leaders about discussing family planning, AMU was surprised to see religious leaders become strong advocates after the MFF workshops.