MenEngage and international networks

Networking and exchanging experiences with others have always been an important pillar of MÄN's work and development. A lot of our current work to prevent violence is based on knowledge and methods we were able to pick up in other countries. Having worked with these issues for almost three decades, we are also happy to share our own experience and knowledge with others. Advancing equality by working with men and boys is still a relatively novel concept, so globally and regionally, actors working on these issues are keen to learn from each other and finetune methods and knowledge together.

MÄN actively lobbies policymakers and development actors to make efforts to promote equality as effective as possible: we want those who work with men and boys to do so in ways that actually help advance gender equality. The networks that we are a part of are key forums that help strengthen our international advocacy efforts. They also allow us to exchange experiences with others in the same field. 

Since the founding in 2007, MÄN has been a highly active member of the worldwide MenEngage Alliance network, on the global, European and Nordic level. We are a part of and co-coordinate the network's European Steering Committee, and MÄN is hosting the MenEngage Europe Secretariat at our office in Stockholm since 2020. Read more about MÄN's role in and contribution to MenEngage.

MÄN is also a member of several other international networks, including  the European Network for the Work with Perpetrators of Domestic Violence (WWP). Founded in 2014, WWP unites 63 organisations from 32 countries in Europe that all want to develop and strengthen the work with perpetrators. The networks' members also conduct research and provide support to survivors. 

MÄN is also part of several Swedish networks with an international focus. Through the Eastern Partnership Network, for example, organisations that work with partners in Eastern Europe organise joint activities, lobby decision-makers and strengthen their capacity. 

We are also a part of CONCORD Sweden's Gender Equality working group. Several years in a row, we have joined other civil society organisations in scrutinizing and evaluating Sweden's feminist foreign policy, co-writing a series of reports to explore how feminist Sweden's foreign policy actually is. The working group's most recent report zoomed in on the nexus between gender equality and climate justice.

MenEngage Alliance

The global MenEngage Alliance network unites more than 1,000 organisations around the world that work to engage boys and men in the movement for gender justice. MenEngage is an important arena for development of approaches and practices in the work with men and on transforming masculinities that will challenge and change patriarchal norms and structures. MÄN has been a part of the MenEngage Alliance since it was founded in 2007, and was part of its global Board between 2009 and 2020. We actively participate in MenEngage: strengthening our capacity, exchanging experiences with others, and engaging in international advocacy.

MenEngage Europe

The MenEngage Alliance consists of six regional sub-networks. MenEngage Europe was founded at a meeting in Stockholm in 2009; today, it unites more than 100 members from about 30 countries. MenEngage's European activities are managed by a secretariat, which is hosted by MÄN in Stockholm. The secretariat's mission is to make MenEngage Europe a strong and inclusive network that can serve as a platform for exchange and capacity-building. MÄN is also part of the Steering Committee of MenEngage Europe and manages its work together with Poika (Austria) and the Men's Development Network (Ireland).

Nordic MenEngage

MenEngage's Nordic members have also formed their own partnership, of which MÄN is part. Nordic MenEngage has arranged joint conferences and has published reports about engaging men to support gender equality and oppose violence. After #metoo, for example, our Nordic counterparts travelled to Stockholm to discuss what they had learnt from the #metoo movement. MÄN later summarised these learnings in the report 'Men, Masculinities and #metoo in the Nordic Countries'. 

Ubuntu Symposium

Between November 2020 and June 2021, the MenEngage Alliance arranged the Ubuntu Symposium: a series of almost 200 online seminars and talks hosted over the course of seven months, about feminism, intersectionality and the importance of accountability when working with men and boys. You can watch the seminars here.

Working group on climate justice

MÄN has been involved in establishing a new, global working group on climate justice within the MenEngage Alliance. The working group was founded as a result of a series of seminars on climate change and gender that MÄN organised during MenEngage's digital Ubuntu symposium, 2020-2021. You can watch the entire series, The Climate Crisis, Men, Masculinity and Climate Justicehere. The working group is part of MÄN's efforts as a member of MenEngage to highlight the link between patriarchy, masculinity and the climate crisis. This engagement started during MenEngage Alliances's global symposium in India in 2014 and also includes the publication in 2016 of a discussion paper on these issues for MenEngage.