ANPPCAN Zimbabwe

Involving Fathers

The potential of Africa’s fathers to improve the health and welfare of children and families has emerged as a major social and political issue. Fatherhood is now seen as a major catalyst in areas such as challenging intergenerational poverty, Early Childhood Development (ECD), adolescent reproductive health etc.

This section of our website explains our work with the African Fathers Initiative to mainstream active and involved fatherhood in our work with children and families.

We look at:

1. why fathers are so important in achieving good outcomes for children and families; and

2. what we can do to stimulate and sustain the inclusion of fathers in the delivery of family and children's services at community level.

Why our African fathers matter

Social science research adds "knowledge" almost daily to something that most of us think of as common sense: fathers matter to the overall health and development of their children.

When fathers are absent, children are at increased risk in almost every dimension of their lives. They are at greater risk for poverty, retarded early physical and mental development, teenage pregnancy and juvenile delinquency, and more likely to experience school failure, psychiatric illness, and other developmental problems.

Large numbers of Africa's children are now exposed to these risks. When fathers are involved, not only are the risks reduced, but the likelihood of positive outcomes is increased across a child's entire life cycle. While this is especially true when fathers are part of two-parent families, consider these provocative research findings about the father's impact at different stages of child development:

• Prenatal Care: The involvement and support of the mother's male partner-whether or not the couple is married-is the single best predictor of whether or not she receives adequate prenatal care, which in turn can greatly influence the health of a baby at birth.

• Infant development: Babies with actively involved fathers score higher on the Bailey Test of Mental and Motor Development, one of the standard pediatric tests for assessing growth and development. Premature infants whose fathers spend time playing with them have better cognitive outcomes at age 3, whether or not the father is living in the same household.

• Preschool: Children with involved fathers demonstrate a greater ability to take initiative and direct themselves.

• Infant  School: Children with involved fathers manage stress better and develop better peer relations. While both boys and girls do better cognitively, girls especially develop a stronger sense of competence in mathematics.

• High School: Children with involved fathers are much more likely to be academically motivated and to succeed academically.

We do not mean to imply that children in single-mother headed households cannot thrive - they can and do. We do not mean to imply that unless African fathers are married, they cannot be involved or have a positive impact on their children's development-they can and do. Indeed, the research cited above suggests that Africa’s fathers can have a positive impact whether they are married, divorced, or unwed.
Female-headed households are not always absent of men. In some parts of Africa, fathers are marginal to domestic family roles, and the family is matrifocal in its day-to-day organisation (as in parts of Africa and the Caribbean), but men are neither physically nor psychologically absent from the lives of their children. They may live nearby and see the children regularly; they may contribute financially and in other ways to the children’s welfare; if geographically distant, they may write or phone regularly to show caring and interest. Extended families often contain caring uncles, male cousins, grandfathers and other male figures who serve as male models for the family’s children.

It is not unusual for a woman to have had children by more than one man, be supported by one or more of them and have a current boyfriend who serves as a stepfather. In extended family contexts, children also are often informally ‘fostered’ by other families who may or may not be related by blood but who help relieve the pressures of a low income.

Moreover, research suggests that the father-child relationship is a two-way process with the potential for creating effects that are as significant for Africa’s fathers as they are for our children. In a four-decade study of 240 American men born during the 1920s and 1930s, Emory University social psychologist John Snarey found that men's involvement with their children contributed to occupational success. In three decades of reconnecting unemployed, substance abusing men with their children, Charles Ballard, founder and director of the American National Institute for Responsible Fatherhood and Family Revitalization, has found repeatedly that "men need children. When you connect the father with his child from an emotional standpoint, other things change- he changes his thinking and his  environment." As succinctly put by psychiatrist Kyle Pruett, M.D. of the Yale Child Study Center, "That men and children can affect each other as profoundly as any relationship that they will ever have in their life is a truth many young fathers do not understand and many older fathers hold as a canon."

The evidence is clear: if we want to reduce the risks and optimize the developmental outcomes for Africa’s children-and for our fathers-it is important to include our men in their children's lives. One way of doing that is by including them in the services we deliver to families and communities.

The question is not whether Africa’s fathers are important to their children, but what can be done at the community level to strengthen the connection of men to their children and to develop policies that encourage that connection.

An effective strategy- infusing fathers in family and community services

Does that mean developing a whole new set of programs and policies for fathers? Not necessarily. While increased investment in good African fathering is greatly needed, there is still much that practitioners and policy makers can do to encourage responsible fatherhood.

To reach Africa’s fathers we need to rethink the way we deliver existing services to families and whether our current policies encourage or discourage father involvement. Most organisations unwittingly transmit the message that  "family services" mean "services to mothers and children." Without realizing it, they discourage the participation of our men by implicitly sending the message that they expect women-but not men- to be interested in and responsible for their children.

Research shows that men's behaviour is powerfully influenced by the expectations about fatherhood that are transmitted every day of the week by hospitals, preschools, courts, churches, community development projects and other NGO and community based institutions that deal with families. Consider just a few "critical" and "reachable" moments when family service providers can begin strengthening the connection between Africa’s fathers and children by changing their expectations:

• Pregnancy: Once a woman becomes pregnant, the apparatus of "maternal and child health" programs becomes available to her. Health providers do not routinely reach out to expectant fathers, even though they are an emotionally primed audience, and even though research has shown that the likelihood of mother and child receiving adequate prenatal care can be increased if the mother's male partner is involved.

