Women Human Rights Defenders Hub- The Hub

22/10/2026

Calling all photographers & videographers!

The Hub is seeking experienced creatives for the Women’s Leadership, Democracy and Resilience Summit 2026 in Nairobi (23–27 Nov).Theme: “Women Shaping Democratic Futures: Leading with Courage, Solidarity and Resilience.”We’re looking for a team to capture powerful visual stories of women leaders and WHRDs across Africa.

Deadline: 5 November 2026
Send your application to [email protected]

Subject: EOI – Photography & Videography – Women’s Leadership Summit 2026. Full details available on the attached document. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.

20/10/2026

Happy !

19/10/2026

PREMIERING TODAY AT 11:00 AM

Rooted In Courage EP 9: Women Environmental Defenders at the GBV–Climate Nexus

Today at 11:00 am, step into the powerful stories of Women Environmental Defenders across Nairobi, Kitui and Kwale. These women activists defend land, water and community rights while facing online harassment, threats and gendered stigma for their climate activism.

This episode centres their voices, revealing how gender-based violence is used to silence them and how they turn risk into resilience and leadership. Real stories of courage and impact from the grassroots fill every frame.

Watch the premiere at 11:00 am.

There can be no climate justice without gender justice. See you at 11:00 am.
UNDP Kenya The National Gender and Equality Commission-Kenya We Effect East Africa American Jewish World Service - AJWS Ford Foundation KIOS

Rooted In Courage EP 9 captures the powerful intersection of gender...

12/10/2026

If you believe courage is not the absence of barriers but the decision to keep building anyway, Episode 8 is for you. Watch. Listen. Share. The women of the Maasai Kajiado Women Dairy Cooperative are already rooting the future in courage.

In Rooted in Courage – Episode 8, we sit with the women of the Maasai Kajiado Women Dairy Cooperative who are advancing gender equality and economic justice from the ground up. Produced by The Hub in partnership with the Maasai Kajiado Women Dairy Cooperative, this episode goes beyond the headlines. In both English and Swahili, these women open up about the personal journeys that pushed them to start or transform their cooperative, what economic justice actually looks like in their daily lives and communities, and how being part of an inclusive cooperative has shifted their access to markets, capital, and real decision-making power.

They speak candidly about what good governance means when women are truly at the centre, the barriers that still stand in the way, and the femtorship, peer networks, and quiet resilience that keep them standing. They also share the message they want policymakers, partners, and the next generation of young women to hear. This is not a story told about women. It is women naming the cost of speaking out, the slow shifts in how men and youth respond to their leadership, and the stubborn hope that cooperatives can become engines of both livelihoods and movements.

Produced by The Hub in partnership with the Maasai Kajiado Women Dairy cooperative society Ltd.

UNDP Kenya We Effect East Africa The National Gender and Equality Commission-Kenya American Jewish World Service - AJWS Ford Foundation Open Society Foundations Diakonia State Department for Gender

07/10/2026

From 15th to 17th September, The Hub convened 20 women human rights defenders from Kibra, Mathare, and Korogocho for a three-day training aimed at strengthening participants’ economic resilience, business skills, and peer support networks by combining practical business literacy with discussions on safety, risk management, femtorship, and collective learning.

Day One focused on business operations and developing viable business ideas. Participants explored how businesses are initiated and managed, including business planning, budgeting, and basic market assessment. Through SWOT and PESTEL analysis, they examined market opportunities, risks, and possible mitigation measures, while discussions on customer preferences, product selection, location, legal requirements, and supplier relationships helped them consider the practical conditions necessary for sustaining a business. The day concluded with participants beginning to develop ideas for collective businesses and income-generating activities.

Day Two centred on financial planning, pricing, marketing, and business risk. Participants examined how location, customer demographics, and market conditions influence pricing and business decisions. They worked through start-up and operational costs, six-month budgets, income and expenditure tracking, return on investment, marketing, sales, and business growth. Importantly, the discussions connected financial planning to the realities faced by women human rights defenders, including political and economic uncertainty, market disruptions, and risks that can affect business continuity.

Day Three shifted towards feminist learning, peer support, and collective action. Women from the Remusi Cooperative in Kawangware joined the participants, creating an opportunity for direct exchange between the two groups. Participants explored femtorship as a feminist approach to mutual learning, drawing on personal storytelling to reflect on their journeys, the women who had supported them, and the knowledge they could pass on to others. The experience-sharing session by Remusi Cooperative provided a practical example of collective economic organisation and demonstrated how women can build support around savings, investment, and shared economic interests. Discussions further explored how peer relationships could be sustained around entrepreneurship, leadership, resource mobilisation, and problem-solving, with participants identifying commitments for continued peer engagement, business review, market learning, accountability, and safety communication.

