Who We Are – Dawa

Our Background

Strengthened investment in championing leadership and equity for and by AGYW in all their diversity in the ESA region has the potential to fast-track progress in ending AIDS and improving access to quality sexual and reproductive health and rights services. AGYW leaders are in urgent need of resources and a platform that is led by them to effect change in this regard. DAWA is an indigenous, young women-led network in East and Southern Africa created to make this happen with an initial focus on Kenya and Zimbabwe, with the intention of expanding to Mozambique and Uganda.

The network is a movement founded and led by adolescent girls and young women (for them – by them) to promote the rights and leadership of adolescent girls and young women. It is all part of a process created to provide adequate support AGYW in countries to pursue much-needed advocacy on a myriad of issues including but not limited to the roll-out of PreP, access to youth-friendly services, COPS, Global Fund, method mix contraception as well as HIV prevention tools and methods.

Our Approach

MOVEMENT BUILDING

This part of DAWA’s work entails the recruitment of members at the national and regional level with support for in-country inception meetings and the development of localized advocacy strategies. It also includes the capacity strengthening of adolescent girls and young women leaders to be able to organize and engage in advocacy, service demand creation, and quality of services accountability and advocacy around new and emerging HIV prevention, SRHR products that seek to increase choices for girls and women.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

We believe that girls and young women have the ability to make decisions over their lives, provided they have access to correct information. This motivates us to work around dealing with misinformation on SRHR, existing myths and misconceptions on gender equality and SRHR, education on research processes. Our approach will also include translating knowledge from research into information that can be understood by communities of girls and women.

ADVOCACY

Challenging inequalities including gender inequalities, that are deeply rooted in the existing patriarchal system in Africa requires continued advocacy. We collectively come together to design advocacy initiatives that are evidence based as this approach will allow us to have our voices heard. The evidence comes from our own lived experiences and the data around us.

GOOD GOVERNANCE

Through this component DAWA provides technical support for the establishment of governance structures for organisations and networks in line with international good practice. This includes facilitating cross-generational collaboration to ensure that governing bodies have a mix of values and experiences.

ACCOMPANIMENT

We have experienced the benefits of mentorship and the accompaniment that comes along with it. Therefore our approach is to create the spaces that allow intra and intergenerational mentorship and exchanged learning.

ACCOUNTABILITY

Girls and young women have a right to access services that are non-judgemental, not coerced and that meet their needs. Service provision accountability is a key approach that we focus on in order to push for quality improvement of services and delivery of services from a rights based approach.

CAPACITY STRENGTHENING

Based on our lived and professional experiences, AGYW have the capacity but what it takes sometimes is to discover it and amplify it.At DAWA we commit to co-create opportunities for capacity strengthening through training, networking and peer and intergenerational mentorship.