She Leads Sierra Leone SUMMARY
 In Sierra Leone, girls and young women, particularly GYW from socially excluded and exploited groups, are denied the opportunity to voice their interests and to participate meaningfully in decision-making processes.  She Leads is a joint programme of Plan International Netherlands, Defence for Children - ECPAT the Netherlands (DCI-ECPAT), African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), and Terre des Hommes the Netherlands (TdH). Equal Measures 2030 is a technical partner. In Sierra Leone, She Leads members Plan International , Defence for Children and Femnet. They will bring together child rights organisations, feminist/women’s rights organisations, and GYW-led groups with the aim to increase sustained influence of girls and young women (GYW) on decision-making and the transformation of gender norms in formal and informal institutions. The programme will be implemented in Bo, Bombali, Kenema, Koinadugu, Moyamba, Tonkalili and Western Area. Girls and young women’s (GYW’s) rights to engage in public decision-making are enshrined in international agreements and national laws. In reality, however, GYW voices are excluded from the socio-political domain,  particularly those of GYW who experience intersecting forms of discrimination. 
GYW’s meaningful participation is obstructed by three interrelated factors. Firstly, discriminatory gender- and age-related social norms limit GYW’s rights to move freely, voice opinions and engage in public life. Secondly, GYW groups in civil society are under resourced and lack strong ties with more established CSOs. The latter are not always responsive to the specific needs and perspectives of GYW-led groups. Furthermore, the global phenomenon of shrinking civic space is affecting GYW-led organizations, making it even harder for them to express their opinions, assemble and associate. Groups that challenge the ruling gender ideology are increasingly being intimidated, threatened and exposed to violence. In conflict and humanitarian contexts, GYW actors risk additional security threats as easy targets of militarized and extremist forces. 
Thirdly, political institutions at local and national level are dominated by elites consisting of mainly male, elder leaders, with no interest in institutional reforms that would make decision-making processes more inclusive, transparent and accountable. Existing consultation mechanisms (such as youth parliaments and advisory bodies) are usually poorly resourced, dependent on donor support and functioning irregularly. She Leads envisions change in 3 domains of society: the social-cultural, civil society and institutional domain. In the social-cultural domain, partners engage traditional and religious leaders, forging coalitions of progressive actors who, due to their status and authority, will galvanize their constituencies to adopt more positive gender and age norms. Awareness raising and diffusion of new ideas through media and peer networks (including boys and young men) will challenge existing norms and expectations. Young female activists play an important role in this process, by inspiring other girls and breaking down negative stereotypes. 
In the civil society domain, the creation (consolidation) of safe spaces in which  GYW can meet, exchange, build their confidence, political consciousness and skills, is a major step towards increased self-organization. Another key condition is the increased capacity of (adult-led) CSOs to effectively support GYW collective action. Stronger collaboration between GYW groups, child and women’s rights networks will lead to a more enabling environment for GYW-led groups. A well connected and better resourced social movement for girls’ rights is able to promote a strong feminist counternarrative to the dominant patriarchal and ageist ideology. 
In the institutional domain, policy makers will develop greater  awareness and knowledge about GYW inclusion in decision-making. Stronger connections between progressive policy makers and political leaders working at different levels will result in a coalition of reform-minded champions. In addition, pressure exercised by regional and international  bodies will force national governments to take action and safeguard GYW’s rights to association and freedom of expression. Currently we are witnessing a rise in girls and young women’s activism and protest. The She Leads programme will partner with existing GYW-led groups and feminist organizations. Importantly, special efforts are made to support existing informal groups of girls and young women, for example girls clubs, associations, student groups and unregistered organizations, which have started to organize and mobilize but are often excluded from many funding mechanisms.

The programme builds directly on the experiences of the previous Girls Advocacy Alliance (2016-2020) that was also implemented in Sierra Leone  

FEMNET and DCI-ECPAT are network organisations, and will be working in all countries through selected members of their respective
networks. Plan International and Terre des Hommes will work through their country offices and with local
contracted organisations to implement projects under the overall She Leads programme. 

The is no  Dutch Embassies present in  Sierra Leone, but She Leads will seek support and alignment with the Dutch Embassy in Ghana where needed. Finally, She Leads will seek alignment and collaboration with other consortiums funded under the Strengthening Civil Society framework of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation. In particular, She Leads will seek alignment with the four other consortiums funded under the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (WRGE) theme of the Power of Voices funding mechanism. Within the population of girls and young women (between 14 till 24 years), the programme aims to strengthen the influence and participation of GYW who suffer most from (intersectional) discrimination and exclusion. These include:
•	GYW living in poor, remote rural areas and urban slums
•	GYW experiencing gender based violence (particularly girls who have married early)
•	GYW with disabilities
•	GYW who are out of school
•	Refugee and internally displaced GYW
•	GYW from sexual minority groups To facilitate the change process towards the She Leads’ strategic objective, consortium members and partners have opted to implement the following mix of strategies and actions: 

•     support girls and young women led groups, to be able to champion advocacy issues and also enhance their skills, to participate in decision making in CSO platforms. Support will include trainings in facilitating advocacy, communication, leadership, proposal writing and management skills. They will also provided with funds after been capacitated to carry out their advocacy.

