Network members in Senegal for the Building Community Power Course learning exchange in Nov 2024
Movements that change systems of injustice have one common ingredient: people coming together, organizing, and building power. At the Grassroots Justice Network, we come together to fight injustice while ensuring that those most impacted by injustice are the ones shaping solutions.
In March 2024, we partnered with grassroots organizations and the Legal Empowerment Fund (LEF) to launch a bold experiment: not a traditional training, but a learning-action-funding model. The goal was to close the gap between knowledge and action, ensuring that what’s learned can immediately be applied, adapted, and scaled.
More than 100 grassroots advocates from across Africa joined our virtual course on building community power. They shared lessons from the frontlines—how they’re organizing communities, shifting power, and using the law to drive change. Of those who participated, 39 organizations submitted proposals outlining how they would deepen this work. Their peers reviewed the submissions, and 18 groups were selected to receive funding and support.
These grantees, based across East, West, and Central Africa, are advancing a wide range of justice efforts—from land rights and women’s leadership to climate and economic justice. Their proposals reflect deep local knowledge and a shared commitment to shifting power to communities.
But funding was just one part of the journey. In November, we hosted two regional, in-person peer learning exchanges—in Lusaka and Dakar. These were not standard workshops. Grantees co-created the agenda, shared tools, and offered critical feedback on each other’s proposals. Together, they refined strategies, strengthened roadmaps, and built relationships that will carry their work forward.
Network members in Chamuka Village, Zambia for the Building Community Power Course learning exchange in Nov 2024
From July 2025, the 18 grantees are leading virtual Learning Circles—open sessions for the wider network. These conversations will be more than updates. They are spaces for collective learning rooted in real experience. The space for learning and connection is constantly growing.
What you can expect:
Honest reflections on what’s working—and what isn’t.
Stories of key turning points and strategy shifts.
Ideas and “justice hacks” you can apply in your own work.
Opportunities to collaborate across borders and movements
These circles are part of something bigger: a living ecosystem of mutual support. By pairing learning with funding, and action with reflection, we’re building just systems and strong communities.
Featuring Ruth Kaima, (former staff at Centre for Human Rights Education, Advice and Assistance, Malawi) and Messan Kounagbe (Justice and Prosperity for All, Benin).
In this discussion, both members shed light on persistent challenges in sustaining community engagement in the process of long term change. Ruth shares the struggles of street vendors in Malawi – who face abuse, forceful evictions and discrimination by authorities. Messan notes a similar thread on how informal water settlers- displaced during the slave trade and now working as fish farmers, face ongoing threats of eviction and livelihood insecurity.
📅 You can watch the recording of our first learning circle for details on legal empowerment strategies they have adopted to build solidarity and power to sustain their efforts beyond a single moment. Recording available in English and French.
You can also read a summary of the discussion here.
Come to connect, learn, and build power together.