MenEngage Strategic Plan 2012-2016
August 2012
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Background and History of MenEngage
To advance the cause of engaging men and boys in achieving gender equality, some of the key
national NGOs and INGOs working in gender equality – together with key UN partners – began
meeting in 2004-2005 to explore ways of working together. As a result of these meetings, the
global network – MenEngage – was formed.
Presently, MenEngage is a global alliance made up of nearly 35 active country networks spread
across many regions of the world, hundreds of non-governmental organizations, as well as UN
partners. MenEngage seeks to engage men and boys in reducing gender inequalities and
promoting the health and well-being of women, men, and children.
MenEngage partners work collectively and individually toward advancing gender justice,
human rights and social justice to achieve a world in which all can enjoy healthy, fulfilling and
equitable relationships and their full potential. Specifically, the MenEngage MOU includes the
following language about areas of collaboration:
 Sexual and reproductive health and rights,
 HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment,
 Reducing violence against women and girls,
 Challenging homophobia and advocating for LGBTI rights,
 Reducing other forms of violence between men and boys,
 Addressing the role of boys and men in child sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, and
trafficking,
 Promoting men’s positive involvement in maternal and child health and as fathers or
caregivers, and
 Efforts to change macro-level policies that perpetuate gender inequalities.
Through country-level and regional networks, MenEngage seeks to provide a collective voice
on the need to engage men and boys in gender equality, to build and improve the field of
practice around engaging men in achieving gender justice, and advocating before policymakers
at the local, national, regional and international levels.
Since becoming a formal network in 2006, regional and country-level MenEngage networks
have formed in South Asia, Latin America, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. MenEngage
partners carry out joint training activities, joint advocacy and joint research activities. In April
2009, the MenEngage Alliance organized the Global Symposium on Engaging Men and Boys in
Gender Equality that led to the Rio Call to Action (see www.menengage.org for the full text of
the declaration). This was then followed by regional symposia and meetings in South Africa
(Africa regional), Chile (Southern Cone), Cambodia (Southeast and East Asia) and Bangladesh
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(South Asia), in addition to previous regional meetings for Latin America, Europe and South
Asia.
MenEngage is coordinated globally by a Steering Committee and International Advisory
Committee, including Sonke Gender Justice (co-chair), Promundo (co-chair), International
Center for Research on Women, CARE International, the Athena Network, the International
Planned Parenthood Federation, White Ribbon Campaign, Save the Children-Sweden, Futures
Without Violence, Centre for Health and Social Justice, Men for Gender Equality-Sweden,
Men’s Resources International, World Health Organization, UNDP, UNFPA, UN Women, and
Partners for Prevention. At the national and regional level, MenEngage represents a loose
network of more than 400 NGOs with approximately 35 active country networks.
MenEngage is not an independent, registered NGO. Rather it is an Alliance of the abovementioned members of the Steering and Advisory Committees whose collaboration is
governed by a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which sets out the objectives,
functioning and core principles of the Alliance. The MOU stipulates that Promundo and Sonke,
as Global Co-Coordinators, may seek funds for the Alliance and enter into agreements with
funders and administer funds on behalf of the Alliance. The Steering Committee also created
an Executive Committee (ExCo), which serves as the overall decision-making body for the
Alliance. The ExCo is comprised of:
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Promundo (acting as co-chair and representing the Latin American Alliance);
Sonke (acting as co-chair and representing the sub-Saharan African Alliance);
the Centre for Health and Social Justice (acting as representative for the South Asian
Alliance);
The Caribbean Men’s Network (Cariman, representing the Caribbean Alliance);
Men for Gender Equality Sweden (acting as representative for the European Alliance);
Men’s Resources International (acting as representative for the North American Alliance);
White Ribbon Campaign (at-large ExCo member); and
Save the Children (at-large ExCo member).
The terms of the MOU make clear that MenEngage is a decentralised alliance which values and
affirms the importance of regional and country specific priorities and activities. The MOU
states:
“Each recognized region should have a regional steering committee (SC) and a regional
coordinator elected by the regional SC (that can be a single organization or co-chairs)
with terms and roles affirmed by either a regional MOU or minutes from a regional
meeting… The intention both at the regional and national level is to create democratic,
participatory structures in keeping with MenEngage’s core principles…The activities of
regional MenEngage networks are to be set by that region, and may extend beyond (or
be more limited) than the aforementioned roles of the Global Secretariat/Alliance.
Each region sets its own criteria for NGO membership with the restriction that NGO
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members must, at a minimum agree, to the core, aforementioned MenEngage
principles.”
Neither the MenEngage co-chairs, nor the global governing structures have the ability to
determine regional or country level priorities, although to date all three levels (global, regional
and national) have been able to align priorities and act on them in a well coordinated fashion.
These activities are further coordinated via the use of sub-grants and contracts through which
specific regional MenEngage coordinators or country coordinators receive central MenEngage
funds (via Sonke or Promundo) and agree to carry out the activities stipulated in those
contracts. This process has worked well for the past years as a way to guarantee consistency
in the actions of a decentralized network as well as to insure that deliverables are met. This
same process would be followed for these funds.
