We are part of a global alliance of organizations that engage men and boys to achieve gender equality, promote health, reduce violence and to question and address the structural barriers to achieving gender equality.
MenEngage Botswana is a network of NGOs that advocate around a number of key issues where gender directly affects the lives of women and men. The network was formed in September 2014 and is hosted by the office of Men and Boys for Gender Equality (MBGE). MBGE was founded in October 2013 with a vision to nurture a community where women, girls, men and boys are given an equal opportunity and not judged on their sexual orientation but rather on how much they are able to contribute to development as individuals. The organization seeks to be recognized as a leader in the implementation of gender transformative interventions where both men and boys take action in ending violence against women and children.
MenEngage Lesotho is a network of organisations and associations whose purpose is to engage men and boys in all efforts geared towards the promotion and protection of the rights of women and girls. The network intends to facilitate and intensify the involvement of men and boys in advocacy and social mobilisation activities with the ultimate goal of eradicating sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) as a major driver of poor maternal health. The network draws from healthy socio-cultural and medical practices to promote comprehensive solutions that encourage healthy sexual and reproductive health practices that empower women and girls through the support of men and boys.
MenEngage Madagascar, working in the huge island nation off the south-east coast of Africa – and home to thousands of animal species, such as lemurs, found nowhere else, plus rainforests, beaches and reefs – was formed recently in 2016. Capacity Building for Communities (C-for-C) acts as the Secretariat for the network, whose focus is to get men involved in fighting violence against women. The network's goal is to turn as many boys and men as possible into behavior change agents that act as role models for others to stem the tide of gender-based violence and to encourage healthy relations between men and women in communities.
MEGEN – Malawi Chapter, is a network of over 50,000 progressive men in Malawi which has sister networks in Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Uganda, Namibia, Mozambique, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, DRC, Tanzania and Angola.
MEGEN, the oldest men's organization for gender equality in the country, began in 1997 when it originally assembled as the Malawi Human Resource Centre (MHRC). Since its founding, the group has worked tirelessly to espouse "a philosophy of working with men to engage with fellow men."
Mozambique has a population of about 21,284,701 (2008 estimate). In the past, the country has experienced civil wars and economic instability. The civil war ended in October 1992 with the Rome General Peace Accords. At the end of the civil war in 1992, Mozambique ranked among the poorest countries in the world. It still ranks among the least developed nations with very low socioeconomic indicators. In the last decade, however, Mozambique has experienced a notable economic recovery.
The Mozambique Country Network is chaired by HOPEM.
HOPEM is coordinated by a steering committee hosted by the National Forum of Community Radios (FORCOM). Both networks have signed a memorandum of understanding under which HOPEM is hosted by FORCOM.
Namibia lies on the West Coast of Africa, sharing its southern border with South Africa and its northern border with Angola and Zambia. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990. Namibia has a stable multi-party democracy and approximately 2.1 million residents.
Lifeline/Childline Namibia coordinates the Namibia MenEngage Network country activities. This includes holding consultative meetings with individuals and organizations to build a fully functioning MenEngage country network in Namibia.
Currently, Lifeline/Childline is in the process of establishing a strong country network which seeks to advance work with men and boys for gender equality, the prevention of gender-based violence, and the mitigation of HIV and AIDS in Namibia.
Lifeline/Childline Namibia works across the county to improve the safety, health and resilience of children, families and communities in Namibia. The organisation provides the following: counselling services; programmes and training which address behaviour change, efficacy and gender equity relating to health, safety and resilience; HIV prevention; child protection and advocacy for zero tolerance of abuse against children and gender-based violence. It has a key focus on male engagement work.
Lifeline/Childline Namibia is recognised as the main counselling and emotional wellness training provider in Namibia. The organisation has an experienced and committed Executive Board, 70 full time staff and 72 volunteers. It is affiliated to, and is an active member of, Child HelpLine International and LifeLine Southern Africa.
The Swaziland Country network is chaired by the Swaziland Action Group against Abuse (SWAGAA). SWAGAA is a leading national organisation in the fight against gender-based violence in Swaziland. Created in 1990 it has a wealth of experience and well-established mechanisms and networks to achieve the network objectives, having worked for over two decades to bring the abuse of women and children into the public eye and to the attention of decision-makers, through advocacy, education, and media work. In addition, SWAGAA also provides comprehensive counselling and case management services to survivors of abuse.
