Our 2026–2029 development cooperation programme promotes women’s and girls’ agency and power over their bodies and lives in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somaliland.
The programme aims to improve the lives of nearly 120,000 women and girls and builds on our past achievements and lessons learned. It responds to pressing challenges at a time when equality and women’s status are at risk of deteriorating in many parts of the world.
The impact that ISF’s 2026-29 development programme contributes to is women and girls’ agency and power over their bodies and lives in ISF’s programme areas. Prevention of violence against women and girls (VAWG) and women’s economic empowerment are deeply linked, as control over resources and control over one’s body cannot be separated.
For women to make informed choices about their lives, build skills and resources, and control their bodies and futures, they must be able to expand their traditional roles without fear of stigma or violence.
To support this, we strengthen women’s and girls’ individual agency, shift power relations within relationships, communities, and markets, and transform structures such as norms, laws, policies, and services. These levels are interwoven, and addressing them together ensures more impactful and sustainable change.
To achieve the desired impact, ISF’s 2026-29 development programme has three expected outcomes:
Our operating model is based on the human rights-based approach (HRBA), results-based management (RBM), and ISF risk management system. At the heart of our operating model is a commitment to long-term partnerships with local civil society actors, including NGOs, community-based organizations, and women-led businesses. By working collaboratively with them, we aim to strengthen their resilience. Another fundamental aspect of our operating model is multi-actor cooperation.
Our operating model is based on the human rights-based approach (HRBA), guided by the principles of universality, equality and non-discrimination, participation and inclusion, accountability, and transparency, with the do-no-harm principle setting the minimum standard for implementation by ensuring awareness of harms and risks and the development of mitigation plans.
The programme is human rights transformative, viewing rights holders as active agents in changing their own lives and communities, supporting their capacity to identify and claim their rights, and encouraging duty bearers to respect, protect, and enforce human rights. We particularly addresses women’s and girls’ rights to life, liberty and security, freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and a standard of living adequate for health and well-being, as well as sexual and reproductive rights, while the programme includes both mainstreamed and targeted actions to advance gender equality, non-discrimination with an emphasis on disability inclusion, climate adaptive capacity, and environmental protection.
Our Results-Based Management (RBM) system is designed to help us achieve our desired impact, enhance effectiveness, and foster continuous learning. This approach strengthens accountability to programme participants and stakeholders while supporting adaptive management in the complex and fragile environments where we operate, and where plans often need to be adjusted throughout the programme life cycle. The key components of our RBM system include learning and innovation, planning, monitoring and reporting, and evaluation.
Our risk management aims to identify potential risks and develop treatment plans that support our strategic and programme objectives, which is essential in the high-risk environments where we operate. Our organization-wide system includes a risk register, a risk management plan, and a risk map, supported by key policies and our complaints mechanism. Risks are identified, analyzed, and mitigated through our planning processes, and both we and our partners prepare and update project-level risk registers and mitigation plans to ensure responsible and safe implementation.