Key activities of the MenEngage Alliance through 2012 include:
 Formed regional networks with defined regional secretariats in South Asia, Latin
America, sub-Saharan Africa, North America, the Caribbean and Europe, with initial
meetings held to explore the possibility of a network in the Arab States.
 Held regional consultations with key NGOs working in gender equality in all of these
regions. These consultations defined work plans for each specific region.
 Organized the Global Symposium on Engaging Men and Boys in Gender Equality in Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil, in March 2009. The Symposium brought together more than 450
delegates – members of NGOs, researchers, policymakers, UN officials, young people
and women and men from more than 70 countries to exchange ideas and experiences
and to forge collective actions for engaging men and boys in achieving gender equality
and social justice.
 Organized the Africa Regional MenEngage Symposium in October 2009 in
Johannesburg, South Africa, which brought together more than 340 delegates from
across Africa to enhance the ability of civil society and the public sector to engage men
and boys in gender.
 Carried out joint training activities to build the skills of local NGOs in workshops in
South Asia, Southeast Asia, 6 countries in Africa, and 7 countries in Latin America.
 Developed a “toolkit” on engaging men and boys in health promotion (HIV prevention,
SRH, MCH and fatherhood) together with UNFPA and WHO, which has been published
in English, Spanish, French and Russian and compiles good practices from a number of
key MenEngage members.
 Organized a seminar with the World Bank on Engaging Men in Ending GBV in PostConflict Settings in Sub-Saharan Africa in June 2009 in Washington, DC, which brought
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together more than 80 key partners from bilateral aid agencies, local NGOs, INGOs,
researchers and the UN to discuss strategies for engaging men in ending and mitigating
GBV in African countries affected by conflict.
 Together with UN partners co-convened two global meetings on integrating a focus on
engaging men and boys and on preventing gender based violence into National
Strategic Plans on HIV and AIDS, one in Nairobi attended by representatives from 17
countries and one in Istanbul attended by representatives from an additional 15
countries.
 Developed a set of documents, including a policy brief and policy training guide, for the
World Health Organisation to be used to educate policy makers on how to develop
policies and programmes aimed at engaging men and boys in countries across the
world.
 Engaged in global advocacy with the Secretary General’s Network of Men Leaders to
call attention to sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo and to call on the
UN, the AU and the government of the DRC to take decisive action to prevent rape.
 Adopted the MenCare Campaign developed by Promundo and Sonke and launched it in
four MenEngage regions: Africa, North America, Latin America and South Asia
(www.men-care.org).
As a result of these and other activities, during the past three years, MenEngage has become a
recognized global voice for engaging men and boys in achieving gender equality, and is
regularly called on in numerous occasions by the UN, bilateral donors and INGOs to comment,
participate in and contribute to key documents and declarations related to gender equality,
HIV, GBV, post-conflict and other themes in the area of gender equality.
MenEngage Strategic Plan: 2012-2016
In August 2009, the MenEngage Steering Committee held a strategic planning meeting, with
support from SIDA, and affirmed the need to have a full-time, staffed Permanent Secretariat to
build on and manage these activities. Specifically, the Steering Committee designated Sonke
Gender Justice and Instituto Promundo in their roles as co-chairs to coordinate the
development and implementation of a three-year plan (through 2013). In March 2012, the
Steering Committee met in New York City and revised and extended the plan. This document
represents the extension of the Strategic Plan through 2016.
Overall Goal of MenEngage 2012-2016
By 2016, the Global MenEngage Alliance seeks to contribute to bringing about greater gender
equality around the world by being a global, unified voice and network for advocacy,
information-sharing and capacity-building for engaging men and boys in achieving gender
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equality and by having a fully staffed and functioning Secretariat shared among the two cochairs, and supported by multiple donors, as well as having regional MenEngage networks in
seven regions who serve this same role as a global, unified voice for gender equality in their
respective regions.
Strategic Objectives 2012-2016
The Global MenEngage Alliance has four long-term strategic objectives for the four-year
period, which in turn have specific medium-term and short-term objectives.
Long-term Objective 1: Institutional Structure and Coordination: By 2016, the MenEngage
Alliance will have a fully staffed and well-functioning Global Secretariat supported by multiple
donors, which will coordinate with 7 regional network coordinators and with UN and other
global partners to create a unified and effective voice and network for engaging men and boys
in achieving gender equality that is recognized by the UN, multilateral agencies and key civil
society groups globally, particularly women’s rights groups, as a credible, progressive, profeminist and collaborative civil society voice for engaging men to achieve gender equality.
Specific Mid-Term Objectives:
1.1) Recruit, hire and supervise a full-time Global Communications Coordinator, Global
Campaign Coordinator and Global Coordinator for the MenEngage global alliance, who in
turn will hire other global MenEngage staff.
Specifically Promundo and Sonke will seek to raise funds and hire 2-4 staff to support the
MenEngage Secretariat, including a global coordinator, a global communications coordinator
and a campaigns coordinator. These staff will be based at both Promundo’s US office in
Washington, DC, and Sonke’s office in Cape Town, South Africa. They might also be based
with other regional MenEngage coordinator organizations if that were strategic to be able to
contract the most qualified person.
