African Fathers Initiative

According to the project website, the African Fathers Initiative strategy includes emphasising positive aspects of fatherhood and encouraging men to enter the domain of care for children in contrast to focusing on highly visible cases of abuse and neglect. This includes highlighting the benefits of father involvement with children for men themselves, particularly "in reducing harmful behaviour towards the self and others as a result of a longer-term perspective created by commitment to one or more children."

The African Fathers Initiative is centred around a web-based resource for networking, information sharing, and raising awareness around issues of fatherhood in Africa. The website includes practical information for fathers at various stages of fatherhood, as well as information related to policy, research, and social frameworks that focus on or relate to the importance of fathers. It intends to identify gaps in knowledge and provides links to studies and papers on the topic of fathers in Africa.

African Fathers uses other web-based social networking and marketing tools to extend its reach. It currently has a Facebook group that allows fathers to network, and to post photos, videos, events, comments, articles, and links related to fathering. It also has a Flickr site, an online photo site where fathers can upload photos along with comments, and a You Tube video channel where visitors can watch or post their own videos, make comments, and add links. Viewers can subscribe to the channel and receive updates about new videos. The Initiative has also launched the African Fathers Google Map Project, where individuals and organisations can list themselves on an interactive Google map, making their organisation fully searchable online and accessible to anyone surfing the African Fathers site.

To raise awareness about the importance of Africa's fathering, African Fathers have also initiated the First Annual African Father of the Year story contest. The contest is modeled on the global programme, held around Father's Day (mid-June), which involves school children submitting stories about their fathers. The global contest has been in existence for over a decade in the United States and United Kingdom. According to organisers, it has helped fathers' groups in those countries connect with over 800,000 children, fathers, and families.

African Fathers has an advocacy arm that raises awareness around issues of fathering, and develops partnerships, networks, and media coverage to gain exposure for the topic of fatherhood at national mass media levels. Their campaigns include encouraging fathers to register themselves on their children's birth certificates and pushing for maternity services to engage more effectively with fathers.

The Initiative began with chapters in Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe, but provides support for the formation of other chapters of African Fathers across the continent. They also intend to launch a mentoring programme to inspire fathers to become mentors for orphaned children or children in father-absent homes.

Children, Parenting, Gender