Learning together, over time

Across the region, anti-rights actors are expanding their influence through coordinated narratives around "family values" and "traditional values," backed by legislation that shrinks civic space and targets queer, trans, and feminist communities. While responses often focus on immediate safety, narrative change requires something different: sustained spaces where practitioners can learn from each other, experiment, and build shared strategies over time.

The East Africa Cohort was designed around this need. Two six-month learning cohorts brought together 40 practitioners working across LGBTQ+ rights, climate justice, and economic equity. Participants engaged in learning modules facilitated by 12 transnational narrative practitioners across four countries, covering social media listening, storytelling, power dynamics, and strategies for countering anti-gender narratives. The cohorts also included digital safety coaching, one-on-one mentorship, and small experimental grants to test narrative approaches within their own contexts.

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Research and experiments

The cohorts generated collaborative social listening research that surfaced how family values and LGBTQ+ discourse play out across Kenya's digital landscape, mapping dominant narratives, identifying key actors, and uncovering frames that can support a narrative shift. The experimental grants supported projects ranging from a speculative poetry anthology uniting writers across Nigeria, Kenya, and Tanzania, to queer storytelling through shared meals, civic engagement campaigns, and a digital memorial documenting LGBTQ+ lives across the continent.

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From cohort to community of practice

The learning and relationships built through the East Africa Cohort continue to grow. They informed the creation of the Community of Practice on Family Values and Traditional Values, and the expansion of learning cohorts to other regions where there is interest and need.