Within the first months of receiving funds for these positions, the MenEngage Executive
Committee will form a hiring committee - including Sonke and Promundo - to develop the
terms of reference for the Global Coordinator, Global Communications Coordinator and the
Global Campaigns Coordinator and seek CVs for the positions. Once selected, these positions
will report directly to the co-chairs based at Promundo and Sonke and in turn will hire other
staff as funding permits. These Global Coordinators will be employees of Promundo and Sonke
but be assigned 100% to MenEngage duties with a workplan and annual performance review
carried out by the Co-Chairs and the Executive Committee of the MenEngage Alliance.
Outcome 1.1: Global Coordinator, Global Communications Coordinator and Global Campaigns
Coordinator hired; supervision and work performance indicators in place.
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1.2) Carry out an assessment of long-term operating models for the Global Alliance. By the
beginning of the second year, the Global Coordinator, working with the ExCo, will prepare a
discussion document to inform deliberations amongst steering committee members on the
best operational model for the MenEngage secretariat. Scenarios included in this document
might include a separately registered and independent MenEngage, a secretariat based at
MenEngage member organisations but not independently registered as an NGO, or other still
to be determined options. The steering committee will then use these scenarios to weigh the
relative advantages and disadvantage of an independent MenEngage NGO and ultimately a
decision about the form and status of the MenEngage secretariat.
Outcome 1.2: Scenarios developed, selected by Global SC and ExCo and implemented in 20142016.
1.3) Carry out additional fundraising to ensure the long-term sustainability of MenEngage.
SIDA funds represent the core funding currently available to MenEngage, and the MenEngage
Steering Committee recognizes the need for seeking additional funds. The Global Coordinator
with support of ExCo will carry out fundraising so that by the end of 2016, SIDA funds have
gone from 80% of funds to 30-50%% of funds. The projected 4-year total for the Global
MenEngage Alliance is $ $17 559 922, of which $5 737 420 are SIDA funds, $7 336 272
are already raised via Promundo, Sonke and partners, $2 407 065 are projected MenEngage
contributions and $4 752 514 still needs to be raised. MenEngage views the seeking of
multiple sources of funding as part of its strategic goal and key to its long-term sustainability.
Outcome 1.3: At least US$4 million additional fund raised by end of 2016, including funds for
the 2014 Global Symposium.
1.4) Provide Support to Regional MenEngage Networks to Ensure that they are Viable,
Sustainable Networks: The Global Coordinator will coordinate sub-grants to the regional
networks in six regions: Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East
and North Africa (Arab States region), and sub-Saharan Africa, which will enable them to have
more structured coordination and to become more operational regional networks for engaging
men and boys. Regional grants are likely to be between $50,000 to $150,000 per year,
depending on the pre-award assessment conducted at the start of the project to determine
the ability of regional coordinators to manage funds effectively, transparently, and in line with
statutory requirements, as well as ensuring their ability to deliver programmatically and their
adherence to democratic and participatory management processes that reflect the values and
terms laid out in the MenEngage MOU. Grants will also vary in size according to the scope of
activities and to the funding needs for those activities in each region. These grants will provide
for the overall functioning of regional MenEngage networks as well as enable them to seek
other sources of supports to become long-term, viable networks.
Regional coordinators will be asked to ensure that their workplans and associated budgets are
in alignment with MenEngage global priorities and they will be required to allocate funds to
some of the following activities, all of which are described in greater detail further on in the
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proposal. The regional coordinators will be prepare detailed workplans that will be used for
the basis of sub-award contracts from Sonke. These sub-awards will demonstrate how the
regional coordinators will contribute to achieving the objectives of this grant. Specific activities
that are considered non-negotiable are:
1. Convene an annual regional meeting and capacity building training for regional ME
partners based on capacity audit processes described below.
2. Engage national governments to develop policies and programmes that scale up work with
men and boys for gender equality and to evaluate the policy changes.
3. Adapt and implement at least two of MenEngage’s global campaigns (i.e. MenCare, LGBTI
rights campaign, FBO campaign, and/or activities related to ICPD/Beijing Plus 20)
4. Adapt and implement community mobilisation strategies to address GBV in conflict or high
violence settings in at least one country in their region.
5. Provide mini-grants to two fellows in each region.
6. Contribute content to the MenEngage website and quarterly newsletter, and to
MenEngage advocacy briefings and other communications materials.
7. To carry out fundraising regionally to support additional activities, including participation
from ME partners in the respective region in the 2014 MenEngage Global Symposium.
The Global Coordinator and the Global Steering Committee will also continue to enforce core
principles of participation, transparency and partnership of the regional MenEngage regional
networks with key women’s rights and LGBTI organizations in each region.
Outcome 1.4: Funded Regional Coordinators and functioning regional networks, with 25%
growth in member NGOs and formally constituted country networks per region.
1.5) Diversify the membership of the Global Steering Committee and Regional SCs.
MenEngage has committed to include in the Steering Committee 25% representation of
women’s rights groups/organizations.1 The Steering Committee will also add at least one
organisation representing each of LGBTI and youth sectors to its group.
