Turning Grassroots Feminist Impact into National Change, with Girls at the centre

How we partnered with GENET to build a scalable, costed, and high-impact model to empower girls and young women across Malawi.

Strategy | Design | Women’s Empowerment | Malawi

The Girls Empowerment Network (GENET) is a feminist and a women’s rights organization working with girls and young women, their networks and communities to advance their rights to autonomy, choice, empowerment, and meaningful engagement.

GENET works to break cycles of gender inequality in Malawi by supporting vulnerable girls and young women. Through mentorship and community mobilisation, GENET empowers Adolescent girls and young women to become agents of change.

Challenge

As demand for their Safe Spaces Mentorship Model grew, GENET faced a critical challenge: how to scale their community-led model without compromising quality or sustainability.

To expand their impact, navigate resource constraints, and identify the right partners, they joined Spring Impact’s Scale Accelerator: Women’s Empowerment programme.

As part of the programme, we worked together to sharpen their strategy, build the capabilities needed to scale confidently, and lay the groundwork for sustainable change.

IMPACT

2,000+

Mentors trained

300,000+

Girls reached

1,000+

Safe Spaces created

500+

Local leaders influenced

OUR APPROACH

To set GENET up for sustainable and widespread impact, our work focused on three key areas:

Clarified GENET’s vision and strategy for scale, grounded in systemic change for girls and young women in Malawi
Created a blueprint of the Safe Spaces Mentorship Model, enabling consistency and quality across different contexts
Explored and tested viable scale pathways, leading to the selection of an NGO partnership model that empowers others to deliver GENET’s approach

“This partnership is helping us ensure that every girl, no matter where she lives, can access safety, mentorship, and hope.”

— GENET

Our process

Our collaboration in detail, breaking down what we focused on and why it mattered

Strategic focus

GENET set out a bold and long-term vision for change, based on a deep understanding of the barriers that held girls and young women back.

This clarity aligned the team around a shared purpose and helped shift their focus from growing the organisation in order to support more girls and women thinking creatively about solving the problem at scale.

Scalable model

Together, we identified the essential components of the Safe Spaces Mentorship Model that created the most impact.

With these elements clearly outlined, GENET ensured consistent and high-quality delivery, strengthened their monitoring systems, and laid the groundwork for confident replication.

Pathway to scale

GENET considered several options for expansion and chose to pursue partnerships with other NGOs. We supported them in developing a clear value proposition and testing early opportunities.

This marked the beginning of a shift from direct delivery and expansion to enabling others to lead and sustain the work in their own communities.

RESULTS

Stronger strategic direction
GENET developed a clear, purpose-driven strategy focused on solving systemic challenges facing girls and young women, not just growing their footprint.

Strengthened community ownership
The community is now driving Safe Space activities

Government recognition
Safe Spaces are increasingly recognized by government stakeholders as a viable model to integrate into district-level planning.

Better programme delivery
With the model’s essential components defined, GENET improved the quality and consistency of safe spaces across all sites.

Increased confidence with partners
A detailed costing exercise gave GENET the tools to clearly communicate value and sustainability needs to funders and collaborators.

“When girls are given safe spaces, mentorship, and the freedom to dream, they rise as leaders in their families and communities. Scaling this model means thousands more girls can claim their power.”