Programme Background

FIDA-Kenya is one of the leading women rights organization in Eastern Africa. As such, we are a depository of the innovations and approaches applied by the women rights movements in the region for the last two decades. Our niche derives from the cobweb of connectivity we enjoy internationally, nationally and locally. At the local level, we are connected to the indigent woman through our legal aid clinics and the community action groups we have empowered to grass ‘root’ women rights at the municipal levels.

Our strategic intention for the plan period is to empower these communities of women to handle most of the legal cases through the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms and self –representation.

At the national level, we are connected horizontally with like-minded players from whom we share practices and innovations. Vertically, our connectivity is with strategic institutions of government through which we exert policy and practice influence. We have long-term working relationship with parliament and the judiciary. Similarly, and in recognition of our contribution to women rights struggles, FIDA-Kenya sits in a number of strategic committees situated within the government. We use these spaces to influence transformative change for indigent woman at national level.

Internationally, FIDA-Kenya is recognized as a foremost African actor in the area of women empowerment .We have special consultative status with UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and observer status with the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights. We use our stature at the international level to bring pressure to bear on the Kenya policy makers in favour of marginalized women.