In 2021, the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), Ford Foundation West Africa, and Open Society West Africa (OSIWA) came together with a shared conviction: that addressing sexual violence in West Africa required more than emergency response. It required a coordinated, feminist, long-term effort to uproot the conditions that make such violence possible. That conviction became the Kasa! Initiative,  a five-year joint programme designed to support women’s rights and feminist organisations on the frontlines of this work across Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal.

The initiative was built on the understanding that sexual violence is both a cause and a consequence of gender inequality. Kasa! worked across multiple levels simultaneously, legal and policy systems, community awareness, emergency infrastructure, and the cultural narratives that normalise and enable abuse. Rather than operating through a single implementing partner, Kasa! chose to invest directly in the ecosystem: funding, accompanying, and strengthening 54 women’s rights and feminist organisations working closest to the communities most affected.

As the Kasa! Initiative draws to a close, we are convening a close-out forum, an opportunity to come together, review what was learned, and honour the work of the organisations and communities who made this initiative what it was.

The forum will present findings from the Kasa! Evaluation, offer a space for partner reflections, and explore the strategies, contexts, and approaches that shaped the initiative’s impact. It is a moment to learn, to share, and to ask: what does this body of work teach us about building feminist movements that last?

We invite partners, feminists, academics, policymakers, and social justice actors to register and join the conversation.

Register for the forum.