•	support to the CSO partners to be able to mentor girls and young women’s groups to carry out their activism. This support will include assessment, capacity building by the consortium partners and country partners to CSOs. In addition, CSO partners will link girls and young women’s group with existing networks, coalitions and forums. This will help to increase the chances of GYW to participate in decision making process and also advocacy at national and international level. 

•      organize quarterly learning sessions of GYW  to create learning opportunities for girls and young women’s group, as well as to identify the successes and challenges that the groups are faced with whilst carrying out their initiatives. 

•	engage Child Right and Gender sensitive CSO’s  and non-governmental organizations: Civil society organisations that promote gender and child rights, will be targeted during the implementation. They will lobby to provide additional support (technical and financial) to girls and young women’s group, and also identify further funding opportunities for them as well. This will help to increase the capacity (financial and technical) of GYW groups to influence decision making bodies on their participation. 

•	facilitating media advocacy for girls and young women’ group: Girls and young women will be capacitated through training on media advocacy and also provided with necessary equipment including video cameras and digital cameras that will enhance their advocacy to themedia, including social and traditional media. This strategy will help to amplify their voices and help widen their advocacy platforms.

•	Intergenerational dialogues with community stakeholders, on discriminatory social and gender norms excluding GYW from decision-making. The essence of these dialogues is to understand the negative norms and practices affecting women’s empowerment, and also their participation in decision making process. n. 

•	mobilizing community champions/role models, men, boys, parents to challenge negative social and gender norms. Support will be provided to community champions to organize events that will inspire community members to change their negative norms and practices. Also, community leaders will be influenced to publicly challenge and condemn the negative norms and practices existing in their communities. In addition, changing negative norms required a lot of practical sessions with stakeholders that are involved. 

•	sessions on gender socialization, living in peace and life skills will be organized. These will involve girls and young women, boys and young men, at community level. These are practical sessions that will help men and women to understand gender roles, how to support each other whilst carrying out their gender roles, and most important, the importance of promoting gender equality. 

•	dialogue with GYW on the effects of negative social and gender norms limiting their participation in decision making: Girls and young women will be engage in dialogue sessions, that will help them acquire skills, to challenge their perceived gender role. This venture will help to increase their representation in male dominated areas. In addition, under this strategy, schools will be provided with support to build the confidence and skills of girls and young women, to aspire for school leadership positions.

•	provide input to the government to review existing laws and policies and also develop new ones that promote girls and young women’s empowerment. The Ministry of social Welfare will be supported to review the Child Right Act, Child Marriage Laws, and also develop the Gender Equality policy. The Ministry of Youth will be supported to implement the Youth Policy.

•	engage Ministries, and institutions to support the involvement of girls and young women in leadership and decision-making process. 

•	identify champions who will create the space for girls and young women, within their institutions.

•	engage the Commission for political party registration. This commission is responsible for harmonizing and coordinating the affairs of political parties. Hence engaging them to create space for girls and young women’s participation, will contribute to bringing the issues of girls and young women in the agenda of political parties. She Leads contributes to a lasting transformative effect on engagement of GYW in decision-making. The following strategies will be implemented: 

1.	Strengthening and resourcing GYW-led organizations: investing in the resource base of GYW-led organizations will help them access other funding in the future. 
2.	Support social movements: social movements can accelerate lasting change in societies’ structures and norms. She Leads will bring together child-rights and feminist organisations and GYW-led groups to push collectively for transformative change in gender norms, and for institutional reform. 
3.	Engaging boys & men, parents, and traditional and religious leaders: these actors are crucial allies to ensure structural change and permanent effects when it comes to norms change. Because of their status and their role in socialisation processes, these actors promote structural change in societies. 
4.	Engaging media: She Leads will use media as a tool to amplify GYWs voices, and will target media as a powerful agent of change. Opening space for GYW’s voices and leadership in the media will ultimately influence broader communities, and has lasting effects beyond the programme.
5.	Organisational capacity strengthening of CSO’s: investments in advocacy capacity, building relationships with decision-makers, strengthening fundraising skills will have a lasting effect on their influencing work beyond She Leads. 
6.	Linking local, national, regional and global: She Leads is implemented at different levels that are strategically interconnected. Interventions and results in one domain trigger change in other domains, and changes at local, national, regional and international levels are connected and influence each other.