She Leads Uganda SUMMARY
In Uganda, girls and young women are denied the opportunity to voice their interests and to participate meaningfully in decision-making. She Leads is a joint programme of Plan International Netherlands, Defence for Children - ECPAT the Netherlands, African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), and Terre des Hommes the Netherlands (TdH). Equal Measures 2030 is a technical partner. In Uganda, TdH, Plan and FEMNET will implement the programme. They work with 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. Civil society partners of in Uganda are Trailbraizers Mentpring, Kampala Youth Advocacy and Development Network, Integrated Disabled Women Activities and TdH’s partners. In addition to joint advocacy at national level, the programme will be implemented in Central and Eastern Regions 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.

In six She Leads countries, the programme builds directly on the experiences of the previous Girls Advocacy Alliance (2016-2020). 

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. 
There are Dutch Embassies present in all countries where She Leads will be implemented except for Sierra
Leone and Liberia. 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: 
1.	Capacity strengthening of CSO partners and GYW-led CSOs In order for GYW’s voices to be amplified and influential, it is important that CSOs understand the issues of GYW and establish platforms where their issues can be heard. Similarly, GYW-led CSOs will be strengthened to have knowledge and resources to represent themselves, and CSO capacity needs will be identified through capacity assessment and then strengthened .
2.	Joint learning among girl- & youth-led organisations and CSO partners will together girl- & youth-led organizations and CSO partners to reflect on issues that affect GYW and devise avenues through which their voices can best be amplified. The different learning platforms will provide creative and innovative ways of working that put GYW in the lead of lanning and making decisions about learning.

3.	Formation and strengthening of a social movement for girls’ rights and gender equality: strong social movements are pivotal to the achievement of GYW´s influential positions towards decision making. GYW-led groups will be supported to  advance a common agenda create attention towards the issues affecting GYW that in turn will enables CSO partners and governments to support the GYW-led advocacy initiatives.
4.	Linking and networking: For GYW-led groups to influence decisions and policy processes, it is critical that they will be connected to the right CSO platforms, networks and coalitions. These avenues will provide opportunity for training, mentorship, and resourcing. GYW will get experience and exposure that support them towards advancing their issues.
5.	 Mobilising communities and role models Gender norms are deeply entrenched in patriarchal systems. Confronting and changing these norms requires collaborative efforts from all community stakeholders (parents, GYW, media, boys/men, religious and traditional leaders, local leaders). She Leads will molilizer the communities and support positive role models to enhance community understanding and acceptance of the need to support transformative gender norms that permit GYW’s participation in decision-making.
6.	 Lobbying She Leads will engage with influential informal leaders like local community leaders, religious leaders, and traditional leaders to challenge negative norms. Media engagements in this strategy will  play a very important role in changing the mindsets of influential leaders while at the same time portraying positive messages to challenge negative stereotypes.

7.	 Lobby and advocacy A lobby and advocacy strategy will be employed to bring to the attention of decision makers the need for inclusion of GYW in decision-making, but also to hold governments accountable for the implementation of the commitments of the SDGs and UPR. Lobby efforts will also pursue development of progressive laws and policies and implementation and monitoring of the national gender policy and the National Development Plan III.
8.	 Evidence generation and policy influencing/advice Data collection using simple research methods will be conducted in order to provide evidence to support GYW advocacy campaigns. The programmeme will also test some of its strategies to see what fits best. Documentation of best practices will be conducted to support learning and future scale-up. 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.