Shifting power and increasing agency: Co-creating a gender-transformative adaptation of Husbands Schools in Zinder, Niger

In Niger, contraceptive use among women remains low despite government commitments to sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Since 2007 "Husbands Schools" (Écoles des Maris), a community-driven initiative launched by UNFPA, have mobilized men as allies in SRH, improving knowledge and service uptake but with limited impact on women's agency or power dynamics. To strengthen this model for gender equitable outcomes, we conducted formative research in Zinder in 2023. Forty focus group discussions with women, men, and mothers-in-law, alongside 24 immersion interviews with community leaders, facilitators, and couples, explored how gender roles, norms, and religious values shape agency and decision-making. Co-creation workshops engaged communities in validating findings and developing recommendations for social and behavior change approaches. 

Results pointed to four priorities for a gender-transformative adaptation: ensuring women's participation-including in polygamous unions-while balancing joint and single-gender sessions; aligning curricula with cultural and religious values while opening space to question inequities; engaging respected female facilitators to address power and covert contraceptive use; and leveraging religious leaders to counter misinformation and frame contraception for spacing as consistent with Islamic principles. This work contributes three advances: showing how participatory, tech-enabled research can inform adaptation and scale of culturally appropriate interventions through inclusive Global North–South partnerships; designing a gender-transformative curriculum embedded in lived experience and community narratives; and applying an equity lens framing men as allies and masculinities as positive. These insights position Husbands Schools as a model for community-led resilience in SRH systems.