Improving livelihoods and livelihood opportunities is a popular thrust of development investments. Gender and other forms of social differentiation influence individual agency to access, participate in, and benefit from existing, new, or improved livelihood opportunities. Recent research illustrates that many initiatives intended to improve livelihoods still proceed as “gender blind,” failing to account for the norms and relations that will influence how women and men experience opportunities and outcomes. To examine gender in livelihoods, we employed empirical case studies in three coastal communities in Solomon Islands; a small island developing state where livelihoods are predominantly based on fisheries and agriculture. Using the GENNOVATE methodology (a series of focus groups) we investigated how gender norms and relations influence agency (i.e., the availability of choice and capacity to exercise choice). We find that men are able to pursue a broader range of livelihood activities than women who tend to be constrained by individual perceptions of risk and socially prescribed physical mobility restraints. We find the livelihood portfolios of women and men are more diverse than in the past. However, livelihood diversity may limit women’s more immediate freedoms to exercise agency because they are simultaneously experiencing intensified time and labor demands. Our findings challenge the broad proposition that livelihood diversification will lead to improvements for agency and overall wellbeing. In community-level decision-making, men’s capacity to exercise choice was perceived to be greater in relation to livelihoods, as well as strategic life decisions more broadly. By contrast, capacity to exercise choice within households involved spousal negotiation, and consensus was considered more important than male or female dominance in decision-making. The prevailing global insight is that livelihood initiatives are more likely to bring about sustained and equitable outcomes if they are designed based on understandings of the distinct ways women and men participate in and experience livelihoods. Our study provides insights to make these improvements in a Solomon Islands setting. We suggest that better accounting for these gendered differences not only improves livelihood outcomes but also presents opportunity to catalyze the re-negotiation of gender norms and relations; thereby promoting greater individual agency.

Background: Rwanda has made great progress in improving reproductive, maternal, and newborn health (RMNH) care; however, barriers to ensuring timely and full RMNH service utilization persist, including women’s limited decision-making power and poor-quality care. This study sought to better understand whether and how gender and power dynamics between providers and clients affect their perceptions and experiences of quality care during antenatal care, labor and childbirth.Methods: This mixed methods study included a self-administered survey with 151 RMNH providers with questions on attitudes about gender roles, RMNH care, provider-client relations, labor and childbirth, which took place between January to February 2018. Two separate factor analyses were conducted on provider responses to create a Gender Attitudes Scale and an RMNH Quality of Care Scale. Three focus group discussions (FGDs) conducted in February 2019 with RMNH providers, female and male clients, explored attitudes about gender norms, provision and quality of RMNH care, provider-client interactions and power dynamics, and men’s involvement. Data were analyzed thematically.Results: Inequitable gender norms and attitudes – among both RMNH care providers and clients – impact the quality of RMNH care. The qualitative results illustrate how gender norms and attitudes influence the provision of care and provider-client interactions, in addition to the impact of men’s involvement on the quality of care. Complementing this finding, the survey found a relationship between health providers’ gender attitudes and their attitudes towards quality RMNH care: gender equitable attitudes were associated with greater support for respectful, quality RMNH care.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that gender attitudes and power dynamics between providers and their clients, and between female clients and their partners, can negatively impact the utilization and provision of quality RMNH care. There is a need for capacity building efforts to challenge health providers’ inequitable gender attitudes and practices and equip them to be aware of gender and power dynamics between themselves and their clients. These efforts can be made alongside community interventions to transform harmful gender norms, including those that increase women’s agency and autonomy over their bodies and their health care, promote uptake of health services, and improve couple power dynamics.

Curriculum-based programs are one of the most common and effective strategies for preventing intimate partner violence (IPV) in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Yet relatively little is known about how curricula and their implementation compare across programs, limiting learning and innovation. This scoping review examined the design, content, and implementation of 55 curricula from 42 programs implemented in 23 LMICs between 2001 and 2024. Curricula were identified through screening systematic reviews, grey literature, donor reports, and professional contacts. Data on program characteristics, subject matter, methodologies, and implementation were extracted, synthesized, and analyzed. We found curricula employed similar participatory methodologies and content, and violence, gender, relationships, power, and communication emerged as core topics. Adaptation of earlier programming was widespread: only five curricula did not cite content adapted from an earlier program. Key gaps included the relatively limited use of evidence-based strategies to build relationship skills and content addressing alcohol use and poor mental health, important IPV risk factors. Implementation varied considerably in terms of intensity, frequency, duration, group size, facilitators and their training, and information on some features was sparse. The findings highlight several opportunities for strengthening and innovation, for which we present six recommendations to guide future IPV prevention programming.

Curriculum-based programs are one of the most common and effective strategies for preventing intimate partner violence (IPV) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Yet relatively little is known about how curricula and their implementation compare across programs, limiting learning and innovation. This scoping review examined the design, content, and implementation of 55 curricula from 42 programs implemented in 23 LMICs between 2001 and 2024. Curricula were identified through screening systematic reviews, grey literature, donor reports, and professional contacts. Data on program characteristics, subject matter, methodologies, and implementation were extracted, synthesized, and analyzed. We found curricula employed similar participatory methodologies and content, and violence, gender, relationships, power, and communication emerged as core topics. Adaptation of earlier programming was widespread: only five curricula did not cite content adapted from an earlier program. Key gaps included the relatively limited use of evidence-based strategies to build relationship skills and content addressing alcohol use and poor mental health, important IPV risk factors. Implementation varied considerably in terms of intensity, frequency, duration, group size, facilitators and their training, and information on some features was sparse. The findings highlight several opportunities for strengthening and innovation, for which we present six recommendations to guide future IPV prevention programming.

The article Gender norms and relations: implications for agency in coastal livelihoods