What We Do
The Problem
Across the world, women remain significantly excluded from political decision-making, industry leadership and media narratives. This is particularly true in Africa where Nguvu Collective operates. We exist to ensure women are creating and leading the solutions to the issues that affect their lives. To do this we tackle three fundamental needs
The self limiting beliefs which women have culturally internalised which make them doubt their own efficacy, agency, experiences and power.
The lack of public infrastructure, networks and access to decision-making that deny women the means to take public action and leadership roles on issues in their countries.
The isolation, dearth of role models and lack of support systems needed to sustain them for the many years that it takes to create systemic change on significant social and political issues.
What is Nguvu’s Solution?
The solution to the problems we face in the world today needs to stem from feminist principles, driven by leaders through a collective process.
We need social changemaking that is centred with leaders, especially women from marginalised communities, driving change together, as a collective. With shared values and a call to action, collectives consolidate power and amplify focus on specific issues, pressuring a systemic response to change.
1.
Nguvu builds women’s agency, self-belief and skills through a proven, transformational and immersive training program: Our inhouse immersive training program called Launchpad builds women’s social campaigning skills including identifying a winnable campaign issue, research, crafting a public campaign narrative, engaging with media, and with decision makers.
Through art and other creative forms of storytelling, we catalyse women’s personal transformation including developing individual confidence, agency and purpose.
2.
Nguvu ensures women have the networks, access and ongoing support to launch their own public campaigns: Women Change Leaders are supported by our inhouse brand and campaigns team to build their external brand and to be seen and heard in their experiences, stories and goals, enabling them to feel included and respected externally.
We coach and support their campaigns, help build their public image and also help them access people in power who are decision makers for their campaigns.
3.
Nguvu builds collectives of women change leaders who support, education and cheer one another: These collectives, organized both online and in-person, enable the women to put their training and experience into long-term action, ensuring they have the dedication and success needed to see their social change campaigns through to significant and lasting social and political impact. Our collectives are ready to offer support to each other's campaigns.
But even more powerfully, they are teams of confident women leaders who can respond and leverage unfolding current events to advance women’s rights and leadership.
Our program is built on proven impact
An impact assessment on our program in South Asia found that over 180 million women’s lives were changed or impacted by the 450 public social and political campaigns launched by 400 women from our program. The women secured thousands of pieces of media coverage and held hundreds of meetings with government officials, corporate leaders and multinational organisations.
Why is our Solution Unique?
Our interventions are based on a seven year proven model and decades of experience in driving large scale social impact and tackling the obstacles women leaders face.
We prioritise working with marginalised people who have lived experience of the issues
We offer two critical pillars that enable personal development - training on campaigning skills, and mentorship support to build their personal brand, and strengthen their purpose and agency.
We integrate women into our collective community of change leaders who share purpose, relationships and skills - critical to sustain long-term change.
What next?
We are focussed on building full-scale programs in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.
We are focussing on systemic change over a 10-year horizon driven by movements led by women leaders from marginalised communities.
When these women organise themselves into collectives that drive social impact, their individual and collective leadership to drive systemic change at scale is amplified.
If you are interested in partnering with us on this journey, please get in touch.
Impact
We have enough proof that when women from marginalised communities step into positions of power and are able to lead authentically, they create impact that is far reaching and sustainable. This is multiplied further if they are supported by a collective of similar women leaders.
Through seven years working on a fully-scaled model in South Asia and three pilot programs in Africa, we have already seen:
71 Campaign victories that change national policies, government/corporate practices or shift resources
148 Decision-makers engagements
180 million lives impact positively
450 Change Leaders in the Collective
650 Campaigns launched by Change Leaders globally
Launchpad
Launchpad is the first step in an Nguvu change leader’s changemaking journey. It is an immersive leadership training that focuses on self-discovery of a changeleader’s power, building connections and growing the skills needed for leading social change campaigns.
During the Launchpad, a change leader meets 30 other amazing change leaders from across the country, who, like them, are just joining the program. In the course of their long-term engagement with the program, they also build connections with over 150 women from earlier cohorts in South Asia, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa who are already part of this growing community. This is the collective that they become a part of, and which supports them in their endeavours to create change.
Women from the collective are raising the standard for progressive civic policies in their communities. Their campaigns have mobilised millions of people around issues including health, economic justice, single parent’s rights, environment, public safety, maternal health, and disability access. Their efforts have resulted in a shift in the public narrative, macro and micro-level changes in society, changes to policies, and the creation of new laws. The program has created a powerful changemakers collective that acts as a catalyst for emerging social, cultural, and political leaders.