Sonke would like to express its gratitude for the funding support from Norad – the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation – in this edition’s Donor Corner. Norad is a professional body under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), working towards achieving the UN’s sustainability goals globally. The agency provided funding for Sonke’s work within the Women’s rights and Gender Equality budget chapter as a steadfast contributor to Sonke’s achievements, supporting Sonke for over ten years. Sonke’s partnership with Norad has been fundamental in the promotion and protection of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), which Sonke sees as essential for achieving gender equality, and a precondition for sustainable development and social justice. Initially, Norad supported Sonke’s 2013-2016 “Engaging men and boys in enhancing SRHR” project and continued as funder for the 2017-2021 “Rights, Action and Accountability” project.
Through this support Sonke has been able to capacitate MenEngage member organizations and emerging leaders to strengthen national, regional and global networks that can enhance men’s involvement in preventing gender based violence, improving SRHR, and advancing gender equality. This funding has also been instrumental in promoting and strengthening SRHR advocacy through the documentation and dissemination of creative advocacy strategies that aim to increase men’s support for SRHR, engage religious leaders and faith-based organisations to increase their proactive support for gender equality, SRHR and LGBTQI+ rights, and engage men as involved, non-violent fathers and caregivers. These efforts culminated in the “SRHR Advocacy Toolkit for Young People”, created to assist MEA Youth to design, develop and implement SRHR advocacy strategies and which recognised the vital power of youth in creating change.
Through this work Sonke and the MenEngage Alliance have garnered international attention and recognition for their interventions and expertise in working with men and boys to address gender, sexuality and violence issues, resulting in the recognition of Sonke and the MenEngage Alliance as active global advocacy stakeholders contributing to the development and implementation of policies and programmes that increase the scale, impact and sustainability of work with men and boys.
Sonke’s gains in advancing SRHR will be further strengthened through the continued support of Norad in the form of core support for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights efforts for the 2023-2027 period. This work is organised under the MEA regional SRHR strategy 2023 -2027, which aims to achieve universal access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights, through the pursuit of three outcome areas: Women, girls, adolescents, and young people claim rights to bodily autonomy and drive changes in social and gender norms, together with their families and communities; Health and education systems provide knowledge about and access to comprehensive SRHR services; Laws and policies ensuring SRHR promoted and adopted by authorities. These outcomes are being actualised by implementing countries Uganda, Ethiopia and Malawi where Sonke is providing support and guidance to youth on the development and implementation of creative evidence-based advocacy strategies that will strengthen their ability to conduct advocacy around laws and policies that promote gender equality and access to SRHR, including safe abortion and CSE. This is being done through country-level policy scans and monitoring of the policy environment, as well as through the development and dissemination of information booklets that provide youth with knowledge on SRHR, CSE, SGBV and safe abortion. Through these activities Sonke intends to contribute to the creation of an inclusive SRHR policy environment for young people, while increasing their agency to collectively speak up for their rights as they examine and question social norms, policies, and systems.
The long-standing partnership between Sonke and Norad is essential in promoting social-structural change and ensuring national stakeholders are held accountable for the implementation of inclusive SRHR policies, thereby enabling young people to make decisions concerning their bodies and helping to forge a world in which they can live free from violence and abuse.
