We in the African Women's Development and Communications Network (FEMNET) would like to share with you the report of our Men to Men Consultation on Gender Based Violence. The Consultation, which was held in Nairobi from 6-9 Dec 2001, brought together 27 men from Kenya, Malawi, Namibia and South Africa. These men are members of men only groups that have come together in response to the need for men to come out and break the silence and take action against violence on women and children. Some of these groups have also recognised the need to support men to cope with the changing male roles and responsibilities.
The Consultation, which was timed to coincide with the Sixteen Days of Activism Against Violence on Women, resulted in the formation of the African Network of Men Against Gender Based Violence. FEMNET will work with the groups in the four countries to implement national level as well as regional activities; drawing into the Network men groups from other countries as the programme develops. The Consultation resulted in some ideas for follow-up activities at the national and regional levels; and already follow-up action is underway. A session on Men and Women Dialogue was held during the Consultation, which pointed to the great value of creating discussion fora for dialogue between women and men; boys and girls; even as we encourage gender specific dialogues. As the strategy for reaching men for support in tackling women's empowerment and gender rights issues gather momentum, we are conscious that there are some strong reservations about the approach. FEMNET has worked in the gender arena for the last twelve years, training thousands of women and men together in gender and development programming. Our experience is that we must bring men on board our struggle. While maintaining a focus on our original goal of equality between women and men, we must recognise that men still hold power and authority at all levels; and that we need this same power to change the political, policy, social, economic and other systems and structures; and to cause new power relations. The strategy to work with men should never replace or be pursued at the expense of our struggle to empower women so that they can enter the mainstream of power sharing with men. Indeed the two-pronged strategy of women only and gender-based approaches must be perfected if women are to enter and remain in the mainstream of power and politics, economy decision-making and other power systems. We enclose herewith the report of the Consultation for those that are interested in the details. [***Moderators's note: If you would like to receive a copy of this report in Word, please send an e-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> and write in the subject line: FEMNET report ***] Muthoni Wanyeki Executive Director African Women's Development and Communications Network (FEMNET) P. O. Box 54562, Nairobi, Kenya. Tel: +254 2 741301/20 Fax: +254 2 742927 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: http://www.africaonline.co.ke/femnet ***End-violence is sponsored by UNIFEM and receives generous support from ICAP*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe end-violence OR type: unsubscribe end-violence Archives of previous End-violence messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/end-violence/hypermail/