The training enabled participants to begin developing collective business plans and identifying potential income-generating activities. It also strengthened connections between women human rights defenders and women in cooperatives, creating opportunities to exchange practical business knowledge and learn from an existing cooperative model. The sessions established a foundation for continued peer and femtorship support, with participants identifying areas where they could support one another through technical advice, accountability, shared learning, and problem-solving.

A key outcome was the connection participants made between economic security and protection for women human rights defenders. Discussions highlighted how livelihood stability can support women to sustain their advocacy while reducing vulnerabilities linked to economic dependency or insecurity. Participants also identified the potential of collective approaches, including savings, joint business initiatives, resource mobilisation, and peer networks, to strengthen longer-term resilience.

Overall, the training provided a space for women to build practical business knowledge while strengthening relationships and collective approaches to economic resilience. The next step is to support participants in translating the plans, ideas, and connections developed during the training into practice through follow-up on collective income-generating activities and continued peer engagement.

UNDP Kenya The National Gender and Equality Commission-Kenya We Effect East Africa American Jewish World Service - AJWS Diakonia KIOS Ford Foundation

05/10/2026

Rooted In Courage Ep 7: Advancing Gender Equality through Inclusive Cooperatives

Women are not just surviving. They are building livelihoods and movements through cooperatives. In this powerful episode from the Hub in partnership with LEWOCO, hear the unfiltered voices of women leaders who are transforming their communities one cooperative at a time.

They share the personal journeys and courage that led them to start and lead inclusive cooperatives, and how being part of a cooperative has changed their access to markets, capital, and real decision-making power. They describe what good governance looks like when women are truly at the centre, the barriers that still stand in the way of women fully owning and leading cooperatives, and the resilience, femtorship, peer networks, and safety measures that keep them going. They also speak about the shifts they are seeing in how men and youth relate to women’s leadership, and their bold vision of what would change for women and communities if cooperatives across Kenya became genuinely gender-responsive.

Every woman featured answers the closing question: “In one sentence, what does it mean to you that women are building both livelihoods and movements through cooperatives?”
This is more than a conversation. It is evidence, inspiration, and a call to action for policymakers, partners, and every woman ready to lead.
Listen now!

Produced by The Hub in partnership with LEWOCO. Special thanks to the incredible women of the cooperatives featured. https://youtu.be/moYhROH8rvk

We Effect East Africa Diakonia Ford Foundation Open Society Foundations American Jewish World Service - AJWS The National Gender and Equality Commission-Kenya UNDP Kenya

Women are not just surviving. They are building livelihoods and mov...

30/09/2026

On 24 September 2026, the Hub convened a powerful Community Baraza in Sigotik- Neswit, Njoro Sub-County, Nakuru County, marking the culminating Day 4 of our four-day forum on strengthening the safety and wellbeing of Women Human Rights Defenders, transforming harmful social norms, and promoting inclusive leadership. Under the project Advancing Gender Equality and Economic Justice Through Inclusive Cooperatives, supported by We Effect East Africa, women leaders, youth, elders, religious and administrative leaders, cooperative members, and Women Human Rights Defenders came together for honest intergenerational dialogue.

Participants openly named the issues that continue to undermine women’s safety, dignity, and leadership. These included the persistent practice of Female Ge***al Mutilation and the urgent call for alternative rites of passage, early and forced marriages including parental pressure and forced abortion, the denial of land inheritance and property rights to women and girls, barriers that keep girls out of school after pregnancy, domestic violence, and the limited voice of women and youth in family and community decision-making, as well as the exclusion of young people from development processes. Village elders shared their role in maintaining community harmony and their collaboration with Chiefs and Police on FGM reports, while also revealing lingering narratives that sometimes place blame on women. These conversations created critical entry points for sustained engagement with cultural leaders.

The hub in collaboration with Green Planet Cooperative used the platform to sensitize participants on the power of organized membership, highlighting collective marketing, reduced post-harvest losses, better bargaining power, access to quality packaging, credit, training, and leadership opportunities for women and youth in value chains. This linked social-norm change directly to livelihood justice and women’s participation in cooperative governance.

Community-owned solutions and clear calls to action emerged from the dialogue. Participants called for public workshops and alternative rites of passage to end FGM, support for girls’ return to school after pregnancy, financial and leadership inclusion of youth, formal collaboration protocols between elders, Chiefs, Police, and gender desks, parental role-modelling, greater fidelity in relationships, and sustained intergenerational dialogue that keeps women and youth at the centre. The Baraza strengthened collective protection pathways, amplified grassroots voices, and reinforced the WHRD network as a force for accountability and change.

As an organization, we remain committed to supporting Women Human Rights Defenders, challenging harmful norms, and expanding women’s leadership in cooperatives, community structures, and county decision-making spaces across Kenya and beyond.

