A note from Gary Barker, Equimundo Founder and CEO
In May 2024, Melinda French Gates named me as one of 12 global leaders who will each distribute a $20 million fund to charitable organizations doing urgent, impactful, and innovative work to improve women’s health and well-being in the United States and around the world.
Together with the Equimundo team, we named this fund “The Caring Masculinity Fund,” which will become active in December 2024. As the name suggests, the fund will support advocacy, programmatic work, and research to promote caring manhood in the US and globally, with about 50% of the funds invested in the Americas region.
This opportunity comes at a crucial moment. Young men in many countries are faring poorly in school, and often pushing back against gains in women’s rights. Many boys and young men gravitate toward harmful voices online spaces and influencers. Some young men are using technology-facilitated violence against women and girls and against other men. Large percentages of boys and young men in some countries tell us they are socially isolated and face poor mental health. On the positive side, more men than ever are invested in caregiving – for children, for elderly family members, and others – even as we’re far from equality when it comes to caregiving.
At Equimundo and for me personally, a key solution to all of these issues is investing in the care for and of boys and men so that they can be caring, connected boys and men who embrace and live equality and non-violence. Quite simply, we believe that care leads to care in all its forms.
For this to happen, we must think big by engaging men and boys in partnership with women and girls and changing the structures, policies, systems, and narratives around us all.
Specifically, we will use the funds to:
- Scale up evidence-based programs to promote men’s caregiving in public institutions in 10 countries;
- Change the narrative about manhood in online spaces in the US and globally; and
- Promote healthy boyhood and contribute to violence prevention in more than 10 countries.
By 2028 these messages, policies, and programs will impact at least 150 million men and boys and those around them.
We won’t achieve this ambitious goal alone. We are in conversation with donors, international organizations, and other partners to use these funds from Melinda French Gates to leverage additional opportunities. Rather than issuing a call for proposals, together with the Equimundo team, I am engaging in consultations with partners to discuss ideas or initiatives that may align with these funding areas, while also mapping potential new partners in selected geographies and identifying promising emerging organizations committed to our shared cause.
I am excited, along with the Equimundo team, to take this new phase forward, learn from our partners, and achieve even greater impact with them. Together, we’re seizing the moment to accelerate investments in caring masculinity for the good of everyone.
Some initial big bets for achieving caring masculinity
To take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in May of 2026. This space aims to call in powerful allies to advance and implement the policies, change the narratives, and build a human and social infrastructure that supports men to center care in their lives and in the world, and achieve care equality.
As a run-up to the summit, funds will be used to build public-private partnerships in more than 10 countries to promote men’s caregiving. Results of those initiatives will be shared during the global summit, and shared on a new global hub of policy actions to promote men’s caregiving.
Current partners in this work include: The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Iceland, The MenCare Campaign regional coordinators, Instituto Papo de Homem, Movember, International Parliamentary Union, Global Alliance for Care, Vital Voices, WomenDeliver and others.
To find out more about how you can join this adventure, contact Equimundo’s Director of Communications and Advocacy, José Campi-Portaluppi.
In partnership with Futures Without Violence, we recently carried out a massive mapping of the online lives of young men. From that we are working to to leverage digital communities, creators, and partnerships to interrupt the growing threat of online misogyny and strengthen young men’s relationships, skills, and access to resources to contribute to a more equitable and safe society. We’re also partnering with Diverting Hate and others to test these messages and iterate to take them to scale and empower the voices of young men to find their best versions of manhood online and offline.
To learn more about the Innovation Lab, contact Equimundo’s Senior Officer of Strategic Initiatives, Caroline Hayes.
For nearly 15 years, Equimundo has led the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES), the largest multi-country survey focused on men and gender equality. Building on IMAGES, Equimundo will listen to young men and women globally to understand what drives political polarization and backlash toward women’s rights among some men, as well as understanding young men’s social isolation – and what can be done about it. Bringing together researchers, NGOs as well as global thought leaders, this cutting-edge research will inform a series of public-facing events to discuss the current state of masculinity, the online lives of young men, the anti-feminist backlash and focus on paths forward and creative solutions.
To learn more about the Man-i-Fest project, contact Equimundo’s Director of Research, Dr. Taveeshi Gupta.
Our Global Boyhood Initiative supports boys – in partnership with girls, and the adults in boys’ lives, to be caring, connected and non-violent. We work in partnership with educators to embed healthy masculinities in educational systems in Europe, Latin America, Asia and the US. We’ll also be supporting our partners at BBC and Papo de Homem in Brazil for their work on impact storytelling to bring all of us – parents, friends, coaches, teachers and others – into the conversation about healthy, caring boyhood.
To learn more about this initiative, contact Equimundo’s Director of Communications and Advocacy, José Campi-Portaluppi.