Purpose of the Network
To promote the engagement of men and boys in achieving gender equality, preventing HIV, promoting human rights and health and reducing violence at all levels.
Aims and objectives
The Men Engage network seeks to promote collaboration and resource sharing, support joint advocacy initiatives and build capacity on engagement of men and boys in achieving gender equality in Swaziland. The network has prioritized the following areas of focus:
Zambia is one of the most highly urbanized countries in sub-Saharan Africa with 44% of the population concentrated in a few urban areas along the major transport corridors, while rural areas are sparsely populated. Unemployment and underemployment in urban areas are serious problems, while most rural Zambians are subsistence farmers.
The Zambia National Women's Lobby (ZNWL) Men's Network Project is the coordinator of the in-country MenEngage Network. In the last two years, the Network has been expanding outside Lusaka.
The Republic of Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three official languages: English, Shona and Ndebele.
Zimbabwe began as the British self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia, created from land held by the British South Africa Company.
SAfAIDS, a regional non-profit organisation based in Harare, Zimbabwe, is the coordinator of MenEngage Zimbabwe. SAfAIDS's vision is to ensure that all people in Africa realize their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and are free from the burden of HIV, TB and other related developmental health issues.
In recognition of the role that stigma and discrimination, gender inequality and related social structures and norms play in driving the epidemic and creating barriers to access to services in southern Africa, the organisation works to address gender equality and the rights of women, girls and key population groups, to access sexual reproductive health services and rights by confronting complex issues like culture, human rights and stigma.
The Network membership includes community based organizations as well as NGOs acting from a national perspective. The Network builds strategic partnerships with government departments and individuals working with boys and men in HIV and AIDS, gender based violence (GBV) and sexual reproductive health rights. The Network has an established secretariat and a steering committee. The latter is responsible for the management of the Network. The steering committee membership is made up of the following organizations: SPPDF, GLID, ABATANGAMUCO, APFB.
Global Objective:
The Network aims to support men and boys who are committed to fight against gender based violence, to contribute to women's empowerment and promote gender equality in Burundi.
Specific Objectives:
Accomplishments:
Ethiopia is the second-most populous African country with more than 82 million inhabitants and it's tenth-largest by area at more than 1,100,000km2. It is the largest landlocked country in the world and one of the oldest known sites of humanity. It may be the region from which Homo sapiens first departed for the Middle East and beyond.
Network Coordinators: EngenderHealth Ethiopia & Population Council
Purpose of activities at country level
To collectively share the efforts, best practices, and resources of organizations and individuals to promote the constructive involvement of men and boys to ensure the wellbeing of women, children, and men in Ethiopia.
Core principles of MENE
As part of the MenEngage Africa regional network, MENE believes in working as allies with existing women's rights movements; engaging men from a positive perspective, a human rights and gender transformative approach as a means of achieving gender equality; building on evidence, collaboration and transparency and promoting existing UN mandates.
Kenya has a land area of 580,000 km2. As of 2011, Kenya was projected to have a total population of 41,070,943, representing 42 different peoples and cultures. This estimate explicitly takes into account the effects of mortality due to AIDS, which can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected.
Kenya's services sector, which contributes about 63 percent of GDP, is dominated by tourism.
Who is active in the country?
Chair
The current chair of the in-country network is Kenya MenEngage Alliance (KEMEA). KEMEA is a national network of non-governmental organizations, relevant government institutions, and community based organizations involved in research, interventions and social mobilization initiatives that engage boys and men in effective ways to reduce gender inequalities and promote the health of women, men and children. The network was established in 2006 following an international conference in Dares Salaam organized by the Men Engage Global Alliance.
What do we do?
KEMEA Network views gender equality as integral to its operations and for the creation of nonviolent and gender-just societies in Kenya. The network uses a rights-based approach due to the all-pervasive systemic gender discrimination and gender inequality.
