Positive Vibes dreams of a world where Othering has ended.
Where all people, equally – including sexual and gender minorities, sex workers, adolescent girls and young women – experience the dignity and freedom every human being needs in order to thrive in life. Where leaders are accountable for their obligations to protect, promote, defend and fulfil the rights of those who elected them to positions of public trust, without discrimination.
To achieve the future we imagine, we need to know the present: to understand where we’re starting from on the path to reaching our destination.
For partners who share that ambition for change, this dashboard is a resource that offers information, insight, and intelligence on the present environment for sexual and reproductive health and rights in Africa, useful for monitoring, accountability and strategic advocacy.
Sentinels
In the natural world, sentinel species are plants or animals whose high sensitivity to their surroundings make them effective indicators of the health of that environment, or of dangers and threats that are not yet commonly visible.
LGBTIQ people, sex workers, adolescent girls and young women – and the care and attention given to their respective sexual and reproductive health, and sexual and reproductive rights, by authorities in positions of public trust and responsibility – are telling indicators of the health of democratic societies.
In 2018, Positive Vibes developed “Sentinels: signs and signals in a changing environment. A synopsis of sexual and reproductive health, and sexual and reproductive rights (SRH-R) for sexual and gender minorities (LGBTIQ+ persons) and sex workers in the African context.” An update and expansion of the data were developed in 2020.
That analysis informs the content of this dashboard, and provides a framework through which to image, understand and track position and movement within the social, structural, legal, and political environments surrounding SRH-R for sexual and gender minorities in select countries across Africa.
