MenEngage Expert meeting

The promotion of gender equality is a cross-cutting objective throughout OSCEs work in the political-military, economic-environmental and human dimensions. Still too often, however, it is conceived as an area related only to women.

Several initiatives have been taken in the past years to promote the engagement of men in advancing gender equality in the OSCE region. Since 2012, the OSCE has a MenEngage Network of Ambassadors who are committed to promoting gender equality within the OSCE, currently chaired by Ambassador Andrej Benedejčič of Slovenia.

This expert meeting on the 24 November will serve as a platform to take stock of global developments as well as activities and best practices from the OSCE region, in order to identify next steps for enhancing further the outreach and effectiveness of the OSCE MenEngage Network.

The objectives of the expert meeting are to:
1. Expose interested Delegations and Secretariat staff to global and regional approaches for engaging men and inspire them to get involved;
2. Exchange best practices, strategies and lessons learned on engaging men in combating gender-based violence and promoting gender equality;
3. Develop ideas to strengthen the OSCE MenEngage Network and identify ways forward for its members to strengthen programming and policy advocacy on gender equality in the OSCE region.

As a part of the meeting, the play "Macho Men" will be performed by Serbian Theatre, 'Reflektor'. This performance will take place in the Hofburg, Bibliotheksaal, 23 November, one day prior to the meeting.

The expert meeting is open for OSCE Delegations, field operations, Institutions and the Secretariat. Male colleagues are in particular encouraged to participate in the meeting. Participants will also include experts from other international organizations, civil society, the global MenEngage Alliance and academia. 

Participants are kindly requested to fill in the registration form and to send it to elke.lidarik@osce.org, no later than 15 November 2017.