Outcome 1.5: 25% globally respected women’s rights organisations participating actively as
members of MenEngage steering committee at the global, regional and country levels as well
as increased participation of LGBTI and Youth organisations with at least one of each active at
the global, regional and country level.
Long-term Objective 2: Global Capacity-Building By 2016, the MenEngage Alliance will have
improved the skills and leadership abilities of national and regional member NGOs in seven
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MenEngage will work with UN Women and other partners to define precisely the kinds of organizations that are
considered women’s rights organizations, e.g. those that have 50% or more of their leadership and staff who are
women, and emphasizing adequate representation of community-based, national or local organizations.
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regions enabling them to be credible, collaborative, well-managed, evidence-based actors for
engaging men and boys in gender equality in their regions. It will have also have developed a
number of global campaigns that can be adapted at the regional and country level (MenCare,
FBO campaigns, and the LGBTI campaign), and supported individual leadership development
by developing and implementing an “individual leadership development fund” for engaging
young women and men leaders in achieving gender equality.
By the end of 2016, the global alliance will have supported the ability of key staff working with
MenEngage national and regional coordinators (NGOs) to be able to implement evidencebased, strategic actions (programmatic, research and advocacy) and campaigns focused on key
issues that increase the involvement of men and boys in achieving gender equality and thereby
advance gender equality (MenCare, engaging religious leaders and the LGBTI rights campaigns
described earlier). The Alliance will build a network of male and female leaders and future
gender justice advocates, who have the necessary skills, knowledge, support and connections
to further advance the gender equality, GBV prevention, SRHR, HIV and AIDS prevention,
fatherhood and caregiving, and social justice agendas more broadly.
Specific Objectives:
2.1) Identify and assess core compentencies for NGO members against which their progress
will be measured and their skills enhanced. As part of building skills, the Global MenEngage
coordinator will work with regional coordinators to carry out a systematic mapping of skills
needs and core compentencies required for “good practice” among MenEngage NGO
members. This process will build on and update capacity audits already conducted in Latin
America, Asia, North America and Africa and will include the development of a core
competency curriculum for each region which will allow regional organisations to work
together to carry out regional trainings that address capacity gaps.
Outcome: 2.1: Increased understanding of the capacity and training needs of regional
networks and member organisations based on the capacity audit and enhanced skills among
ME partners in each region to be achieved via regional MenEngage Training Institutes in each
region on an annual basis.
2.2) Provide support to regional networks to assist them in their efforts to address the
capacity needs identified in the regional capacity audits, including developing the skills,
commitments and long-term involvement of emerging leaders in the field. Recognising that
effective and credible leadership is essential to the long-term viability of the organisations
which make up the MenEngage Alliance, these annual trainings will focus on meeting the
capacity gaps identified by the capacity audits and will include amongst other likely topics,
community education and mobilisation, policy development and advocacy, M&E,
organisational development, including strengthening forms of leadership that are ethical,
democratic, strategic and committed to gender equality and social justice working at all times
in collaboration with women’s rights partners as well as visioning and sharing of existing
training materials and conceptual frameworks.
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Outcome 2.2: Men Engage member organisations have the knowledge, skills and capacity to
effectively and efficiently promote and implement work with men and boys in a sustainable
manner and working in partnership with women’s rights organisations.
2.3) Identify, recruit and support young women and men leaders (under age 30) to develop
their skills and leadership ability as gender equality activists. The MenEngage coordinator will
create a nomination process, and with support from the Global Steering Committee, will
identify one global ‘MenEngage Fellow’ per region per year, who will be provided with small
grants to support and scale-up their work on engaging men and boys in gender equality. These
will be recruited through a rigorous search and selection process, and receive ‘Ashoka style’
fellowships. These will be current and emerging leaders and social entrepreneurs within the
field of gender equality and human rights, who have displayed significant innovation and
commitment to promoting the MenEngage agenda, and generally will have some linkage to
MenEngage member NGOs.
Outcome 2.3: 28 young leaders identified and supported to enter higher leadership positions
within MenEngage partner organizations by 2016.
2.4.) Hold annual MenEngage global leadership planning meetings.
These meetings will bring together MenEngage members with key civil society, government,
academic and donor practitioners to (1) promote peer exchange; (2) deliberate on emerging
good and evidence-based practice in the field of engaging men and boys in gender equality; (3)
propose steps to further build the evidence-base for this work and address current challenges
at programmatic and policy levels; (4) hear presentations on key events, research findings, UN
agreements and other emerging trends that influence the field of engaging men and boys in
gender equality; (5) hear from key partners to ensure MenEngage remains accountable to a
women’s rights agenda and other social justice concerns; and (6) define and refine
MenEngage’s global advocacy strategies.
Outcome 2.4: One annual meeting held per year with widely disseminated report chronicling
key deliberations, emerging innovations, research findings, detailed partnership and
accountability strategies, advocacy successes, policy accomplishments etc.
2.5. Build the skills of MenEngage member NGOs in the area of formative research and
impact evaluation. The MenEngage global coordinator will coordinate a sub-grant program of
at least one cycle during the four years of this strategic plan for MenEngage member
organizations to submit proposals for joint research projects that include local/regional
researchers and MenEngage members, either carrying out formative or evaluation research.
