We are pleased to announce the addition of two new country networks to our constantly growing continental alliance. We welcome on board MenEngage Mali and MenEngage Madagascar who recently joined the MenEngage Africa Alliance in August 2016. MenEngage Mali is led by Global Institute for Women’s Empowerment (GIWE) as the country secretariat.
GIWE, directed by Kassoum Coulibaly, is an indigenous NGO in Mali that has worked for more than 15 years with women and girls in Mali training them in leadership, entrepreneurship, co-operative management, agricultural and food security activities, and health issues, among others.
GIWE works to promote gender equality, women’s empowerment, and peace and security in Mali. It strives to advance economic, political and social change through policy advocacy, research and community mobilisation by working with young people, women, policy makers and opinion leaders.
Its director, Kassoum Coulibaly, attended a webinar where a member of the MenEngage alliance was a panellist and developed interest to work with men to promote women’s rights. GIWE is also a member of the HeforShe campaign.
For more information on MenEngage Mali visit their web page here.
Capacity Building for Communities (C-for-C) is the Secretariat for MenEngage Madagascar.
Led by Sariaka Nantenaina, C-for-C is an NGO working to promote social and economic development of women and girls in Madagascar. C-for-C has recently taken on a project entitled “Sahala” which means “equal” in Malagasy, the indigenous language.
Sahala is the first ever project targeting men to prevent gender-based violence (GBV) in Madagascar, and key activities include counselling for male perpetrators of GBV, social norms campaigns to promote positive masculinity, and behaviour change.
Their motivation for joining the MenEngage Africa alliance is to learn from other organisations across the continent that are implementing similar projects, and to build capacity in the country to help other organisations to implement such projects.
More information about MenEngage Madagascar can be found here.