Transforming patriarchal masculinities: Learning from practice: Lessons from UN Women DRILS initiative (Dialogue, Reflection, Insight, Learning & Sharing)

In 2021, an internal review recommended that UN Women’s gender equality work with men and boys shift from a “male engagement” framework to one focused on transforming patriarchal masculinities, explicitly addressing patriarchy and its various forms of violence. The Transforming Patriarchal Masculinities (TPM) framework calls for a transformative approach, requiring deep, lasting changes not only in interpersonal gender relations within families and communities, but also in patriarchal institutions and the ideologies that sustain them. The review also suggested UN Women develop an organizational learning agenda for implementing the TPM framework.

To support this agenda, UN Women’s Ending Violence against Women Section, with the support of the Government of Iceland, launched the Dialogue, Reflection, Insight, Learning & Sharing (DRILS) initiative in 2023. The initiative engaged selected UN Women country offices to reflect on and learn from their work with men and boys, aligning with TPM priorities. Six offices, including Ecuador, Moldova, Morocco, the Regional Office for the Arab States, Nigeria, and Tanzania, participated in the DRILS process.

This report presents the results of the DRILS process in terms of five thematic priorities for implementing the TPM agenda on ending violence against women and girls, with a set of practice-based lessons for each.