MenEngage will seek to raise funds for regional research intiatives that partner local
researchers and local NGOs working to engage men in joint evaluation, operations research
and formative research projects that will serve both to enhance the research skills of
MenEngage member NGOs as well as build the skills of local researchers (and promote the
collaboration between the two). This outcome will not be funded by SIDA but rather will be
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part of separate fundraising that Promundo will carry out as its role as co-chair, as it has done
in its leadership on IMAGES (the International Men and Gender Equality Survey) and the Men
and Gender Equality Policy Project.
Outcome 2.5: At least 8 new research projects carried out in partnership between MenEngage
members and regional/local researchers and new relationships between key research
institutions and MenEngage members established.
2.6. Build the skills of MenEngage member NGOs in the area of targeted advocacy campaigns
and actions. As a global alliance rooted in many regions and countries, MenEngage has an
important role to play in global advocacy efforts, including in ensuring progressive resolutions
and outcomes from key global consultations related to Beijing Plus 20, Cairo Plus 20, the
MDGs, and others. However, many MenEngage partner organisations currently lack this
expertise and require training on global advocacy approaches. Key MenEngage organisations
with expertise in this will collaborate to provide MenEngage members with advocacy skills
providing concrete skills to MenEngage member NGOs in how to design, carry out, sustain and
evaluate advocacy efforts.
The MenEngage global secretariat will work with regional and country level networks and
partners to build the capacity of alliance members to carry out four specific advocacy
strategies: 1) Strengthened ability to engage government at the national level to implement
gender equality work with men; 2) Strengthened community mobilisation for gender equality;
3) Strengthened capacity to advance LGBTI rights; 4) Strengthened capacity to enlist religious
leaders and FBOs as strategic and pro-active partners.
2.6.1. Support MenEngage country networks to engage their country governments to
deepen government commitment to engaging men and boys for gender equality, including
training on policy advocacy related to national departments of health, social
development/social services, criminal justice, sports and culture, and education, amongst
others.
a. Develop an information and promising practice package and promote the ongoing sharing
of experiences on how to engage national-level and local government departments of
health, social development, child welfare and other relevant government ministries in the
development and implementation of policy guidelines to include men and boys in training
and interventions aimed at addressing violence against women and children and promoting
gender equality.
These activities will result in increased implementation by national and local government
across a range of government departments of programmes and policies intended to increase
men’s involvement in achieving gender equality.
2.6.2. Build the capacity of MenEngage partners to challenge homophobia and promote
LGBTI rights across the MenEngage Alliance
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a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Work with MenEngage regional and country networks to conduct formative research in
each region to 1) understand attitudes held by predominantly straight identified men
towards LGBTI community members based on secondary analysis of IMAGES data and
key informant interviews, 2) understand the legal and policy environment related to
LGBTI rights, 3) understand key actors in the LGBTI sector 4) identify existing tools,
materials and campaigns aimed at challenging homophobia and promoting LGBTI rights.
Formative research will include an analysis of existing IMAGES data on homophobia. In
addition, we will convene a research seminar with global experts on homophobia and
strategies to address it and publish seminar findings in a special issue of a peer reviewed
journal.
Develop an advisory council at the global, regional and country levels to advise on the
development of a global anti-homophobia and LGBTI rights campaign to include
representatives from key global and regional LGBTI organisations, religious leaders,
traditional leaders, and prominent public figures who can lend their stature to the
campaign from the outset.
Develop a range of campaign tools and materials including a workshop manual and/or
module to be integrated into existing curricula, posters, radio and TV PSAs, short films
and digital stories, advocacy and policy briefs, opinion pieces for online and print media,
draft policy language, tools to be used for country and high level negotiations related to
CSW, ICPD and Beijing Plus 20 meetings. Campaign materials may include high profile
celebrities from the world of sports and entertainment.
Develop a toolkit for use with and by religious leaders and join/support/form coalitions of
religious leaders for LGBTI rights.
Train MenEngage partners at the regional and country level on the use of campaign
materials and approaches as part of the regional training workshops
Conduct global and region specific launches (along the lines of the White Ribbon
Campaign and the MenCare Campaign) and include a strong focus on the campaign at the
global symposium.
These activities will result in the creation of a global sexual diversity campaign by MenEngage
coordinated by a global MenEngage campaign coordinator, who will work in turn with regional
MenEngage coordinators to implement the campaign at the regional and country levels.
2.6.3
Develop a campaign to engage religious leaders and faith-based organisations to
increase their proactive support for gender equality and LGBTI rights.
a. Conduct formative research in at least one country in each region to better understand
religious and FBO sector positions on gender equality and LGBTI rights as well as to identify
existing campaign approaches, tools and lessons learned.
b. Develop a campaign advisory council of progressive religious leaders and FBOs at the global
and regional level and work with them to identify key campaign implementing partners.
c. Develop campaign materials including IEC materials, advocacy and media briefs and tools,
training manuals etc.
d. Implement the campaign in three to five countries in 2-3 MenEngage regions.
