After a sleepless night with your baby, you step outside while mom is still resting. Just down the street, you enter a warm, welcoming space where you and your child are celebrated. Here, you can breathe. A nurse is on hand to answer health questions, a fellow parent shares tips about baby care, and a hot cup of coffee awaits you. In one room, new dads are talking to a coach; in another, moms, dads, and neighbors are catching up like old friends. Now imagine this kind of support available to every parent in every neighborhood, every city, everywhere.
This is MenCare Cities.
MenCare Cities is part of a growing international movement to design “caring cities” – urban environments that acknowledge the vital role that women and girls play in providing care, and seek to ease the heavy burden of unpaid and underpaid care work by actively redistributing responsibilities and engaging men and fathers as equal caregivers.
When men participate equally in care – whether through parental leave, involvement in schools, or eldercare – the benefits ripple across society: women gain time, choices, and economic opportunities; children thrive; and men themselves experience stronger relationships, purpose, and wellbeing. Because cities and regions are typically spaces where public services to individuals and families are delivered, they offer huge potential for channelling good models for care. City governments are uniquely positioned to accelerate this change, since urban planning and municipal policies directly shape how families experience care in their daily lives.
Through the Caring Masculinity Fund, Equimundo has recommended funds for MenCare Cities pilot programs in five locations to start with: Greater Manchester, U.K., Melbourne, Australia, one city in the United States, and two cities in Latin America. Working with partners including the City Hub and Network for Gender Equity (CHANGE), the Fatherhood Institute, and Metropolis, who bring expertise in gender equity, fatherhood, and sustainable urban governance, these pilots will test how local policies, services, and public spaces can embed gender-transformative approaches – recognizing, redistributing, and revaluing the role of care work, while engaging men and fathers as part of the solution. The cities that participate will all be connected through an international learning platform enabling them to share insights and collectively strengthen advocacy efforts while scaling innovative solutions within their local contexts.
The initiative is closely linked to the MenCare Changemaker Journey, a two-year global effort to mobilize 100 leaders from around the world to understand how we achieve health and wellbeing for men and boys, together with women and girls. As part of this journey there will be a particular focus on Caring Manhood in Cities and Regions, that will propose solutions on how city-level practices can be translated into global policy and advocacy.
By combining practical city pilots with global exchange, MenCare Cities will demonstrate how care can be made central to urban planning and service delivery. It envisions cities where men and women share caregiving responsibilities, where public institutions and infrastructure support families, and where care is valued as the foundation of social and economic wellbeing.
Editor’s Note: This is just one example of the impact being made by recipients of the Caring Masculinity Fund. Read more here.
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