On the 12th of June 2025, four INERELA+ Country Networks implementing the HandsOff project participated in a virtual workshop on the establishment of working groups/ forums for engagement with decision-makers and stakeholders to collaboratively develop, review policies, and influence their positions on legislation specifically that which affect the key population in communities, etc. The two-hour virtual workshop was facilitated by Natasha a Policy and Advocacy Specialist at the Southern Africa Parliamentary Trust (SAPST). The organisation, SAPST’s mandate is to champion gender equality and social inclusion, empowering marginalized groups such as women, youth, and persons with disabilities to play a meaningful role in the legislative process. Based on this mandate, the facilitator focused on coaching INERELA+ participants on the steps that should be taken when establishing an effective working group that will make an impact in influencing parliamentarians to take into consideration the plight of the vulnerable when making policies, acts, or laws. Through a practical exercise, participants were tasked to produce a working group that advocates and lobbies for a given key population group in a community. This required participants to map and come up with the constitution, vision, mission, and strategy of the working group. After the exercise, the facilitator dwelled more on the profiles of individuals who are expected to play key roles in the working group like communications specialists. Participants were advised on the need to be critical when choosing key roles in the working group as it is important to include individuals who can influence and have the character of championing. It was also shared that the working group would stand higher chances of influencing policies if they include key figures in society such as former presidencies for example Thabo Mbeki; Joaquim Chissano; Olusegun Obasanjo; Uhuru Kenyatta etc and influential figures such as Prof Lumumba among many. At the end of the workshop, participants were given a task to identify and document Working group best practices that could be adopted by a potentially bigger group of all INERELA+ Country Networks.