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e. Convene a pre-conference special meeting on work with religious leaders for gender
equality at the 2014 MenEngage Global Symposium.
f. Support religious leader participation in CSW, Beijing and ICPD Plus 20 negotiations.
2.6.3 Build capacity to implement community mobilisation strategies in conflict and high
violence settings
a. The global secretariat will draw on existing materials and approaches such as Sonke’s
Community Action Team model, Centre for Health and Social Justice models and
Promundo’s youth activists teams to develop a set of tools that can be used to assist
MenEngage partners to engage in community mobilisation aimed at engaging men to
support effective duty-bearer responses to sexual and gender-based violence in each
setting.
b. Build the capacity of MenEngage members in post-conflict, ongoing conflict, humanitarian
disaster and high urban violence settings to create and sustain local action groups to hold
duty-bearers responsible for responding adequately to sexual and gender-based violence
c. Provide 3 sub grants over the three years - preferably in different regions - for a local or
regional MenEngage member NGO to map existing services, policy and legal frameworks
and survivors’ reports of the response to their needs and to build and test a community
action team model to carry out local advocacy based on this mapping via an operations
research project.
d. Develop and disseminate a final report and video clip of the operations research of the
three experiences via global events and networks including NWI, UNDP, and the UN Special
Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, among others.
Outcome 2.6. The Global MenEngage Alliance and its member organisations will engage in
effective gender equality advocacy campaigns and actions at the national, regional and global
level, including contributing in meaningful ways to progressive outcomes in the Beijing Plus 20,
Cairo Plus 20 and MDG processes.
2.7. Promote exchange visits between MenEngage member organizations to allow exposure
to new approaches for engaging men and boys in achieving gender equality.
The Global Coordinator, with supervision from the Global Secretariat, will administer funds for
exchange visits that permit MenEngage member NGOs to visit another MenEngage member in
their region or outside, around a specific topic, advocacy campaign, program intervention,
policy or research initiative that represents a strategic opportunity. These will be
administered via a proposal process that requires clear definition of an outcome or action plan
from the exchange visit. This activity is not included in the SIDA budget but would be covered
with other funds to be raised globally or raised at the regional level.
Outcome 2.7: 5 visits carried out each year resulting in at least one documented, new idea or
approach being implemented per participating organization.
2.8) Enhance the abilities of member NGOs to adhere to a code of conduct and to put in
practice at the individual NGO level accountability mechanisms for this code of conduct.
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MenEngage will develop a code of conduct to be signed by all existing and incoming members.
This code of conduct will be informed by seeking input from key women’s rights groups, and
will be refined by feedback from regional MenEngage coordinators and the broader Steering
Committee. MenEngage will also develop a voluntary certification process consisting of a
simple, but meaningful, organizational assessment/checklist and an online review of
organizational ‘minimum package’ of policies and commitments in place (e.g. sexual
harassment, child protection, etc.). Both the code of conduct and the voluntary certification
will be posted on the NGO member’s website so that it can be scrutinized by other local
partners.
Outcome 2.8: MenEngage members conduct themselves in a manner that is consistent with
the values and principles of the alliance—advancing gender equality, human rights and social
justice – and have in place an accountability process in cases of member NGOs who do not
adhere to these principles.
Long-term Objective 3: Global, Regional and National Level Advocacy: As a global network
with country networks in approximately 35 countries, including countries with significant clout
in their region—India, Brazil, South Africa—the MenEngage Alliance can and should play an
active role in supporting women’s rights organisations in their national, regional and global
efforts to advance women’s human rights, protect and promote sexual and reproductive rights,
strengthen commitments to ending sexual violence in conflict, and to ensuring strong global
frameworks to achieve these important goals.
By 2016, the MenEngage Alliance will have carried out combined global advocacy campaigns
and efforts with a key focus on key UN events, in particular 2013 UN CSW, ICDP+20, Beijing+20,
SCR 1325 +15, and annual or bi-annual events such as UNGASS, annual UN CSW meetings, on
the Status of Women, and the International AIDS Conference.
For this period, advocacy work will become one of the most important priorities of
MenEngage. This work will include commitment to annual consultation with other social justice
groups (women’s rights, children’s rights, LGBTI, etc). MenEngage will define a process for
development of regional and national work plans and budgets, which should be a transparent
and deliberative process, and which will need to be mindful of MenEngage’s commitment to
existing regional and national level priorities and context specificities. The primary
MenEngage advocacy platform for this period (2012-2016) will be GBV in conflict and postconflict and high-violence settings. This should however be broad enough to include work in
other settings, not classified as post-or conflict, but have high prevalence of gender-based
violence. Secondary advocacy platforms for MenEngage country and regional networks, and
globally, during this period will be: (1) maintaining and expanding on the rights articulated in
the Cairo Declaration and the Beijing Platform for Action, including especially sexual and
reproductive rights affirmed at ICPD 1994, which are under significant risk in numerous
settings and which will be renegotiated at Cairo and Beijing Plus 20 international review
meetings; and (2) engaging men as involved, non-violent fathers and caregivings, building on
the newly launched MenCare campaign.
