
Why Advocacy Matters
At Rise Up, we hold the fundamental belief that advocacy is the key to addressing some of the world’s greatest gender equity challenges. Many people think that advocacy to improve laws, policies, and programs is too complex and impenetrable. However, our holistic advocacy approach is made up of a strategic combination of activities – including storytelling, alliance building, community mobilization, and more – tailored to engage decision makers across levels of government and institutions. We work in partnership with Rise Up Leaders in their specific political, cultural, and social contexts to advocate for the rights of women, girls, and gender-nonconforming people. In honor of Rise Up’s 15th anniversary this year, we wanted to focus on why advocacy matters and how it has helped us create meaningful change for millions of people around the world.
We know that local leaders – women, girls, and allies – across the globe are on the front lines of community organizing. Rise Up, recognizing the inherent power and potential in these existing efforts, provides local leaders with an advocacy framework to achieve sustained, systemic change.
Our model has consistently demonstrated that when local leaders receive leadership and advocacy training, competitive grant funding, and the technical assistance they need, their impact is amplified and entire communities benefit. Together, with Rise Up Leaders, we are ensuring that the voices of those most affected by gender inequality are not just heard, but are instrumental in crafting lasting solutions.
Rise Up Leaders’ advocacy work focuses on three core focus areas: education, health, and economic opportunity. These areas align closely with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and represent the most critical issues for advancing gender equity worldwide.
Above all, Rise Up’s advocacy is intersectional, acknowledging that these challenges don’t exist in isolation – a girl’s education, for instance, is intrinsically linked to her health outcomes and future economic prospects. Our intersectional lens ensures leaders’ advocacy efforts aren’t siloed but instead tackle the complex, intertwining issues affecting gender equity at large. As a result, Rise Up Leaders create more comprehensive, sustainable solutions that address the root causes of inequality.
Rise Up Leaders’ Advocacy Successes
The best way to understand how advocacy works is through real-world examples.

Suman Verma, a Rise Up Leader in India since 2020, is the State Coordinator at the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA). She recognized that women in the informal sector were not reporting instances of harassment and were largely unaware of existing protective policies.
Leveraging Rise Up’s training, funding, and resources, Suman launched an advocacy campaign, adopting a two-pronged strategy: First, SEWA’s grassroots women leaders were trained on sexual harassment in the workplace and the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, known as the POSH Act. Second, and simultaneously, SEWA collaborated with the local government to implement a new way to submit and monitor workplace harassment complaints. Suman was successful and engaged key decision makers, leading to larger state-level intervention and increased workplace protections against sexual and economic exploitation for over 690,000 women in India working in informal sectors.

Rise Up Leader Claudia Elizabeth Cuéllar Ochoa’s work also demonstrates the profound impact of advocacy. Claudia is a lawyer and the Founder of Luminas Centro de Derechos Humanos, where she works to prevent violence and abuse of youth and adolescents in Mexico. In San Luis Potosí, Claudia met directly with girls who have experienced sexual violence and accompanied them through their legal processes.
With tailored training and funding from Rise Up, Claudia elevated the voices of adolescents affected by sexual violence and advocated with decision makers for legal reform of existing laws. Her work secured an official decree from the San Luis Potosí State Congress, guaranteeing care and support for victims of sexual violence and protecting the fundamental rights of more than 360,000 adolescents in Mexico.
Community-driven advocacy guided by leaders like Claudia and Suman is paving the way for long-term, social change.
A Global Movement
Rise Up exists within a broad ecosystem of global allies, which amplifies our collective impact and allows us to achieve more than we could on our own. By partnering with like-minded institutions, from grassroots NGOs to international bodies, Rise Up leverages shared resources and knowledge to create a more powerful advocacy network for local leaders. Rise Up Leaders are an integral part of the global movement for equity and justice.

One such partner is The Centre for the Study of Adolescence (CSA), a Kenyan nonprofit. Rise Up and CSA have provided intensive training to hundreds of Masai girls in Kenya, introducing them to girl-centered advocacy, project planning mentorship, and communication strategies to help create lasting change in their communities.
“When marginalized groups come together to challenge existing power structures, significant change occurs,” Vilmer Nyamongo, a Program Manager at CSA, said. “Therefore, it is crucial to provide support for these groups to lead advocacy efforts.”
With training and funding from Rise Up, Kenyan girl leaders launched a media advocacy strategy demanding the meaningful participation of girls in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) policymaking at the national level. By October 2021, Rise Up girl leaders secured commitments from the Ministries of Health and Education to engage girls in decision making, improve support structures to ensure that all girls can stay in school, and prioritize the rights of girls in the implementation and monitoring of SRHR policies and programs. This monumental win guaranteed the right to sexual and reproductive health services and education for more than 7 million girls throughout Kenya.
By fostering strong partnerships, sharing resources, and building the capacity of local leaders in affected communities, organizations like CSA and Rise Up are making significant progress on advocating for gender equity with girls and women at the helm.
Looking Forward

As Rise Up looks toward the next 15 years of impact, we are guided by the powerful reflection of Josie Ramos, our Co-founder and Director of Learning, who shared: “When I think about Rise Up’s future, I’m reminded of a visualization exercise I led with leaders in Jharkhand, India earlier this year. I asked them to imagine a stone in their hand as they stand next to a body of water in a real place of their choosing. Then they throw that stone in as deep and as far as they want, watching as it creates ripples across the surface. This is exactly what we’re doing at Rise Up – leaders decide what advocacy they want to pursue, where they want to focus their efforts, and then we provide them with the tools and resources to make their vision a reality. As Rise Up grows and evolves, I want to see these ripples expand ever-wider.”
We remain committed to learning from leaders’ experiences, strategically responding to emerging global needs, and constantly improving our model for effective advocacy. We’ve set an ambitious goal of supporting 1,200 leaders to improve 300 laws and policies that will positively impact 200 million people in the coming years.
As part of Rise Up’s Learning Agenda, we are analyzing the results of an inaugural alumni leader survey to better understand the long-term impact of our work and identify areas for improvement. The lifelong connections forged within our leader cohorts are a testament to the strength of our model, and we are actively exploring new ways to facilitate collaboration and shared learning among leaders across countries.
The future of Rise Up is one of continued transformational global change. With their vision and unwavering advocacy for stronger education access, health care, and economic opportunity, Rise Up Leaders will propel us forward and shape a more just and equitable world for all.