The African Sex Worker Alliance (ASWA) is a project housed at the Sex Worker Education & Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT), an NGO based in Cape Town, South Africa. ASWA was formed to help bring an end to the human rights violations perpetrated against sex workers and to build in its place an enabling human rights environment in which sex workers enjoy the full scale of their rights. This includes being afforded equal protection of the law and opportunity to practice sex work without fear of prejudice in their communities.

Background:
A range of organisations regionally and globally focus on organising, supporting, raising awareness and providing services to sex workers. Almost all of these are country specific. Recognising the importance of a united front in February 2009, several regional and global partners participated in the first-ever African sex worker conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was convened by SWEAT and funded by OXFAM NOVIB and Ford Foundation. The key resolutions of the African Sex Worker Conference held in February 2009, were to commit to a plan of action that includes:
• Decriminalization of adult sex work
• Documenting, monitoring and reporting human rights violations
• Recognition of sex work as work
• Free, friendly, universal access to healthcare
• Building solidarity and mobilizing sex workers
• Building the Alliance ensuring participation, representation and leadership of sex workers at all levels within the Alliance

ASWA’s goals are:

1. A capacitated, coherent sex-worker led movement defending the rights of sex workers across Africa
Although funding at the moment is limited to some countries in Southern and Eastern Africa, it is the dream of ASWA’s members to have a truly African movement that operates throughout a majority of African countries. Funding is being sought to extend ASWA’s activities to other countries.

Objectives:
- To mobilise and capacitate sex workers around their rights (know their rights, own their rights and bring about change)
- To help build organised, committed and coherent sex worker movements
- To strengthen sex worker leadership through the meaningful involvement of sex workers at every level of ASWA’s activities

Key outputs include:
• Log of human rights violations recorded
• Sex workers trained in human rights journalism
• Interactive website with information on health and human rights available to sex workers
• Sex workers, support and service organisations knowledge about the rights of sex workers improved
• Creative arts rights awareness programme developed and used to reach new target audiences
• IEC development (e.g. rights pocket booklet) and disseminated to sex workers
• Increased media coverage of human rights issues affecting sex workers and violations

2. Goal 2: An African Alliance of organisations to defend the human rights of sex workers:
This is to assist to build a network of sex-worker organisations and supportive organisations to defend their rights.

Objectives:
- Building partnerships with stakeholder organisations including those characterised as (but not limited to)–
o sex worker led;
o community and public health and education;
o legal assistance and strategic litigation;
o human rights
o HIV-related
o Community Advocacy
o Minority issues- e.g. sexual minorities: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, intersexed (LGBTI), Men-who have sex with men (MSM), women who have sex with women etc
- Formation of country alliances who lead and monitor country activities
- ASWA programme guidance by a regional steering committee made up of elected representatives from each country alliance

Key outputs include:
• Stakeholder maps of the relevant organisations and partners in each country
• Country based coalitions exist
• Southern and Eastern African sex worker advocacy and rights movement/ alliance (ASWA) established and active

3. Credible research on sex work and human rights:
To generate credible research on African sex worker human rights issues that will inform our own responses as well as contribute to the larger sex worker human rights agenda across the world.

Key outputs include:
• Research report on human rights situation and trends across the region produced and used to inform programmes
• Research report on cross border issues facing sex workers produced and used to inform programmes
• Research report into the gaps and barriers to accessing health services in the region produced and used to inform programmes
• Research report into the needs of men having sex with men produced and used to design programme of support

Who is ASWA?
ASWA works through a closely knit network of partner organisations across Africa. Working groups or alliances exist in each country and each alliance has representation at the regional level to represent their country contexts. ASWA is administrated and coordinated by its core founder, SWEAT.

ASWA’s Home at SWEAT:
SWEAT, formalised in 1996, supports sex workers to access their human rights and at the same time advocates for the decriminalisation of sex work in South Africa. This is achieved through three inter-related programmes namely,
- Outreach and Development which focuses on sex worker mobilising and organising, awareness raising and education
- Advocacy and networking which focuses on bringing about enabling changes to the policy and administrative environment governing sex workers and,
- Research and knowledge management which provides information and analysis on the sector for evidence informed responses and lending itself to advocacy.