Just how important are fathers?

In a recent podcast with Derek Thompson, Scott Galloway – who has positioned himself as a popular voice on modern masculinity – joked that fathers are “mostly a waste of time or space” in the early months of a child’s life. Galloway cast doubt on the utility of paternity leave, suggesting it “sometimes creates resentment” and is prone to abuse.

For those of us who follow the science of fatherhood, and from working with health ministries to engage fathers in the lives of young children, we have something to say about this. And some lessons from the country that is poised to become the first in the world where fatherhood training is universally available: Rwanda.

The East African nation is poised to become the first country to integrate fatherhood training into its national health system, a milestone built on more than a decade of progress. Gary Barker, CEO of Equimundo, recently returned from Rwanda, where he witnessed the impact firsthand – impact made possible by the radical courage to try something new.

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Since the early 2010s, Equimundo has worked alongside the Rwanda Men’s Resource Center (RWAMREC), and, with input from the Ministry of Health, launched Bandebereho, or “role model” in Kinyarwanda.

Rwandan men are not alone in inheriting a decades-old script about masculinity where strength and control are prized, and care and compassion are pushed aside. As Equimundo’s research into life inside the “Man Box” shows, the costs of this script are borne not just by men, but society as a whole. Men, women, and children alike suffer under an outdated formula that prizes aggression, self-sufficiency, and excessive toughness.

In partnership with RWAMREC and as part of MenCare+ – a multicountry initiative serving men aged 15-35 in Brazil, Indonesia, Rwanda, and South Africa – Bandebereho kicked off in 2013, enrolling over 1,700 couples across four districts.

The 17-week course connects fathers and is facilitated by fathers trained by RWAMREC, rooted in local communities. Groups meet weekly to discuss healthier couples communication, to develop childcare skills, to talk about men’s health, and to participate in other activities. Women join their partners for about half the sessions, with local nurses and police officers also leading certain modules. Equimundo and its local partners have found healthier relationships, more engaged fathers, and improved health outcomes for entire families.

An early randomized control trial, published in PLOS ONE in 2018, showed retention rates hovering around 94 percent among nearly 1,200 tracked couples – clear evidence that men want to show up, and want to be better caretakers. Twenty-one months after participating in Bandebereho, women in the intervention group reported significantly lower rates of physical and sexual violence compared to the control group. The benefits extended to higher contraceptive use, greater participation by men in childcare and household tasks, higher attendance at antenatal care visits, and women reporting a greater authority in household decisions. The report also found lower self-reported rates of violence against children by both parents.

A six-year follow-up study assessing the longer-term impacts of Bandebereho is yet more encouraging. While the full report is yet to be published, preliminary findings show that couples in the Bandebereho intervention group showed 55 percent lower self-reported violence compared to non-participating couples, lower rates of violence against children persisted, men’s participation in household tasks remained elevated, and higher contraceptive use and prenatal care held steady.

Bandebereho pays long-term dividends – but the work is only just beginning. Intimate partner violence, unequal division of caregiving responsibilities and household authority, and other markers of asymmetrical gender dynamics remain rampant in Rwanda, as they do around the globe. But on the merits of Bandebereho’s efficacy, Rwanda’s Ministry of Health now plans to mobilize its 70,000+ community health workers to expand the program blueprint to 27 of the country’s 30 total districts.

The Rwandan experiment begs a larger question: what becomes possible when we’re willing to follow the evidence and explicitly gear policy towards healthy fatherhood? What can the U.S. learn from Bandebereho?

Cultural differences abound, to be sure. Such national scale-up programs will take different forms in different contexts. In Brazil, part of the MenCare+ program, the “You Are My Father Campaign” sparked dialogue around the country about involved fatherhood and gender equality. In Indonesia, Equimundo’s “Generation G” program is working to equip youth leaders with the tools needed to combat longstanding restrictive views on masculinity and gender roles, making room for aspirational fatherhood.

But young men in America are not so different from those in Rwanda, in Indonesia, or Brazil in their fundamental aspiration to be fathers and husbands. Young Men Research Project found in its summer 2025 poll that 63 percent of men aged 18 to 29 agree “having children is important to me” – 64 percent say the same about marriage. The data speaks to why this aspiration has not abated: In Equimundo’s 2025 State of American Men report, fathers were 1.3x as likely to report feeling a sense of purpose compared to men without children.

It is not only possible but provable that public-private partnerships, working from the ground up and recruiting local leaders, can support these aspirations by training young men how to navigate their relationships and fatherhood.

Bandebereho is proof that you can start small, adapt, and build an evidence-based product to promote a more caring model for fatherhood. Rwanda makes vivid the power of good policy and the importance of taking the first step. The U.S. would do well to listen.