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3.1) Develop key partnership and sign partnerhsip agreements
Creating strategic partnerships with international campaigns e.g. with the Nobel Women’s
Initiative Campaign, as well as strengthening connection with the Secretary General’s Network
of Men’s Leaders, along with other civil society groups, in particular women’s rights groups,
LGBT groups, and other social justice movements.
Outcome 3.1: 10 partnership agreements signed and 10 joint activities carried out with these
partners over the period.
3.2) Global advocacy efforts around the 2013 UN CSW, Beijing + 20, ICPD+20 and SCR 1325
+15: The MenEngage ExCo will coordinate efforts with regional and country networks to
ensure that the alliance contributes to progressive outcomes at the country, regional and
global levels at the 2013 UN CSW, Beijing + 20, ICPD+20 and SCR 1325 +15. In the run-up to
ICPD Plus 20 MenEngage country and regional networks will convene consultative meetings
with MenEngage country network members and partner organisations to develop clear
positions ahead of the MenEngage Global symposium, where significant attention will be given
to developing a joint MenEngage Global position on ICPD which will then inform how country
networks engage with their country delegations and, hopefully, what positions their country
delegations ultimately take at ICPD Plus 20. The MenEngage coordinator will work with the
regional chairs to develop advocacy tools and templates, including advocacy briefs, examples
of shadow reports and how-to-guides for engaging in pre-CSW/Beijing and Cairo Plus 20
country negotiations as well as for engagements at the high-level meetings themselves.
Outcome 3.2: MenEngage contributes to progressive outcomes at 2013 UN CSW, Beijing + 20,
ICPD+20 and SCR 1325 +15 that in turn contribute to other global advocacy efforts to maintain
and expand sexual and reproductive rights and other gender equality objectives.
3.3) Global advocacy efforts around engaging men to end GBV in conflict and post-conflict
settings
MenEngage is a member of the recently established Nobel Women’s Initiative International
Campaign to Stop Rape and Gender Violence in Conflict
(http://nobelwomensinitiative.org/international-campaign-to-stop-rape-and-gender-violencein-conflict/). Both Sonke and Promundo serve on the advisory council for the campaign and are
actively involved in shaping it. At its March 2012 EXCO meeting, MenEngage committed to
focusing its advocacy efforts on ending gender based violence in conflict and high violence
settings and has joined the Nobel Women’s Initiative International Campaign and encouraged
regional and country networks to become active members of the NWI campaign. The NWI
campaign intends to convene a High Level UN Meeting in 2015 to establish a binding Political
Declaration ratified by UN member states on GBV in conflict. To ensure that this Political
Declaration reflects grassroots and community sentiment, NWI and campaign partners will
carry out local, national and regional consultations to inform the proposed People’s
Declaration. MenEngage country networks, and regional bodies will consult and contribute in
significant ways to the people’s declaration and to the political declaration, including the
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settings of targets and resources for services, protection, efforts to address impunity, and
prevention.
In addition to its partnership with the Nobel Women’s Initiative International Campaign to Stop
Rape and Gender Violence in Conflict, MenEngage will engage in ongoing global, regional and
national advocacy to address GBV in conflict. This will include, for instance, advocating for
national governments to comply with SCR 1325 and develop national action plans on SCR 1325,
or pressuring national and regional governments to commit to the Arms Trade Treaty, train
peacekeeping troops on gender equality and other such measures.
Outcome 3.3: MenEngage will actively support the Nobel Women’s Initiative International
Campaign to Stop Rape and Gender Violence in Conflict and will contribute in meaningful ways
to efforts to end GBV in conflict and post-conflict settings and other high violence settings.
3.4) Global advocacy efforts around men and fatherhood in collaboration with the MenCare
campaign
In 2011, Promundo and Sonke, in collaboration with MenEngage, launched a global campaign
to promote men’s involvement as involved, non-violent caregivers and fathers, recognizing
that global data affirms that 80% of the world’s adult men are or will be fathers. Regional
MenEngage coordinators, and MenEngage country networks will implement MenCare activities
in their countries to achieve increasing participation by men in caregiving, and insuring
adequate policies to promote men’s involvement as equitable, non-violent caregivers and
fathers.
Outcome 3.4: At least 10 active MenCare campaigns achieve changes in policies and visibility in
the social policy agendas in their countries.2
3.5) Organize and hold the 2014 Second Global Symposium on Engaging Men and Boys in
Gender Equality in India as a follow up to Rio and Johannesburg Symposia with a focus on
advocacy around ICPD+20, engaging men in ending SGBV in post-conflict settings, engaging
men to ensure women’s and men’s sexual and reproductive rights and men and caregiving.
Following up on the previous successful symposium, MenEngage will organize the second
global symposia in the first quarter of 2014 in India. Activities to carry out the symposium
include developing a planning structure; identifying an event venue in Delhi; raising additional
funds to support the event; liaising with regional networks; and liaising with UN and
governmental partners. The date chosen was selected precisely to be before both ICPD+20 as
well as before a planned 2015 meeting on ending rape in war being organized by the Nobel
Women’s Initiative, as well as engaging men to ensure women’s and men’s sexual and
reproductive rights, and to promote men’s involvement in caregiving.
