Gender & Economic Justice Portfolio

SUPPORTING YOUNG
FEMINIST & LGBTQI+
WOMEN TO BE
FREE, SAFE AND
HAVE AN EQUAL
OPPRTUNITY TO
THRIVE.

OVERVIEW

All women and gender expansive people should be safe, free, and have an equal chance to thrive. Yet, every day, LGBTQI+ women and gender diverse persons experience violence, discrimination, and economic exclusion that restrict their autonomy and life choices. These injustices undermine their health, safety, dignity, and independence. Across Africa, young feminists and queer communities are navigating escalating gender-based violence, shrinking civic space, economic precarity, and coordinated anti-rights backlash targeting sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Gender inequality is sustained not only through harmful social norms, but through unfair legal systems, extractive economic structures, and political agendas that deny bodily autonomy and material security. CHEVS' Gender & Economic Justice programme exists to confront the interconnected systems of power that create and perpetuate these harms. We centre young feminists, LGBTQI+, and GNC persons as political actors in building feminist futures grounded in safety, economic freedom, and bodily autonomy.

WHAT WE DO

STRENGTHENING YOUNG FEMINIST AND LGBTQI+ MOVEMENT LEADERSHIP

We center the political leadership of young feminists and queer organisers across Africa. Through convenings, strategy spaces, and cross-movement collaboration, we support collective analysis and coordinated advocacy to end violence, resist anti-rights backlash and advance transformative policy change.

PREVENT AND RESPOND TO GENDER AND SOGIESC-BASED VIOLENCE

We work to prevent and address gendered and SOGIESC-based violence affecting young feminists and queer communities, particularly in contexts of criminalisation and backlash. Our approach integrates survivor-centred support pathways and advocacy to challenge the structural drivers of violence — including patriarchy, crisis, and anti-rights mobilisation.

ADVANCE FEMINIST ECONOMIC JUSTICE

Economic insecurity deepens vulnerability to violence and exclusion. We promote feminist economic alternatives that address inequality, labour precarity, unemployment and systemic exclusion from financial systems. Through policy advocacy and economic empowerment initiatives, we equip young feminists and LGBTQI+ activists to improve their livelihood and influence economic decision-making at national and regional levels.

PROTECT AND PROMOTE SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS

We defend the right of all people — including LGBTQI+ and GNC persons — to make informed decisions about their bodies, health, and sexuality without coercion or discrimination.