Blog

Ujamaa Africa

Todd Manwaring, Jaxson Thomas

on Apr 10, 2025

• 3 min read

Our Recommendation

We give our highest recommendation to supporting Ujamaa Africa because they consistently apply various measurement methods to understand if their work is successful. This page on their website describes the many studies that have been done on their program.

Ujamaa Africa meets the requirements for 4 of our 4 key criteria:
✔ Understand the Social Issue
✔ Ultimate Outcome Goals (Life Changes)
✔ Evidence of Success
✔ Counterfactual Impact

Their Vision

Deliver our dual gender based violence prevention program, Empowerment Transformation Training, to all 10-19 year old public school students in Kenya and Malawi by embedding it into the existing infrastructure of national education systems.

The Problem: Gender Based Violence

According to the Ujamaa Africa 2023 to 2028 Strategic Plan: "Gender Based Violence (GBV) is one of the most pervasive forms of human rights abuses and a major public health issue worldwide. Today, as many as 75% of women across Africa experience some form of GBV in their lifetime.

"GBV is associated with immediate and long-term psychological, physical, social, academic, and interpersonal outcomes for the survivor. Victimization is connected to physical and psychological injury, sexually transmitted infections including HIV, social isolation, unwanted pregnancy, school drop-out, and child marriage. GBV is also associated with chronic poverty and reinforces gender power imbalances and increases a nation’s health care costs from 1.2 - 2% of GDP, according to the World Bank.

"Given the enormous psychological, social, health and economic costs combined with the high incidence of sexual assault, reducing GBV incidence is essential to progress in any society. Over the past 4 decades, billions have been spent globally on improving police, justice, health and social sector services for GBV survivors and on life-skills and GBV awareness campaigns. Unfortunately, these efforts have not moved the needle on GBV. While all interventions are important in mitigating its harmful effects, they do not prevent GBV from happening.

"At the societal level, there are policies in place to prosecute sexual assault perpetrators, yet the crime remains under-reported and under-prosecuted, largely because of the blame and stigma assigned to victims as well as loopholes in the criminal justice system.

"THE CHALLENGE: The endemic nature of sexual assault in Africa requires the implementation of effective prevention strategies at scale."

The Solution: A Scalable, Farmer-Centered Model Rooted in Systems Change

They are implementing the first ever country wide scale up of a gender based violence prevention program, Empowerment Transformation Training (ETT). They are partnering with Ministries of Education in Kenya and Malawi to train teachers to deliver ETT to all public school students aged 10-19.

Ujamaa Africa is leading a proven, community-driven response to these intertwined challenges. Founded in Kenya, Ujamaa focuses on preventing sexual violence and empowering youth—particularly girls—through an innovative blend of educational programming, rights training, and male allyship in Kenya and Malawi.

Their flagship program, “Your Moment of Truth,” is a school-based initiative that has reduced rates of rape and assault by more than 50% in schools and communities where it's been implemented. Ujamaa’s unique approach involves training both boys and girls—boys to become protectors and allies, and girls to develop confidence and assertiveness.

In parallel, Ujamaa supports survivors with economic empowerment programs, trauma-informed care, and vocational training to break the cycle of dependency and vulnerability.