Our Areas of Intervention
ADS seeks to empower communities in DRC with knowledge and tools to become active citizens,
achieving sustainable realization of their human rights through five strategic intervention areas.
Peace & Peaceful Co-existence
ADS applies context specific approaches that promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development. Our main focus in this area include; psychosocial support to victims of conflicts and violence, access to justice to the vulnerable especially women, and reconciliatory actions that covers; community mobilization, engagement and advocacy. We also place emphasis on collaboration with like-minded organizations and institutions in the East African Community and the Great Lakes region of Africa about social cohesion initiatives, inter-state community dialogues, peaceful cohabitation and peace education initiatives. ADS recognizes the place and central role of women in peace and peaceful co-existence initiatives.
Regional Integration
We aim at placing citizens at the center of regional integration efforts and contribute to ensuring that regional integration is people-driven through active and effective participation of CSOs. Under this intervention area, ADS is to be organized and more effective at engaging with the regional bodies by closing the gap between the citizens of DRC and regional bodies through information sharing, awareness raising and education. We have policy expertise, mobilization skills and local knowledge to lobby, establish and maintain a meaningful presence that can lead to policy input and policy advocacy at the regional integration bodies.
Climate Justice & Environmental Protection
ADS seeks to intervene in strengthening knowledge, actions and advocacy about climate justice and environmental protection in the DRC. ADS has prioritized working with indigenous communities and local riparian communities in the management and conservation of extractive resources, forests and national parks. Interventions are to be designed in line with the prevailing environmental degradation activities taking into consideration the gender perspective. ADS approach includes adopting alternative and innovative socio-economic environmentally friendly strategies and approaches for the protection of extractive resources, forests and national parks taking into account communities’ historical and local contexts. This include promoting access to information on climate justice and providing relevant education about rights, duties and obligations. Our efforts are also dedicated to establishing an effective collaboration and coordination framework for protecting environment defenders who are always subjected to judicial and extra-judicial harassment.
Gender & Development
Women’s equality and empowerment is one of ADS’s priority objectives, but also integral to all other objectives of ADS. ADS’s programming is deliberate at addressing systemic social structures and in which women are dominated, oppressed and exploited. We are specifically focusing on a) closing the financial inclusion gap by developing and adapting community-based women economic empowerment models and approaches, providing financial literacy and accompaniment, and designing and implementing actions that demystify gender norms and stereotypes. b) promoting inclusive Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for women, men, youth (boys and girls). Our intention is to increase access to SRHR information through increased behavior – change communication, comprehensive sexuality education, awareness raising and advocacy for the protection of sexual minorities. Our focus on SRHR is informed by our understanding of how sexuality and SRHR has unproportionally affected equitable development.
Intergenerational Equity
ADS is committed to ensuring that current political and economic incentives are balanced for both present and long-term needs. Our ambition is to ensure that economic growth must take into consideration sustainability and future generations. Our focus in this area is on ensuring transparency and accountability of decision makers about choices that commit future generations. Our focus under this intervention is debt transparency and accountability. We aim at collecting data on loans, loans conditionalities and liabilities, and create a platform where intergenerational dialogue and debate takes place. In the long-term, we want to create a critical mass of informed citizens particularly youth who are knowledgeable and capable of holding decision makers accountable.