UNDP Kenya Diakonia We Effect East Africa State Department for Gender Ford Foundation CivSource KIOS American Jewish World Service - AJWS The National Gender and Equality Commission-Kenya

29/09/2026

Day 3 Highlights: From Risk Mapping to Collective Care

Participants took the floor to present their practical work on risk analysis, force field analysis, power mapping, and stakeholder analysis. Drawing from real experiences across Kuresoi South, Kuresoi North, Naivasha, and Subukia, they carefully identified threats (physical violence, digital attacks, intimidation, goonism, profiling), mapped who holds power and resources, examined supporting versus opposing forces, and clarified the roles of primary stakeholders, duty bearers, and key allies. These presentations brought the tools of safety planning and HRBA to life in powerful, community-rooted ways.

The room then became a space of courage and vulnerability as participants shared the personal journeys that first inspired them to stand up for human rights. Stories of witnessing injustice, surviving gender-based violence, challenging harmful cultural practices, and refusing to stay silent reminded everyone why this work matters and why protecting those who do it is non-negotiable.

The day centred on psychosocial support and collective care, firmly anchored in a Human Rights-Based Approach. Discussions explored the 7 aspects of wellness, with special focus on collective care as a political and practical necessity. Participants reflected on self-care, recognising burnout and vicarious trauma, learning trauma-informed approaches (active listening, healthy boundaries, and referral pathways), and building peer support circles and wellness networks. The sessions closed with concrete action planning: individual and network safety plans, wellness commitments, and strategies for sustained solidarity.

Day 3 reinforced a vital truth: the safety, resilience, and leadership of WHRDs depend not only on individual strength, but on how we care for one another.

UNDP Kenya The National Gender and Equality Commission-Kenya We Effect East Africa American Jewish World Service - AJWS Ford Foundation KIOS State Department for Gender Open Society Foundations Diakonia Hivos East Africa CivSource Front Line Defenders

28/09/2026

On 22nd September 2026, the Hub convened Women Human Rights Defenders from Kuresoi South, Kuresoi North, Naivasha and Subukia in Nakuru County for a powerful day of learning and solidarity. This was Day 2 of our four-day programme focused on strengthening the safety, wellbeing and leadership of WHRDs while transforming harmful social norms.

The day opened with honest conversations about the realities WHRDs face in Nakuru. Participants shared experiences of threats, intimidation, emotional strain, online harassment and Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence. These discussions grounded the training in the everyday challenges of defending rights in a context still marked by GBV, early marriage and shrinking civic space.

We then moved into the foundations of a Human Rights-Based Approach. Through interactive sessions, participants explored the PANEL principles of participation, accountability, non-discrimination, empowerment and linkage to legal standards. The distinction between rights-holders and duty-bearers was clarified, and the group examined how these principles can shape both advocacy and protection work.
A strong legal foundation followed. Sessions covered the Constitution of Kenya, CEDAW, the Maputo Protocol and the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. The focus was practical, turning knowledge of these frameworks into tools for protection, accountability and stronger advocacy.

The afternoon centred on safety and security. Participants worked through personal, organisational and digital safety. They conducted risk assessments that mapped threats, vulnerabilities and capacities using an HRBA lens. Practical skills covered surveillance awareness, secure communication, social media risk management and protecting personal data. The day closed with protection planning and power mapping, using PESTLE analysis and civic space trends to develop individual and collective safety strategies.

By the end of the day, the WHRDs left with clearer protection plans, stronger peer connections and a renewed sense of agency. This is what feminist, participatory and rights-based training looks like in practice, safe spaces, shared learning, practical tools and collective care at the centre.

The Hub continues to build resilience, deepen solidarity and equip women human rights defenders not only to survive, but to lead and thrive.

UNDP Kenya Diakonia We Effect East Africa KIOS Ford Foundation American Jewish World Service - AJWS Open Society Foundations CivSource Front Line Defenders State Department for Gender Hivos East Africa The National Gender and Equality Commission-Kenya Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition

22/09/2026

Day 1 | Courtesy Calls in Nakuru County

Yesterday, 21st September, the Hub, accompanied by Women Human Rights Defenders from Kuresoi South, Naivasha and Subukia, paid courtesy calls to key duty bearers to strengthen collaboration and safeguard the safety and wellbeing of women defenders.
At the County Gender & Affirmative Action Office, we met Hudson Kihiko, Director of Gender & Affirmative Action, alongside Maureen Chepkoi and Salome Kipkoon, Principal Gender Officer. Together with WHRDs, we discussed knowledge management, protection of defenders, and advancing gender equality in the county.

We then engaged the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) – Nakuru office, where we met Farah Ibrahim, Assistant Director of Investigations. The discussions focused on accountability, civic space, and addressing hotspot areas such as Naivasha and Molo, especially during periods of heightened tension.

These engagements are critical as we work to create a safer environment for WHRDs, challenge harmful social norms, and promote women’s meaningful participation in leadership and decision-making across Nakuru County. We are grateful for the warm reception and the commitment shown by both offices.

UNDP Kenya The National Gender and Equality Commission-Kenya American Jewish World Service - AJWS KIOS Ford Foundation Diakonia We Effect East Africa CivSource