About Positive Vibes
Positive Vibes (PV) is an organisation working primarily in Africa, expanding into The Middle East & South-East Asia. We are connected to global partners and international movements.
Our work centres around the themes of development, human rights and change. It’s all about learning how to change societies and people’s lives for the better – and making concrete contributions to ending othering, discrimination and oppression.
We align ourselves with the interests of groups, organisations and movements of people whose human rights are unjustly limited or denied. Currently, our strongest focus is on work with LGBT+, sex workers, people living with HIV, and adolescent girls and young women.
Our approach is based on the conviction that people can:
- take charge of their own lives, organisations and movements;
- strengthen themselves to more effectively shape their own futures;
- use their voices and actions to contribute towards the larger goals of social inclusion, social justice and equity.


Our work supports the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:
Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being for all at all ages is essential to sustainable development. Significant strides have been made in increasing life expectancy and reducing some of the common killers associated with child and maternal mortality. Major progress has been made on increasing access to clean water and sanitation, reducing malaria, tuberculosis, polio and the spread of HIV/AIDS. However, many more efforts are needed to fully eradicate a wide range of diseases a Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development address many different persistent and emerging health issues.
While the world has achieved progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment under the Millennium Development Goals (including equal access to primary education between girls and boys), women and girls continue to suffer discrimination and violence in every part of the world. Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. Providing women and girls with equal access to education, health care, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes will fuel sustainable econo
The international community has made significant strides towards lifting people out of poverty. The most vulnerable nations – the least developed countries, the landlocked developing countries and the small island developing states – continue to make inroads into poverty reduction. However, inequality still persists and large disparities remain in access to health and education services and other assets. Additionally, while income inequality between countries may have been reduced, inequality within countries has risen. There is growing consensus that economic growth is not sufficient to reduce poverty if it is not inclusive and if it does not involve the three dimensions of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental. To reduce inequality, policies should be universal in principle paying attention to the needs of disadvantaged and marginalized populations.
Goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals is dedicated to the promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, the provision of access to justice for all, and building effective, accountable institutions at all levels.
A successful sustainable development agenda requires partnerships between governments, the private sector and civil society. These inclusive partnerships built upon principles and values, a shared vision, and shared goals that place people and the planet at the centre, are needed at the global, regional, national and local level. Urgent action is needed to mobilize, redirect and unlock the transformative power of trillions of dollars of private resources to deliver on sustainable development objectives. Long-term investments, including foreign direct investment, are needed in critical sectors, especially in developing countries. These include sustainable energy, infrastructure and transport, as well as information and communications technologies. The public sector will need to set a clear direction. Review and monitoring frameworks, regulations and incentive structures that enable such investments must be retooled to attract investments and reinforce sustainable development. National oversight mechanisms such as supreme audit institutions and oversight functions by legislatures should be strengthened.
Our Vision
The end of othering: health, equity and justice for all, regardless of identity, profession, age, gender or status:
Equity and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT+) people, sex workers, people living with HIV (PLHIV), adolescent girls and young women and other marginalised and oppressed populations.
The attitudes, social norms and practices and policies (written or implicit) of communities, governments and other powerful actors are transformed to allow the full expression of these groups’ humanity and potential.
Our Practice
Is informed by a clear, coherent and values-based approach and a set of methods arising from it. Our Inside-Out approach and methods are consciously shared with partners, and shaped together with them (co-created). We have learned that this requires long-term commitment and depth of relationship – accompaniment and significant engagement over time. Together, we develop programmes, build and deepen knowledge and understanding, and engage in shared work towards social and policy change.
Our Strategic Direction
Strengthening systems for health: people living with HIV (PLHIV), LGBT+, sex workers, adolescent girls & young women girls experience greater wellbeing and improved health;
Strengthening movements for advocacy at national and regional levels: strong PLHIV, LGBT+, adolescent girls & young women and sex worker movements, organisations and coalitions engage in effective advocacy to further their agenda/s at national and regional levels;
Influencing national and regional programming and practice: local and national civil society organisations in this field (and beyond) integrate developmental, person-centred approaches to their work, leading to increased conscientisation, change and impact at individual, social and structural levels;
Developing and positioning Positive Vibes: Positive Vibes is a leading African intermediary non-governmental organisation (NGO) positioned to sustainably pursue its goals with a strong network of allies and partners.