Southern Africa: Making the invisible visible

In the face of rising backlash, one of our most powerful yet underutilised tools is good practice documentation. Across our region, key and vulnerable populations are deliberately erased from mainstream data, policies and national priorities. Their invisibility fuels stigma, discrimination and systemic neglect. But when we document what has worked, from community-led SRHR programmes to innovative HIV responses, we disrupt this cycle of erasure.

Good practice documentation is more than record-keeping. It is a radical feminist act of resistance. By turning lived experiences into accessible advocacy materials such as briefs, stories, and visuals, we humanise statistics and challenge the stereotypes that silence marginalised voices. Evidence makes policymakers listen: when solutions are documented, replicable and proven, advocacy is no longer dismissed as noise but recognised as solution-driven and transformative.

Good practice documentation is more than a reporting tool; it is a living strategy for social transformation. It reflects the power of persistence and the subtle strength of steady action, much like the constant flow of a river that eventually shapes even the hardest rock. In the fight for gender equality, autonomy and choice, not all resistance needs to be loud or confrontational; sometimes, it is the quiet consistency of proven approaches that erodes the barriers of backlash. By capturing, sharing and sustaining what has worked in one context, we allow these good practices to flow into new spaces, inspiring adaptation, strengthening resilience and proving that progress, though gradual, is unstoppable.

This strategy converts marginalisation into influence. It pushes forward rights-based reforms in health, rehabilitation and social protection systems while ensuring no one is left behind in SRHR, HIV and development responses. Documenting and amplifying these practices is how we make the invisible visible, that is, shifting narratives, resisting backlash and demanding equity and justice for the most excluded.

In many African traditions, storytelling, song and communal dialogue were powerful tools for preserving truth and passing on resistance. Women, as custodians of memory and community knowledge, documented history through oral traditions, keeping alive the experiences of those who might otherwise be forgotten. Today, feminist good practice documentation draws from that same spirit. It is a modern continuation of an ancient practice, recording what is lived, felt and fought for. By documenting good practices, we are reclaiming our right to tell our own stories, to resist erasure and to challenge narratives that diminish our voices. In the face of growing backlash, this act of recording becomes both cultural and political, an affirmation that African key and vulnerable populations’ experiences, innovations and strategies matter. It reminds us that every story written, every success captured, is a ripple in the river of change, flowing steadily, shaping the rock of resistance.

Good practices show what works in real life. Documenting successful, community-driven approaches provides proof that policies can move beyond paper into effective action. For instance, in Malawi, community-based mother groups[i] have been instrumental in reducing early marriages and increasing school retention for girls by combining mentorship with advocacy at the village level. Their work demonstrates that when local solutions are captured, shared and amplified, they not only strengthen credibility but also inspire replication and scaling up across borders. This kind of evidence transforms advocacy into a powerful, solution-oriented tool showing that communities themselves hold the key to advancing gender equality and resisting backlash when we #push4equality through documentation.

Now more than ever, we must treat documentation as both a mirror and a map, a mirror reflecting the realities of those pushed to the margins and a map guiding us toward justice and equality. Every story we capture, every good practice we preserve, becomes an act of defiance against invisibility and erasure. Feminist documentation demands that we listen, learn and act, that we turn evidence into empathy, empathy into advocacy and advocacy into reform. As African feminists, advocates and allies, our collective task is to ensure that no voice fades into silence, no progress is lost to backlash and no community is left unseen. Let us document to remember, to resist and to rebuild – making the invisible visible and keeping the river of change flowing for generations to come.

#PushForward4Equality

(Written by Lynet Tinoza, a WOSSO Fellow)

[i] https://malawischoolstrust.org/latest/mothers-groups-and-the-challenge-of-girls-education/