Wangari Kimemia (she/her) is an international consultant in harm reduction with 9 years experience in training, advocacy and research. Wangari currently works with WHRIN as Advocacy and Capacity Building Project Officer for the Sexual and Reproductive Health Project.

While community should be at the leadership of advocacy, the reality is different with harm reduction programmers often being at the leadership of advocacy engaging community on the periphery.

In 2022 and 2023 WHRIN implemented a novel model that put community at the steering wheel of advocacy in eight countries: Indonesia, Nigeria, India, Mexico, Kenya, Ukraine, Burundi and Mauritius. The project goal was to raise national level awareness of key barriers to health that women and gender diverse people who use drugs face in access to HIV and sexual and reproductive health related services.

Two group discussions were organised through a national focal person with 20 women and gender diverse people who use drugs in each country. Consensus building discussion, applying SMART principles, facilitated selection of a viable advocacy action which was planned and carried out by each country community group.

Outcomes
In total sixteen community group discussions were implemented in the eight countries, involving 141 women and gender diverse people who use drugs. Ten priority national level advocacy activities were completed. Sixty-six community members meaningfully participated in the advocacy activities, of whom thirty-six were planners and leaders. Fifty-eight decision makers were directly reached across the eight countries. The project has built experiential capacity and confidence among women and gender diverse people who use drugs in carrying out advocacy. This was cited to be particularly due to the project approach where community members led the activities from conception to evaluation. Every country has reported positive feedback including provision of new sexual and reproductive health services among others.

This presentation will introduce to the participants the very critical and effective but otherwise underutilized approach as compared to the commonly used approaches where harm reduction programmers lead advocacy. Community can be capacity built to lead advocacy from conception to evaluation.