• Childbirth: Many young unmarried fathers peer eagerly at their babies through nursery windows. Unless maternity ward staff are trained to include fathers, babies are at risk of leaving the hospital without paternity being established and men are at greater risk of becoming "disconnected dads."

• Early Start and Preschool Registration: Registration for Early Start or other preschool programs often marks a family's first contact with a formal educational institution, and can affect that family's expectations about dealing with school. Most programs routinely gather information from the mother; many don't even ask if there is a father-present or available. You could, for example, routinely collect information about such "significant men" at the time of registration, and have a high level of father involvement in all aspects of your programming and information to both parents.

• Elementary and High School: At many schools, parent involvement really means "mother involvement" and the PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) really could be called MTA (Mother-Teacher Association). To reverse this trend and, more importantly, to get dads into their children's classrooms, you could - in conjunction with the principal and teachers-organize a  "Bring Your Grownup to School Day." It's similar to "Take Our Daughters to Work Day," except that it's children bringing parents into their daily routine. Realizing the importance of marketing specifically to "fathers"-rather than more generically to "parents"-you can bring men into every elementary school.

A strategy for  NGOs and CBOs

NGOs and Community Based Organisations can play a key role in encouraging policy makers and family serving agencies to develop a father-inclusive approach. They are uniquely poised to convene disparate and competing groups to focus on fatherhood; to help raise community awareness; and to leverage existing resources.

First ask the question of yourselves!

What is being done by your organization to include fathers, and what would it take for you to be even more effective? The only responses to this question should come from agencies that are actually including or trying to include fathers-any and all fathers, regardless of marital status or income level. The goal is to identify a critical mass of what is or seems to be working.

Convene to Identify and Build on Existing Strengths

A fatherhood infusion strategy requires that you first bring together key representatives of the major organisations that deal regularly with children and families in your community - health clinics, WIC (Women Infants and Children) and Early Start programs, schools, social services, churches, courts, elected officials, etc.

Be sure to include representatives of the business community too. All of these people need to understand why the inclusion of Africa’s fathers is so important to children and families. They can be challenged to identify ways in which their existing services and policies might do a better job of inclusion with or without adding new programmes or expending significant resources.

You could sponsor an evening community event to focus on the importance of fathers and ways that other communities are working effectively to include them. Convene a diverse group of educational and family service agencies for a working session specifically designed to identify and build on existing community strengths, rather than to get stuck on the "problem" or "difficulty" of reaching fathers. This solution oriented approach is critical to the process and works by asking the assembled group some questions:

How could your agency be more effective in reaching fathers?

To answer this question, participants are divided up into small groups and given 15 minutes to "brainstorm" their answers. There is no such thing as a "wrong" answer. The goal is to draw on all members of the group-not just those who are already trying to include fathers- to identify possible solutions to the problem of outreach. Another way of posing this to participants is "How would a father - any father - in your community know what services are available to him, given that family is so often interpreted as mother and child? How would a service provider in your community be able to find out what services are available for fathers, including expectant fathers?"

Don't wait until you have the "perfect plan" in place. Begin with what you know works, no matter how small. As people get to know what is going on, it will be easier to enlist them in your infusion strategy.

How can you work with your local media?

The local media-print and broadcast-are among your most important allies in disseminating information about resources for fathers and families and about your father-inclusion strategy. Outside of major metropolitan centers, the media are eager for stories - and the attempt to reach fathers is a good story.

You can play a role in educating the media about what stories should be told. Concerned that you don't yet have anything to say? Your effort to reach out to fathers is a story in itself.

Some members of your community may object to a focus on fathers, when there is no similar focus on mothers. But the fact is that most family services are understood as mothers' services. A father-inclusive approach is not about denying women, but about uplifting children and families by paying attention to all family members.

Examine Your Own Policies

Your grant making policies, demands of donors, project management and guidelines can play an important role in raising community awareness and advancing your strategy for infusing fatherhood into the routine delivery of all family services.

Ask the following questions about "fathers"-and do not accept answers that talk about "parents" or "families":

• What does your organization do proactively to include fathers?

• What barriers, if any, do you encounter in trying to reach fathers?

• How could you more effectively reach or include fathers?

Examine Public Policies Around You

Public policy regarding fatherhood is in an important period of change. Work on father issues is slowly impacting boards, staff, and programmes of community based organisations. Several NGOs report that they now raise the issue of father involvement with applicants seeking funds to work with children and families. One funder asks, "Where do fathers fit in?" A Father's Day event, could convene all of the groups working on the issue of fathers to learn from each other, make their work more effective, and include more groups in their community.

Involvement in programmes leads to policy issues. Most of the community based organisations will enter the work on fathers by supporting or working in partnership on specific programs rather than policy issues. However, involvement in programmes raises policy issues. For example should schools schools share information with non-custodial parents?

One of the most effective strategies to connect fathers and children is to integrate the work into current programs and initiatives. New programmes may be needed to connect fathers and children, and we do not want to discourage support for them. It is important to bear in mind, however, that a focus on fathers is a viable, often low-cost, strategy for increasing the effectiveness of existing efforts to improve conditions for children and families.

Examples could include:

• Develop a resident father ‘expert’. A representative from your community could be trained by the African Fathers Initiative and become its resident "expert." You could lead a collaborative project with us to develop a spokesperson for and leader of father involvement activities.

• Identify and publicize existing resources. You could support the creation of a Father Resource Library located at a well-visited community gathering point.

Whatever you do put fatherhood on your agenda. Let us know your ideas and strategies and together we can make a difference!