Values and principles
Vision and mission
Gender Links envisions an inclusive, equal and just society for women and girls in all their diversity.
Gender Links champions gender equality and justice through research, advocacy, linking and learning, movement and institution-building in Southern Africa and beyond.
Gender Links’ theory of change
Just as this theory of change makes the case that social change occurs in a series of interlocking circles rather than a linear progression, Gender Links’ work has evolved through various cycles.
Our work began with a focus on gender and the media. This grew into a campaign for the adoption of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development in August 2008.
In 2015, the SADC Gender Protocol Alliance, which Gender Links leads, began a campaign for the gender protocol to accommodate the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
This reconfiguration means we are in a better position to see our programmes as a spider’s web of interconnected activities instead of silos, and to articulate the cumulative change that we seek by 2030.
Our theory of change should be read together with its 2026-2030 strategic plan, which sets out five goals for women’s rights that it seeks to contribute to, and six goals for creating a more effective institution.