Announcing new peer-learning online sessions

The sessions are part of the MenEngage Learning Collaborative, also known as the CoLab. Inspired by the MenEngage Ubuntu Symposium, the MenEngage CoLab is a series of opportunities for cross-learning among members and partners of MenEngage Alliance globally.

The MenEngage CoLab brings together members and partners of MenEngage Alliance to further strengthen our collective capabilities and knowledge-base for transforming patriarchal masculinities and working with men and boys for gender equality, LGBTIQ rights and social justice. It aims to help share and exchange the rich body of insights, knowledge, skills and resources that members produce and contribute at national, regional and global levels.

A new space for peer learning

The CoLab peer-learning sessions are a new monthly space for members and partners of MenEngage Alliance to share expertise, skills, and experiences. Through online formats, it is hoped the sessions will facilitate cross-learning and exchange between members and partners involved in this work. Goals of the CoLab peer learning sessions include: raising awareness of promising practices; strengthening capacities; exchanging lessons learnt; and inspiring further innovative approaches in the field.

Guidelines for a CoLab peer-learning session

Throughout 2023, the CoLab peer learning sessions will be open to submissions that link to the theme of preventing and eliminating violence against women and girls, and gender based violence more broadly – given that this is a priority for many members of MenEngage Alliance.  This is part of a phased introduction of the CoLab peer-learning sessions program, which will be open to broader topics and themes in the coming months.

Submissions must be aligned with the mission of MenEngage Alliance, as well as its Accountability Framework.

Sessions should share lessons learned from both failures and successes. Results and impacts of the work must also be included, that your programs or initiatives have been able to achieve including sustainability. Organizers are encouraged to work with relevant partners (which can include non-members of MenEngage Alliance). For example, a session could present the results of a collaboration between researchers and practitioners. Organizers are encouraged to present interconnected themes.

Call for submissions now open

Any member of MenEngage Alliance may submit an idea for a session using this form. Once received, a member of the Global Secretariat of MenEngage Alliance will contact you to discuss your submission, and will be available to provide support and guidance in shaping it.

The Global Secretariat of MenEngage Alliance will provide technical support to facilitate the online platform, manage invites and promotion, capture and disseminate the recording, and provide live language interpretation in Spanish, French, and English. If those making the submission are able to provide capacity or resources for additional language interpretation options, that is also encouraged.

Building on the 3rd MenEngage Global Symposium - The Ubuntu Symposium

The MenEngage CoLab was inspired by the 3rd MenEngage Global Symposium – the Ubuntu Symposium – which, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, mainly took place online over an extended period. The CoLab peer learning sessions will continue in a similar format in which members can make submissions for sessions. Successful submissions will be invited to develop and lead a session.

CoLab peer-learning sessions should also be informed by the political framework developed for the MenEngage Ubuntu Symposium. The framework of the MenEngage Ubuntu Symposium was based on the five themes of accountability, intersectionality, feminisms, power-with, and transformation.