While the importance of engaging men and boys in gender justice work has been widely recognised, most initiatives to engage them tend to be small-scale and short-term. In order to transform pervasive gender inequalities within Africa, a scaling-up and widening in scope of the programmes and models already known to be effective is imperative. The MenEngage Africa Training Initiative (MATI) provides an example of a programme designed to address this gap.
The vision for MATI is to build a dynamic, vocal and visible network of leaders and gender justice advocates that will drive the gender equality and human rights agenda on the African continent. The first step towards realising this vision is through the implementation of training courses that provide cutting-edge and up-to-date information on gender, public health and human rights in order to expand the knowledge and skills of activists in Africa. Since 2012, four highly successful training courses have been implemented and more are planned to take place in other parts of the continent up until 2018. Thus far, a total of seventy-five men and women have been trained from over twenty African countries.
To learn more about MATI, including the experiences of past participants, please read the MATI Overview Booklet. Detailed reports from the MATI 2012, MATI 2013 and MATI 2014 training courses are also available as well as a report on the MATI Mentorship Programme.
