The third meeting of the Mutual Mentorship Programme (MMP) 2026, and this year’s programme’s first in-person gathering, was held in Stockholm on 19–20 May 2026 under the theme “Enhanced Learning Through Shared Perspectives”. The 2026 MMP cohort consists of 50 participants from Europe and the MENA region, including the Gulf. The Stockholm meeting convened nearly the full cohort for two days of dialogue, peer exchange, comparing narratives through storytelling, policy engagement and a practical workshop on AI.
A central part of the first day focused on comparing narratives from Europe and the MENA region through storytelling as a tool for dialogue in times of polarisation. The themes covered were peace and security, migration, climate change, cultural relations, the inclusion of women, the inclusion of youth, and AI for Good. The session built on the previous online meeting, where Dr. Brian Palmer, social anthropologist and scholar of religion at Uppsala University, had delivered a mini session on storytelling techniques. Dr. Palmer briefly presented key elements from that session, including the importance of specificity, lived experience, narrative detail and active listening, before participants moved into thematic group-based storytelling exchanges.
