You Can Collaborate and Go Together to Do Family Planning”: A Qualitative Endline Evaluation Study of Male Engagement in Promoting Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Services in Rural Kenya

Globally, male involvement in reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) is associated with increased bene ts for women, their children, and their communities. Between 2016 and 2020, the Aga Khan University has been implementing the Access to Quality of Care through Extending and Strengthening Health Systems (AQCESS), project funded by the Government of Canada and Aga Khan Foundation Canada (AKFC). A key component of the project was to encourage greater male engagement in RMNCH in rural Kisii and Kili, two predominantly patriarchal communities in Kenya, through a wide range of interventions. Towards the end of the project, we conducted a qualitative evaluation to explore how male engagement strategies in uenced access to and utilization of RMNCH services. This paper presents the endline evaluative study ndings on how male engagement in uenced reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health in rural Kisii and Kili