The final installment of our Behind the Scenes of Our Global Work series, highlighting the partners who power our impact globally and how local partnerships create the conditions for lasting change.
Over the past several months, we’ve taken you behind the scenes of Rise Up Together’s global work to introduce some of the local organizations that have helped make it possible.
We’ve shared how NPHD has supported our work in Nigeria; celebrated years of collaboration with ADJ in Brazil; explored how our partnership with Hlanganisa connects us with leaders and communities in South Africa; looked toward the future with SPC in India; and traced the journey that brought Rise Up Leader Alejandra García Muñiz and Juntos from our first Mexico Accelerator to a new kind of partnership years later.
Each relationship has its own story. Together, they’ve shown us something fundamental about how Rise Up Together works: advancing gender justice globally requires strong relationships with organizations that understand the people, places, and systems where change is happening.
For the final feature in our series, we’re heading to Kenya, where our relationship with the Centre for the Study of Adolescence (CSA) offers a powerful example of what long-term partnership can make possible.
Rise Up Together and CSA have worked alongside one another for well over a decade. What began with early collaborations around adolescent health grew to include programming focused on girls’ leadership and advocacy. Beginning in 2015, our Champions for Change work brought us together to combat non-communicable diseases among young people in Kenya, using advocacy and local leadership to advance healthier communities. More recently, our partnership has continued through Rise Up Together’s Leadership and Advocacy Accelerators.
Across each chapter, our work together has evolved. But the foundation of the relationship – trust, accountability, learning, and a shared commitment to locally led change – has remained.
“Looking across more than a decade, each phase of the partnership has built on the previous one,” shared Humphres Evelia, Executive Director at CSA. “It has strengthened CSA as an institution, broadened our technical and advocacy capacity, and deepened our engagement with government, communities, and civil society.”
One of the clearest examples of what that sustained investment can make possible began with girls in Kajiado, a town of about 25,000 residents located about 50 miles south of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
Beginning in 2018, Rise Up Together and CSA worked together to equip girls in Kajiado with advocacy, project planning, mentorship, and communications skills to raise their voices against female genital mutilation and child marriage and advocate for their rights.
Their advocacy ultimately helped secure commitments from Kenya’s Ministries of Health and Education to engage girls in decision-making, strengthen support to help girls stay in school, and prioritize girls’ rights in the implementation and monitoring of sexual and reproductive health policies and programs – commitments benefiting more than 7 million girls across Kenya.
But some of the most meaningful changes weren’t measured only in policies.
“The most meaningful change has been seeing girls move from being participants in programs to becoming recognized contributors to decisions that affect their lives and their communities,” Humphres shared.
Girls who had once never spoken publicly or engaged directly with decision-makers began meeting with community and government leaders. The original group went on to mobilize hundreds of other girls and sustained their advocacy through community radio during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“What was encouraging was not simply that they spoke, but that they were listened to,” Humphres reflected.
As Rise Up Together’s work in Kenya evolved, so did our partnership with CSA.
In 2023, CSA partnered with Rise Up Together to deliver our signature program in Kenya – our Leadership and Advocacy Accelerator, which trained 24 new leaders from across Kenyan civil society. Several CSA staff members have also participated in Rise Up Together’s Accelerator programming as Rise Up Leaders themselves, bringing what they learned back into their organization.
“The knowledge, skills, and perspectives they gained have been integrated into the organization’s work,” Humphres explained. “It has strengthened how we approach advocacy, engage decision-makers, build partnerships, and support young people to participate meaningfully in processes that affect their lives.”
Today, Rise Up Together and CSA continue to build on that foundation as we work to advance education through policy and systems change in Kenya. Rise Up Leaders are addressing the interconnected barriers that can keep girls from accessing and completing their education – from gender-based violence and harmful practices to gaps in school support – while advocating for stronger, more equitable education systems.
“The greatest source of optimism is that change is already happening,” Humphres shared. “Over the years, we have seen more girls speaking up on issues that affect their lives, more communities recognizing the value of educating and protecting girls, and more public institutions becoming responsive to their needs.”
“Our longstanding partnership with CSA has strengthened Rise Up Together’s work in Kenya in so many ways,” shared Naomi Nyaboke Monda, Rise Up Together’s Kenya Country Representative. “Their deep knowledge of the communities we serve, strong local relationships, and shared commitment to locally led change have helped us grow and adapt our work over time. I’m incredibly grateful for the trust we’ve built together and excited to continue building on that foundation to support leaders creating lasting change across Kenya.”
That progress is a fitting place to close this series.
Across the employer of record partnerships we’ve highlighted, one thing has remained constant: global impact is strongest when it is grounded in local knowledge, built through meaningful relationships, and shaped alongside the people and organizations closest to the work.
Our partnership with CSA shows what that can look like over time. Programs evolve. Organizations grow. New leaders step forward. But the knowledge, relationships, and capacity built along the way can continue creating opportunities for change long after any single project ends.
That idea gets to the heart of why we launched this newsletter story series. The work that happens behind the scenes matters. And while this series is coming to a close, Rise Up Together’s commitment to building meaningful, locally rooted partnerships around the world will continue.