2
These activities are funded by other funders but are part of MenEngage and contribute to the overall
achievement of the strategic plan.
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Outcome 3.5: The second Global Symposium on Engaging Men and Boys in Gender Equality is
organized, achieves widespread visibility among UN and other partners, is inclusive of the
MenEngage membership and partners and leads to a coherent advocacy platform that
supports ICPD+20, Beijing Plus 20 and the global advocacy on ending rape in war.
3.6) Develop and continue to produce strategic advocacy and policy briefs on timely issues
that articulate the global MenEngage positions on key gender equality issues and that
support national and regional policy advocacy efforts.
Increasingly, MenEngage as a global alliance, is developing clearer and more unified collective
statements on key issues, including SGBV and conflict; men’s roles in families and caregiving;
men and SRHR; and others. In the course of the implementation of this strategic plan, the
Global Coordinator, with support from the ExCo, will continue to develop position papers and
distribute them to a mailing list of at least 5000 individuals.
Outcome 3.6: At least three briefing papers developed per year with widespread input and
distributed to 5000 individuals leading to increased attention to the topic areas and creating an
increased unity of cause within MenEngage on the identified topics.
3.7) Establish a global and regional Advocacy Alert mechanism to facilitate the rapid
response of MenEngage global and country networks to human rights violations, particularly
of women’s rights
In the past year, in response to specific incidents of sexual violence in the DRC and
homophobic violence in Uganda, as well as specific incidents in Latin America, MenEngage has
produced regional and global advocacy statements calling for concrete action by duty bearers.
These have been produced, to date, on an ad hoc basis. For the new strategic plan, the
MenEngage global staff, together with regional coordinators, will establish a mechanism or
system for regular issuing of such statements, ensuring a speedy development process and
having in place lists of contacts and addresses of key policymakers or duty bearers to whom
the advocacy alerts will be issued. These alerts would respond to emerging issues and
complement the global advocacy campaigns mentioned earlier.
Outcome 3.7: At least three “Advocacy Alerts” per year at the global level and five per year at
the regional level.
Long-term Objective 4: Communication and Information Exchange at the Global and Regional
Level: By 2016, the MenEngage Alliance will enhance MenEngage global and regional
communications through development of a modified and enhanced global website, developing
position papers and enhancing outreach to the media and via social media and have in place a
streamlined, and constantly updated communications system.
Specific Objectives:
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4.1) Develop more effective communications strategies, including: new, updated and
extended database, a more complex and updated website, social media strategies and
engagement with key media platforms.
a. Develop a listserve for easy sharing of information across the entire MenEngage network.
b. Develop and maintain Spanish website.
c. Develop an online training course in English, Spanish and French on engaging men and boys
for gender equality to include materials and interactive modules for community education,
community mobilisation, advocacy, policy development, research and M&E, coalition building,
campaigns development, democratic governance and leadership, amongst other content areas.
Outcome 4.1: MenEngage will have 5,000 subscribed users of the MenEngage website, with at
least 100,000 page visits per year, active regional content development, and the website will
be recognized as a key global source of information on evidence-based approaches to engaging
boys and men in gender equality. MenEngage will also have an active Facebook page with at
least 5000 members sharing information across the site. In addition, MenEngage will form
strategic partnerships with key media platforms amongst partner organisations such as
www.womenundersiege.org, www.pambazuka.org; www.rhrealitycheck.org, and others to
share information and to reciprocally strengthen the impact of our work. MenEngage will also
attempt to forging partnerships with key global media networks (CNN, Al Jazeera etc.), learning
from and building on existing media campaigns such as CNN’s The Freedom Project: Ending
Modern Slavery, which focuses on people trafficking to explore, for instance, partnerships on a
global media campaign on men’s support for gender equality.
Outcome for online course: At least 500 new NGOs trained in engaging men in gender equality,
in turn improving their services and programming for at least 1000 beneficiaries per
organization, or 500,000.
4.2) Develop and implement annual communications plans.
The MenEngage global staff will develop an annual plan for the communications strategy that
is closely aligned with the advocacy objectives above and that includes reaching out to key
women’s rights partners and to the media. By the end of this period, the MenEngage website
will be a key global resource center on engaging men and boys in gender equality, including
providing a constantly updated review of emerging research relevant to the field of activists
and practitioners in the field of engaging men and boys.
Outcome 4.2: Annual communications plans are in place at the global and regional levels with
regular monitoring of benchmarks.
4.3) Develop and distribute regular research summaries that synthesize key research in the
field of masculinities, social justice, SGBV, HIV, SRHR and men and caregiving and other
fields of direct relevant to MenEngage.
The MenEngage website will provide regular updates of existing and emerging key research in
the fields of sociology, gender studies, masculinity studies, child development, anthropology,
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public health and other related areas that affect the work of MenEngage members. These
summaries will support and inform its advocacy. In addition, program recommendations from
the briefing papers and think tank meetings will have been implemented or tested in at least
10 new settings with MenEngage partners.
Outcome 4.3: MenEngage members are regularly briefed on key new research in relevant
areas via research summaries produced twice a year in collaboration with research partners in
relevant fields.
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