The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa –SIHA Network of civil society organisations from North and South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and Somaliland. SIHA was founded in 1995 by a collection of women's groups with the view of strengthening the capacities of women organizations in the Horn of African countries.

SIHA Objective and Purpose:

SIHA is advocating for social change and gender equality for men and women in the Horn of Africa and working specifically on: gender equality, eliminating violence against women and girls, promoting human rights, peace building and conflict transformation, enhancing women’s leadership and political participation and production and dissemination of knowledge.

SIHA's biggest campaign is on Violence against Women (VAW); this program began in 2004 and will end in 2011. SIHA’s other projects include: Women’s access to justice which works on mapping women in the Horn of Africa’s means of access to the justice system and developing strategies and advocacy plans with members across the sub region. SIHA’s program on documentation and knowledge has seen research on the implications of customs and traditions on women’s rights as well as research on the advocacy strategies against violence against women in the Horn of Africa.

In Sudan SIHA works on women's rights and civic education programs particularly within the community groups at the grassroots levels in; Blue Nile, Nuba mountains and South Sudan Bahr Al Ghazal and Juba area.

SIHA’s Darfur program tackles gender based violence and violence against women in the conflict torn region political participation.

SIHA's newest projects: The Public Order Regime project currently operating in Sudan and aiming towards the elimination of laws that are discriminatory against women, secondly the Strengthening women activism in the local communities project which is running in the Horn countries of Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia and Somali-land and is working towards supporting all aspects of activism and the women activists themselves, the women economic recognition concealed and revealed project working mainly on women rights and with women of the informal sector of Sudan towards identifying their contributions to the economy and ensure their recognition and the women and the Sudan legal Aid Clinic project (Addressing the Human rights violations of urban displaced women in Sudan) .

Since its establishment SIHA has overcome many challenges and the main obstacle was identifying a country location in the Horn of Africa for the Network’s Secretariat, in an environment where political disputes and instability dominate the politics of the region.

However, during the period of 2003 to 2006 SIHA managed to gain the trust of many international donors and henceforth developed various programs and expanded its membership.

As an indigenous network SIHA is certainly on the right track. The lessons learnt from our past experiences are; to be highly consistent with our objectives and vision, not to compromise the values of integrity and accountability in the relationships with our partners and donors and to directly link our work to the communities across the sub region – which is why SIHA has been interested in working directly with groups who have constituencies on the ground (working with communities at a grassroots level).