Reflections on the Africa 2025 Regional Convening: Strengthening Solidarity, Collaboration, and Our Collective Voice

By Skipper Mogapi, Africa Regional Representative, The Commonwealth Equality Network

As the African Regional Representative for The Commonwealth Equality Network, I am honoured to reflect on our recent Africa 2025 Regional Convening, held in Pretoria, South Africa last month. This historic gathering was our first continental meeting since 2019, bringing together members from across Africa, alongside a satellite meeting in Rwanda. It was a moment to celebrate the resilience, determination, and groundbreaking achievements of our movement.

At a time when our communities face heightened backlash, this convening served as a space of solidarity, resistance, and forward-looking strategy. It was a chance to celebrate the resilience and groundbreaking achievements of our members, whether securing decriminalisation victories, winning recognition through the courts, or advancing protections in parliaments. Equally, it was a moment to reaffirm our shared vision and send a clear message to governments, allies, and institutions: our movement is strong, our demands for equality cannot be ignored, and our future is bright.

Our meeting was guided by five clear objectives: to strengthen members’ capacity, enhance Commonwealth-facing advocacy, build ownership of the Network, deepen our role in the wider African movement, and increase the health and sustainability of our regional work. Across three days of dialogue, exchange, and strategy, we made meaningful progress on each of these goals, culminating in the African Call to Action, a bold statement of our priorities and expectations moving forward.

The convening underscored a fundamental truth: our strength lies in each other. Through interactive workshops, peer-learning sessions, and cross-country dialogues, we shared strategies on advocacy, resource mobilisation, legal reform, and organisational resilience. Participants drew lessons from a spectrum of contexts—from restrictive legal environments to spaces where protective legislation has been achieved. The diversity of experiences reinforced that progress in one country can ignite hope, inspire action, and shape strategies in another.

Importantly, we also reflected on the toll of activism and the urgent need for practices of care and wellbeing. Strengthening organisations means strengthening the people who lead them, ensuring they can endure and thrive.

The Commonwealth remains a critical political and diplomatic arena. Too often, however, LGBTI+ rights are sidelined in its discussions. At the convening, we sharpened our collective approach to ensure that African voices are heard and heeded. Members discussed how to ensure that the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2026 serves as an opportunity to influence global debates and secure commitments. Unified advocacy, participants agreed, is essential: when African members speak with one voice, our call for equality resonates louder, and our demands for justice become harder to dismiss.

The convening also deepened members’ ownership of the Network. As we roll out our new Global Strategy, African members actively shaped how regional coordination should function and what accountability mechanisms should look like. This participatory approach ensures that our work together reflects the realities, aspirations, and priorities of our membership. Ownership is not symbolic, it is the foundation of a sustainable, representative, and effective movement.

Beyond the Commonwealth, the convening reaffirmed the need to position LGBTI+ advocacy within the wider African human rights and social justice movement. Members discussed how we ensure greater collaboration, co-operation and coordination in the political and movement spaces we operate in across the continent. Participants reaffirmed our shared commitment that the struggle for LGBTI+ equality intersects with broader efforts to confront authoritarianism, gender-based violence, and economic exclusion. The Network’s work, therefore, must be seen as part of Africa’s wider push for justice, dignity, and equality for all.

The Africa Call to Action

The convening culminated in our African Call to Action, a unified statement rooted in our lived realities, inspired by our victories, and determined to accelerate change. The Call celebrates achievements across the continent, from Botswana, Mauritius, Mozambique, and Namibia’s decriminalisation victories to Kenya’s affirmation of freedom of association, Seychelles’ hate crime protections, and South Africa’s leadership. These milestones prove that transformative change is not only possible but inevitable.

But the Call also highlights persistent challenges: criminalisation, stigma, shrinking civic space, and political hostility. To confront these, we demand bold steps from governments, regional bodies, donors, and allies, including resisting regressive anti-gender forces, prioritising decriminalisation and protective laws, investing in mental health and emergency support, fostering dialogue with community and religious leaders, expanding African leadership in the Commonwealth, and ensuring equitable access to justice and services for all.

Solidarity from High-Level Leaders

The convening closed with a reception attended by high-level South African leaders who responded to our Call to Action with messages of solidarity. Hon. Steve Letsike, Deputy Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, urged us to confront resurgent anti-rights forces with strategy, solidarity, and sustainability. Hon. Andries Nel, Deputy Minister of Justice, underscored the interconnectedness of all struggles for equality. Commissioner Leonashia Leigh-Ann Van Der Merwe of the Commission for Gender Equality highlighted the need for accountability, while Lee-Anne Germanos of the South African Human Rights Commission called for closing the gap between protections on paper and lived realities. Their voices reaffirmed that the struggle for LGBTI+ rights is inseparable from Africa’s broader fight for justice and dignity.

Looking Ahead

As we look forward to the future of our Network in Africa and beyond, I am inspired by the words of Hon. Mmapaseka Steve Letsike in her address to our convening. The words of Minister Letsike are both inspiring and grounding for our work. Her analysis of the challenges we face and the solutions before us spoke directly to the heart of our movement. She reminded us that while the forces of backlash are real and powerful, the movement for equality is stronger still, powered by the persistence and courage of our organisations and communities. Her call to strengthen solidarity, build coalitions, including among supportive African governments, and to amplify the leadership of young people offers us a clear path forward. Above all, her insistence that silence is not an option and that Africa’s true values are rooted in dignity, justice, and humanity must guide and inspire our collective work. As we continue to confront anti-rights actors and resist regression, we carry forward her challenge to unite, strategise, and stand together in advancing equality across our continent.

With that in mind, we move forward with renewed clarity, unity, and determination. Our outcomes are tangible: stronger skills, deeper ownership of the Network, a united vision, and a powerful Call to Action. The challenges ahead remain significant, but so too does the power of our movement. Together, we are building a continent—and a Commonwealth—where every person, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or sex characteristics, can live with dignity, free from fear, and with full access to justice and opportunity. 

Skipper Mogapi

Africa Regional Representative, The Commonwealth Equality Network