Last week, (October 1-3) Sonke and UNFPA co-hosted a three-day long meeting bringing together over 70 MenEngage Africa partners and delegates from UNFPA country offices.
The workshop trained UNFPA officers on gender transformative programming, equipping them with information and skills to review the gender dimensions of their current programmes and to start new projects that can challenge and re-shape harmful gender norms with the buy-in from the target communities.
The training also served as a rare common ground for UNFPA officers to spend time with representatives from gender equality organisations from the MenEngage Africa network in their respective countries. Because communication between organisations and donors is often limited to written reporting, and that the goals of donors and recipients are sometimes not perfectly aligned, this meeting offered a special opportunity for MenEngage partners to get to know their allies at their countries’ UNFPA offices, and to re-align their positions into a synchronised agenda.
Huge thanks go to Itumeleng Komanyane for her role in organising the meeting. Thanks also go to the whole IPN team.
