advocacy

Last April, the EDGE Funders Alliance held its Reorganizing Power for Systems Change conference in Barcelona, providing social movement activists, organizations, and progressive donors an excellent opportunity to discuss strategies for advancing transformative social change through and across our various movement struggles. JASS attended the conference and emerged with a global feminist twist on the framework and accompanying diagram which shaped the dialogue

Everywhere at the Human Rights Council (HRC) the catchphrase on everyone’s tongue was “shrinking spaces for civil society”. But what does it mean, really? How are activists grappling with this “shrinking space” in their work? To try and find out a little more, JASS Southern Africa's Maggie Mapondera interviewed activists from as far afield as Mongolia, Brazil and India to learn from their experiences and analysis.

“I am officially legal,” gay activist Frank Mugisha tweeted shortly after Uganda’s Constitutional Court ground-breaking decision to overrule the country’s notorious anti-gay bill. Uganda’s LGBTI community and human rights activists the world over rightly applauded the ruling. However, activists are asking: is this enough?

Sometimes you just don’t know where things will end up. In 2009, JASS held a series of movement building institutes (MBIs) in Southern Africa that were attended by feminist activists in the region. These institutes catalysed energy and intent in different ways. The young women from Zambia who participated in the MBIs returned to their homes determined to ensure that their societies and communities transform. As Wala Nalungwe says, “The flame that was lit at the MBIs it would not end there. We did not want that.