The network membership includes community-based organizations, institutions, government departments and individuals working with boys and men in HIV and AIDS, Positive fatherhood, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Gender based violence (GBV) and sexual reproductive health rights (SRHR). The network has an established secretariat and a steering committee where the latter is responsible for the management of the network.
MenEngage Tanzania is an umbrella network that brings together 29 civil society organisations and groups, including not-for-profit, research and learning institutions, as well as individuals working with men and boys to promote children's, youth and women's rights in Tanzania.
MenEngage Tanzania member organisations work together in efforts to prevent and address gender-based violence, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, and child abuse. Furthermore, the network is an advocate for maternal health issues, sexual and reproductive health rights. As part of a continental movement to engage men and boys to foster gender transformation, MenEngage Tanzania promotes positive masculinities and fatherhood. The network strives to promote strong working relations with women and youth movements as well as local government and national government officials, to ensure co-operation and collaboration.
The network is led by Children's Dignity Forum (CDF) as its Secretariat.
Objectives
To promote inter- and intra-network collaboration between MenEngage Tanzania partner organisations on issues related to engaging men and boys for gender equality, health and human rights;
MenEngage Uganda aims to promote gender equality through transforming men and masculinities in Uganda. We are using fact-based, feminist informed gender transformative approaches for an inclusive advocacy and capacity building so as to forge synergies to fight against holistic gender discrimination and gender inequality. MenEngage Uganda works with men and boys in fatherhood campaigns, Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights, Violence prevention, Human Rights defending and Economic empowerment to make men part of the solution to fight gender-based violence (GBV), promote women's empowerment and attain true gender equality.
Vision
A Ugandan society where men and boys are meaningfully engaged as part of the solution to gender inequalities.
Mission
To improve capacity of CSOs in evidence based male engagement work through advocacy and network building to achieve gender equity.
CCID is an organisation of community development experts who recognize that for the world to become sustainable, the potential of communities must be harnessed. Based in communities where the majority of residents live below the poverty line, CCID works to find ways to bring diverse groups together and leverage their abilities, interests, and resources in order to engender shared values and benefits. It aligns with the objectives of funders — corporates, government, and multilaterals — for the purpose of meeting the needs of intended beneficiaries. At the heart of the organisation's interventions is to ensure local ownership of initiatives by working with communities to drive programmes design and implementation to promote heath, education, economic empowerment and human rights, amongst others.
MenEngage Cameroon seeks to immediately recruit a strong membership that will work to engage boys and men to reduce gender inequalities. The network will also focus on building partnerships with a focus on promoting gender equality, the rights of women and ending gender-based discrimination.
Our actions will target boys, community leaders, policy-makers, other civil society organisations to work collaboratively towards addressing inequalities faced by women.
Vision
MenEngage Cameroon recognizes that there is need to build resilient communities in Africa capable of:
We recognize that these rights are essential to social, environmental and economic growth of communities and for justice for all indigenous people.
We envision an Africa where:
Mission
We aim to advance the rights of communities, women, girls and young people in Cameroon, while strengthening community leaders and community-based organisations to respond to the needs of indigenous people.
Congo Men's Network (COMEN) is the MenEngage in-country network activities coordinator for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. COMEN is a non governmental organisation based in Goma whose mission is to promote positive masculinities by engaging communities and men toward the prevention and response to gender-based violence and the spread of HIV and AIDS.
Some key achievements
In November 2008, the Rwanda MenEngage Network was established in an effort to effectively engage men to end violence in Rwanda. A decision was made to put in place a MenEngage Steering Committee that will oversee and orient all efforts made by all stakeholders for this purpose. The Rwanda MenEngage Network is chaired and coordinated by Rwanda Men's Resource Centre (RWAMREC) which was created in 2006 in order to act on national challenges related to gender-based violence (GBV) and gender inequalities by engaging men to play a significant role in partnership with women in Rwanda. The goal of the network is to reach men and boys in order to engage them on interventions that aim to promote gender equality, to improve health-seeking behaviours and health outcomes, to protect human rights and to prevent violence and HIV in Rwanda through advocacy and mobilisation, network leadership and information-sharing, especially on male engagement approaches in Rwanda.
