Across the world, justice defenders are facing common challenges such as structural inequality and exclusion, shrinking civic spaces, and rapidly eroding public accountability. The learning agenda for legal empowerment, convened by Namati and the Legal Empowerment Network, and supported by Canada’s International Development Research Centre, is a collective effort to identify what approaches work to uphold human rights in the face of these challenges, and to grow the global movement for justice. Eleven action research projects across 16 countries are undertaking projects on a variety of issue areas, from refugee rights to police abuse, urban poverty, land rights, and more. These projects will test new approaches and generate powerful insights on how legal empowerment strategies can build community power, increase participation of marginalized groups in decision-making, and generate systemic change.
From March 20 to 24, 2023 learning agenda participants from across the world will be gathering in Nairobi. Over five days, the group will share insights about the different strategies that they are using to build community power and drive systems change. They will share the practical strategies that they are using, workshop live challenges and identify common themes for collective reflection and exchange. They will explore various themes that cut across the different issue areas and contexts they work in. For example, the ways in which they engage the State, the strategies they use to increase participation of marginalized groups in decision-making, and how they combine law and organizing to build community power. To ground these discussions in a practical way, participants will visit the work of local legal empowerment organizations in Kenya. Most importantly, this in-person time will help create closer relationships among participants and will generate solidarity and excitement to power their ongoing work together!
The shared foundations we lay at the global convening will guide deeper reflection and exchange on common themes for the rest of the year and beyond. We look forward to sharing the emerging insights that emerge from this collective learning effort.
Stay tuned for reflections and photos from the global convening!