Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) Network

Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) Network was created by women activists from Somaliland, Ethiopia, and Sudan in the mid-1990s. Today network continues to work as an inclusive and diverse feminist women’s rights network that holds a unique position working as a regional civil society network in politically volatile contexts. SIHA works in a variety of cultural, political, and geographical environments in Uganda, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Somalia, Somaliland, Sudan and South Sudan. In this part of the world, women are regularly portrayed and perceived as victims, but SIHA challenges the status quo and the notion that African women are victims. SIHA acknowledges that almost all challenges that women face are based on socially constructed norms and that these norms actively subordinate women.

SIHA aims to contribute to unlocking the massive potential of the women’s rights movement in the GHoA. This will be accomplished by strengthening the education of civil society organizations so that they can build a strong collective that advocates systemic change. In this way, SIHA works through and in support of broad coalitions of grassroots members to campaign and advocate women’s rights and equality