Network Steering Committee
The Rwanda MenEngage network is led by a Steering Committee which is composed of two co-chairpersons who have been voted in democratically and a network Secretariat in RWAMREC. The network Secretariat is in charge of implementing the network's Action Plan and is accountable to the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee is expected to play an advisory and facilitation role amongst various actors from the MenEngage Network members so that the various efforts are properly coordinated and harmonized for the fight against gender-based violence in Rwanda.
Overall objective
The overall objective of the Steering Committee is to provide guidance and technical assistance to the network Secretariat in the framework of implementing the MenEngage approach in Rwanda by the different network members, and to ensure proper coordination of efforts of promoting gender equality and GBV prevention through the engagement of men and boys.
Strategies of the network
The Rwanda MenEngage network is supported by the MenEngage Africa Secretariat and, we operate through following intervention strategies:
Key achievements of the network
MenEngage Liberia was formed in August 2017. It is a network of NGOs that advocate around gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response, sexual and reproductive health and Rights (SRHR), child rights and HIV/AIDS and STIs awareness on prevention and control. The Center for Justice and Peace Studies (CJPS) is the MenEngage in-country network activities coordinator for Liberia. CJPS was founded in 1998 and became accredited by the government of Liberia in 2002. It has offices in four different counties, including Bong, Nimba, Margibi and Montserrado. CJPS's goal is to work with young people to reduce poverty, especially in rural Liberia.
MenEngage Network Mali comprises of a range of NGOs that advocate around a number of key issues where gender directly affects the lives of women and men.
The network was formed recently in 2016 and is hosted by the Global Institute for Women's Empowerment (GIWE), and its focus areas are on gender-based violence prevention and response, sexual reproductive health and rights, children's rights, women's economic empowerment, women's role in peace and security and women's political leadership.
MenEngage Nigeria started in July 2018 under the Secretariat of Society for the Empowerment of Rural People (SIRP). Founded in 1988, SIRP is committed to working with rural people towards poverty alleviation and their overall empowerment in a sustainable manner.
The organisation pursues its vision with a clear vision, which is "to be a civil society organisation role model in providing voice and services to the less privileged and vulnerable segments of society."
And its mission is "to promote quality service delivery that would improve the living conditions of the people, while ensuring true partnership, accountability and good governance."
SIRP works in the areas of gender equality and women's empowerment, HIV and AIDS, sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR), drug demand reduction through prevention, education and awareness, HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT), treatment and referrals.
The country is one of the poorest in the world, despite being ranked as one of the world's top ten countries that are rich in minerals. It also holds one of the highest records of violence against women and girls, in the West African sub-region. The ten years of rebel war officially accounts for nearly 600,000 women and girls violated during this senseless destructive civil conflict that ended in 2002. Despite the end of the war, its effects have contributed largely to the escalation of violence and abuse against women.
Men's Association for Gender Equality-Sierrra Leone (MAGE-SL) is a non-profit and a network of male-led organisations working towards the promotion of gender equality through advocacy, dialogue and raising awareness on gender policies, women's rights and empowerment in Sierra Leone.
What do they do
The Association strives to circumvent the traditional academic approach to gender promotion and advocacy by adopting a bottom-up approach with grassroots oriented strategies from within the family settings of Sierra Leone. The ten years rebel war, which officially ended in 2002, contributed towards the escalation of violence and abuse against women. Rape in particular was systematically used in the war by all warring factions. Until 2004 rape was a legal crime in Sierra Leone. Traditionally, women in many parts of Sierra Leone are considered inferior to men. Social structures in these communities such as the legal system of the local community, including family and friends, the educational system, mass media, religion and culture have contributed in many ways to the violent behaviour of men against women.
MenEngage Togo was formed in September 2017 and is hosted by the Alliance Fraternal Aid for Development (AFAD), a national non-profit NGO based in Kpélé Elémé.
Established in October 1995, the organisation's focus areas are on maternal and neonatal child health, sexual reproductive health and rights, the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) campaign, women's empowerment, gender-based violence prevention, STIs/HIV prevention, positive fatherhood, men and boys' involvement in gender and health equality and community development.
The most important and immediate goal of MenEngage Togo is to build a strong and vibrant country network by establishing partnerships with organisations that work to promote gender justice and the rights of women, children, young people and other vulnerable groups.