Charne Roberts Brings Community Expertise to Regional SRHR Review

​On 20 April in Johannesburg, Charne Roberts, Advocacy Manager at SANPUD, joined a regional gathering of community leaders and partners to serve as a peer reviewer for the 2Gether 4 SRHR Innovation Fund. The invitation reflects a clear recognition of the expertise that grows from lived experience and the value of community leadership in shaping sexual and reproductive health and rights across East and Southern Africa.

​The Other Foundation’s role in convening this process offers an important point of connection. Their work to advance equality and social justice for LGBTIQ+ people in Southern Africa is grounded in an understanding that people carry multiple identities that influence their access to rights and safety. This commitment to dignity and inclusion creates a natural alignment with the realities faced by key populations such as women who use drugs, sex workers and gender diverse people. Intersectionality becomes a practical lens rather than a theoretical idea because it reflects how people live and how they navigate systems that are not always designed with them in mind.

Charne’s contribution draws from this lived reality. Her experience within the community provides insight into the barriers that shape daily life and the forms of resilience that communities build for themselves. This kind of knowledge strengthens programmes by keeping them connected to the conditions people face and by ensuring that solutions remain grounded in what is possible and necessary.
The Innovation Fund’s approach affirms that meaningful progress in SRHR depends on the presence of community voices in decision making spaces. It recognises that expertise is not limited to institutions and that learning often begins with those who carry the weight of exclusion.
This moment in Johannesburg stands as a reminder that intersectional leadership is essential for a more just and inclusive SRHR landscape and that lived experience continues to guide the way forward.