The OASIS Initiative
The OASIS Initiative is Organizing to Advance Solutions in the Sahel. Our mission is to help accelerate a demographic transition in the Sahel region of Africa. The OASIS Initiative is building the evidence base and local leadership necessary to overcome the most serious development challenges in the Sahel.
We are focused on three “pillars” critical for the region: 1) educate and empower adolescent girls, 2) expand access to voluntary family planning, and 3) adapt agricultural practices to climate change.
Approaches:
1. Strengthen and amplify local voices. Build research, implementation and leadership capacity in the region. Promote local leadership in international advocacy.
2. Build the evidence base. Collaborate on research in the region, with a focus on effective, integrated and scalable approaches.
3. Wake up the world! Increase awareness of the humanitarian catastrophe projected for the Sahel and advocate for funding commensurate with the challenge.
Alisha Graves
Alisha Graves leads strategy, development and advocacy efforts for The OASIS Initiative and is the President of Venture Strategies for Health and Development, a non-profit organization aiming to help stabilize global population by securing women’s freedom to choose their family size. Alisha lectures internationally on population and food security in the Sahel. She is a research fellow for Project Drawdown, analyzing the potential contribution of family planning for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Ethnographic Research for the Sahel Women's Empowerment and Demographic Dividend Project (SWEDD)
The study, conducted in a region of Niger with some of the highest rates of maternal mortality, child marriage, and infant mortality, found that the main cause for early marriage was a combined result of poor educational opportunities and a concern for girls' safety.
Hilin Mu Program: Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls
We provide safe space clubs to girls at risk for early marriage as well as mobilize families and influencers to change norms around girls education and early marriage.
Sahel Resilience Learning
The purpose of this study is to help inform USAID capacity building activities for adolescent girls and their communities. USAID's resilience efforts in Niger aim to respond to the food security needs of people in Maradi and Zinder, two of the most malnourished regions of Niger.
Contact Information
Location
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley Way West
Berkeley, CA 94720
United States