Hello, Bonjour, Jambo
The GJN Africa Regional Assembly, brought together around 65 grassroots justice actors from across Africa to reflect on our collective legal empowerment efforts in 2024, and to share aspirations and goals for 2025.
The year saw significant strides in learning, collective action, and the strengthening of community solidarity. A notable highlight was the online course on building community power, which culminated in in-person exchanges in Zambia and Senegal. These exchanges provided invaluable opportunities for participants to learn from one another, sharing strategies, challenges, and successes in grassroots justice work.
The network’s advocacy efforts were also prominent in 2024. GJN engaged with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), advocating for the integration of legal empowerment strategies into the African Union’s Agenda 2063. These efforts built on a series of conversations from previous years, aimed at increasing support for grassroots justice initiatives and ensuring they receive the recognition and resources they deserve. Discussions centered on improving access to justice for marginalized communities and strengthening legal empowerment frameworks across the continent.
Read full 2024 recap in our newsletter here: English and French
“Our organization JP4A succeeded in preventing the eviction of six lake communities by the Benin government, and discussions are ongoing. – Messan KOUNAGBE, Benin
“Reaffirmation of the dire need for alternative financing models for NGOs by the Vice President of Sierra Leone during NGO week celebrations. It was very inspiring for me – Mohamed Jalloh, LEWAF, Sierra Leone:
“We finished developing our mobile application for reporting human rights violations and raising awareness via sms this week, and are in the process of publishing it on playstore in the coming days. – Danny Mtendela (VIFILED ASBL), DRC
“Last week one woman came to our office all the way from Zamfara state to Kano, which is almost 500km away. I assisted her in her reintegration process with International Organization for Migration (IOM) and she called and informed me that her package is released to her. I was happy to see how happy is she. Putting smile is people face is what make me happy” – Abdulmajid Ibrahim, Nigeria:
If you want to check out the full presentation of the convening, you can find the slides here. Also, one of our members Papa Thierno from the Senegal learning exchange shared their experience – definitely worth a look! And don’t miss this video explainer from Ruth Kaima of Malawi, where she talks about the Zambia learning exchange.