As a child, I learned early what exclusion feels like.

At school, my name and appearance became easy targets for ridicule. “Abi-whale” and “A-big-girl” were some of the names classmates used to mock me. Like many children made to feel different, I learned early how exclusion shapes belonging – and how often adults choose silence.

At home, I was taught something very different. My grandfather believed deeply in education and in my ability to think. He would suddenly ask me questions like, “What’s the square root of 144? Of 169?” At the time it felt relentless. Later, I understood he was teaching me that my mind was a source of strength, and that knowledge could carry me into spaces where others might not expect me to belong.

Those lessons still shape how I approach justice today: through evidence, precision and persistence. 

That is what I bring to my current work as national consultant with UNDP Namibia, where I have supported the development of Namibia’s first comprehensive lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) Inclusion Index under the LGBTI Data Project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). 

For many years, LGBTI people in Namibia were often absent from the data that informs national policy. While communities were visible enough to experience discrimination, legal exclusion and social stigma, they were too often invisible in official evidence systems. Without data, exclusion can remain abstract, and it becomes much harder to design policies that respond to lived realities.

For me, the significance of the LGBTI Inclusion Index is that it begins to change that. 

The LGBTI Inclusion Index is a global framework developed by UNDP and the World Bank that includes 51 indicators and aims to measure the inclusion of LGBTI people across the five strategic areas of health, education, personal safety and violence, civil and political participation, and economic empowerment. These indicators follow the structure of, and are compatible with, the target indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals. At country level, the Index aims to inform policies, programmes and investments for strengthening LGBTI rights and inclusion, as well as drawing attention to broader issues of LGBTI-related data collection, analysis and use.

In Namibia, we currently have sufficient evidence to score 28 of those indicators. The remaining 23 indicators highlight areas where data is still missing or incomplete. 

For the indicators where evidence exists, the scoring system is simple: from 0 to 1, where 0 means no inclusion and 1 means full inclusion. That simplicity matters because it forces clarity. Either protections exist, or they do not. Either legal recognition is available, or it is not.

One of the strongest parts of this process has been how it has been built collectively. In October 2025, UNDP supported the establishment of a Technical Working Group bringing together 21 representatives from government institutions, civil society, academia and development partners. Reviewing evidence together has helped build shared ownership of the findings, with consensus already reached on 26 of the 28 indicators scored.

This matters because it means the Index is not simply a technical exercise. It becomes a nationally grounded evidence tool that multiple institutions can engage with and use. 

The process has also shown how uneven our evidence base still is. Namibia has strong data in some areas, particularly through HIV surveillance, legal documentation and community-based monitoring. But there are still major gaps in areas such as education, employment, regional disparities and the experiences of bisexual, intersex and transgender people outside health-focused research.

Some findings already point clearly to where policy attention is needed, including employment protections and gender recognition procedures. At the same time, Namibia’s 2024 High Court decision to decriminalize same-sex relations shows how quickly the policy landscape can evolve – and why evidence tools must evolve with it.

The Index is now being finalized and will support future engagement with processes such as Namibia’s Universal Periodic Review, reports to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, parliamentary briefings on pending legislation and policy advocacy with government ministries.

This process has reinforced three lessons for me.

First, data must be disaggregated. Broad categories can hide very different experiences across lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities, making policy responses less effective.

Second, naming what we do not know is as important as naming what we do know. Those 23 missing indicators are not empty spaces — they point directly to where future evidence-building is needed.

Third, community participation is not optional. Evidence becomes stronger when the people most affected help validate how their realities are measured.

These lessons also reinforce something I have learned over many years: evidence is strongest when it is locally grounded.

Although the framework comes from a global UNDP methodology, the substance of this Index is built from Namibian sources – legal analysis, civil society documentation, sectoral reports and nationally validated evidence. That matters because data should reflect the realities people actually live.

I often think back to my grandfather when I reflect on my work. His square root questions were never only about mathematics, they were about confidence, discipline and trusting that knowledge mattered.

The Namibia LGBTI Inclusion Index will continue to evolve as laws change and new evidence emerges, but it already marks an important shift: turning absence in data into a stronger foundation for inclusion.

Abigail Solomon is a dedicated human rights, sexual, reproductive health and rights, and social justice practitioner with extensive experience in advancing the rights of sexual and gender minorities, focusing on dismantling systems of othering and promoting inclusive societies. Her work centres on indigenizing expertise and knowledge while building bridges between communities, organizations, and policymakers. She is passionate about participatory approaches that amplify marginalized voices and transform social systems from within.