New Partnerships, Wider Reach: LEWAF's 2024 Strategic Collaborations

2024 was a year in which LEWAF's partnerships expanded well beyond its own field offices — from a new agreement with an international NGO, to a seat at the table with regional human rights institutions.

Partnership with World Hope International

LEWAF signed a Memorandum of Understanding with World Hope International (WHI) focused on Women's Empowerment — the latest in a growing list of organizations choosing to collaborate directly with LEWAF's community-based model rather than build parallel programming from scratch.

Grassroots Justice Network — Africa

LEWAF is a core member of the Grassroots Justice Network — Africa (GJN-Africa). In 2024, LEWAF's Executive Director joined fellow network members in Banjul, Gambia, where the group presented evidence-based cases directly to the Commissioners of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers — advocating specifically for the integration of legal empowerment approaches into the ACHPR's own work.

Partnership with the Sierra Leone Police

LEWAF also deepened its working relationship with the Sierra Leone Police on tackling violence against women and girls — a partnership that complements the referral pathways already built into LEWAF's community paralegal and PLATE legal aid services.

Recognition for LEWAF's Leadership

The year closed with individual recognition for LEWAF's Executive Director, Mohamed Bobor Jalloh, who was honoured as one of the Top 100 Professionals in Sierra Leone at the 9th Annual National Professional Awards, presented by the African Consulting Group on 8 November 2024 — recognition, in the citation's words, of "demonstrated professionalism and commitment to the highest standards of ethical conduct, integrity and leadership."

Taken together, these partnerships point in one direction: LEWAF's community-level model for legal and economic empowerment is increasingly seen as something worth scaling — regionally, and at the level of continental human rights institutions.

For the women in LEWAF's savings groups and legal education sessions, these partnerships are not abstract diplomacy — they are the pipeline through which more funding, more training, and more institutional backing eventually reaches their own communities.