This report was developed by Save the Children to accompany the State of the World’s Fathers 2015 report, produced by MenCare. The State of the World’s Fathers report (SOWF) examines data, policies, programs, and research related to boys and men’s participation in caregiving and fatherhood, as well as their contributions to maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH), and violence prevention. This Child Rights Perspective report is an excerpt of the main SOWF report, highlighting the content from the main report that is related to children’s rights and gender equality. This report outlines a global advocacy agenda aimed at: engaging boys and men more equally in unpaid care-work throughout the life-cycle, promoting gender equality, and achieving other positive outcomes in the lives of girls, boys, and young people, as well as fathers themselves.
The Child Rights report provides an overview of men’s involvement in caregiving, the importance of men’s equal contribution to unpaid care work in the home, the need for better paternal leave policies for working fathers, fathers’ roles in sexual and reproductive health as well as maternal and infant health, fatherhood and violence, and the role of fatherhood in child development. The also report features the recommendations laid out in the SOWF report regarding each of these topics and concludes with a discussion on the need to promote the involvement of men and boys in care work in ways that take into account gender discrimination and stereotypes. “This report concludes that it is urgently needed that boys and men build their parenting skills, collaborate with the mothers of their children in the accomplishment of the work that parenting requires, and make themselves available in the lives of their children,” says the report.
