In East Africa and across the world, civic space is shrinking. Those working to defend rights and democratic participation are facing increasing pressure, including arrest, forced exile, and, in some cases, punitive violence. At the same time, movements in the region remain active, resilient, and deeply rooted in their communities.

In early March 2026, the Social Justice Centre Working Group and Conducive Space for Peace co-facilitated the Jumuiya Gathering in Nairobi. This multi-day space brought together movement leaders and organisers from the wider East Africa region. Around twenty leaders came together to share experience across contexts and explore how to organise, sustain, and advance civic work beyond conventional funding and institutional frameworks.The gathering created space for honest exchange across a diversity of struggles, histories, and organising realities with an eye to new connections and mutual support.

At a time when civic space across East Africa and globally remains under pressure, the convening gave space to a translocal conversation about what it takes to keep going, how we build and sustain solidarity in practice, and what kinds of relationships and support structures are needed to withstand and increase the impact of our individual and collective work.

Without shared infrastructures, we are learning that movements risk getting caught in cycles of reacting to immediate crises rather than responding to the conditions they rose up to confront. This convening mattered because it turned the idea of translocal solidarity into a tangible exercise, working from past events to future scenarios.