JASS Southern Africa: Feminist Movement Building

The specific objectives of the network are to:

• strengthen and nurture new forms of activist leadership, organising strategies, and alliances;
• shape, from the ground up, an integrated rights agenda to address HIV/AIDS;
• make women's demands visible and influential at all levels of decision-making;
• develop women's communications skills, channels, and political voice; and
• generate practical, usable knowledge about movement-building in a rapidly changing world.

To achieve these objectives, JASS conducts trainings and workshops on communication and movement building across the region. Their activities have included:

• Regional Women's Movement-Building Institute: Held in Johannesburg in 2007, the 4-day meeting gathered 25 women from 7 countries and from a range of organisations to generate a mandate and plan for training, organising, and advocacy. Highlights included in-depth organisational case studies to document women's struggles in the context of HIV/AIDS in the region, individual stories of power and powerlessness, and a video. A core group of women leaders emerged from this gathering, and are being training as political facilitators.
• Training of Trainers, Leadership for Movement-Building: Held in Cape Town in 2008, this 5-day workshop began with the participants' own work and personal experience, and went on to cover ideas shaping women's visions. This included: examining personal and cultural aspects of hidden power, especially around sex; tools for understanding the impact of globalisation, fundamentalism, and neoliberalism; alternative leadership styles and ethics for movement building; and movement building methods. The gathering also established a system to mentor new leaders as they manage conflicts in their organisations and elsewhere.
• Communication Workshop: Held in Johannesburg in 2008, this workshop involved the creation of digital stories that could then be used as a set of tools for movement building processes.
• National-Level Movement-Building Activities: These activities involved an initial needs assessment in Malawi in 2008, as well as a series of workshops in the three major regions of the country with community-level women activists living with and active around HIV/AIDS. In 2009, JASS plans to initiate movement-building in Zambia and possibly Zimbabwe.
• International AIDS Conference: JASS participated in the 2008 conference in Mexico City where they engaged in debates, screened digital stories, initiated a JASS blog, produced a one-hour broadcast with Radio Feminista, and met with key players.

JASS also documents and shares movement-building stories, steps, and analysis through newsletters, radio, and podcasts, YouTube videos, digital stories, songs, and an interactive website. The organisation has other movement building projects in Southeast Asia and Meso-America. In 2009, JASS plans to expand the movement-building initiative with partners in East and West Africa.

HIV/AIDS, Women's Rights, Social Movements