Réseau des Femmes Leaders pour le Développement
RFLD combines legislative advocacy, community organising, re-granting, and open-data tools to advance women's rights, SRHR, civic space, and climate justice across Africa.
RFLD exists for one outcome, gender equality across the African continent. An Africa where women and girls, Vulnerable Groups and people with disabilities exercise their rights fully, take part in the decisions that affect their lives, and live free from violence. Everything we raise and re-grant moves the continent closer to that outcome.
The organisations closest to African women are the ones donors reach last. Small feminist and community groups carry the work on the ground, and most of them lack the flexible resources to run it and the management systems that donor due diligence tests. Resources with no systems fall apart at the first audit. Systems with no resources sit unused. RFLD provides both at the same time, and builds the continental infrastructure that lets the whole movement work from shared, open evidence.
Women and girls, Vulnerable Groups and people with disabilities facing rights violations. We train, mentor, protect and connect them so they can claim their rights, take up leadership and access services.
Women-led grassroots organisations across the continent. We move resources directly to them, donate the management systems they need, and wrap both with technical support and peer learning.
Policymakers, funders, researchers and continental institutions. We reach them through open data anyone can use and through advocacy anchored in our ACHPR observer status.
Continental in scope across all 55 African Union member states, with our deepest operational presence in francophone West Africa and the Sahel, where mainstream tools are thinnest. Offices across six cities anchor the work: Lagos, Porto-Novo, Accra, Dakar, Banjul and Igolo, with direct programmes running in 15 or more countries.
Continental reference tools that civil society, journalists and parliamentarians use to build their own campaigns. Treaty trackers, governance hubs and a free online course for francophone human rights defenders.
The WAFF Fund moves resources directly to member organisations, with a fast channel for defenders under threat. The Africa Grant Portfolio opens this to all 55 AU states. The Organizational Resilience Program donates a full offline, bilingual management suite to a first cohort of 500 organisations, as an in-kind grant.
The DƆNÙESÈ Data Center holds twelve free tools with no login and no fees, in English and French. If a community organiser in Yaoundé or a parliamentarian in Nairobi can use it, that is the point.
Five programmes on the ground: political leadership through PAWELE, safety and health through BRAVE, land rights and climate resilience, maternal health, and the work to end FGM and child marriage in francophone Africa.
The four functions turn one another. Programmes generate evidence, evidence feeds the tools, the tools shape advocacy, and re-granting moves the resources so grassroots organisations reach further and last longer. This is the flywheel.
Multi-year general operating support for the four-function model and the four registered offices, so the whole system keeps running.
Support for grassroots re-granting through the WAFF Fund and for the Organizational Resilience Program, so resources and systems reach more organisations in more countries.
Funding aligned to the community-delivered programmes, so direct service to women and girls continues at scale.
We are building a diversified base with no single funder providing more than a third of our resources, and a reserve that covers three months of operations, so the work holds when any one funding cycle ends.
"Strategy first, resourcing second."
Six offices across the continent
Lagos · Porto-Novo · Accra · Dakar · Banjul · Igolo
She who comes is bound to those who came before.
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RFLD operates across four integrated functions — re-granting, advocacy, research, and programme delivery — in a closed cycle where each function reinforces the next.
The DONUESE Data Center tracks women's leadership across 37 African countries — verified, citable, downloadable under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Maputo Protocol Hub, ACDEG Hub, AU Mechanisms, West Africa Legislative Platform — converting evidence into legislation.
WAFFF Fund and the Africa Grant Portfolio move resources directly to community-rooted organisations, with rapid-response grants for defenders at risk.
PAWELE, BRAVE, Climate Justice, Health, Ending FGM — five flagship programmes delivered through 670 member organisations.
"Data becomes evidence. Evidence becomes advocacy. Advocacy becomes legislation. Legislation becomes community reality. Resources flow at every stage — and member organisations report back into the data."
RFLD's contribution to the African feminist ecosystem is its integrated architecture — combining four functions inside one institutional structure so that data, advocacy, resources and community delivery reinforce one another.
The integration is the asset — we work alongside continental peers, each adding distinct strengths to the movement.
Our work organises across six substantive fields of community-rooted delivery — anchored in the African normative frameworks (the African Charter, the Maputo Protocol, ACDEG, the AU Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality, Agenda 2063) and aligned to the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Agreement and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.
Community mobilisation and continental advocacy for sexual and reproductive health and rights through the BRAVE Programme. Maternal health, contraception, safe abortion services, and comprehensive sexuality education — anchored in Maputo Protocol Articles 8, 9, 12 and 14 on gender equality, bodily autonomy and the empowerment of women and girls.
Women Human Rights Defenders protection, civic space monitoring, and continental advocacy through the ACHPR Working Group on Human Rights Defenders. Strengthened democracy, human rights, rule of law and reduced corruption. Safe migration, refugee and IDP protection — with particular attention to women, children and ethnic minorities. Implementation of the African Charter, the Maputo Protocol and the ACDEG.
Climate adaptation, biodiversity protection and sustainable resource use — improved resilience to climate change and environmental disasters; access to renewable energy and improved energy efficiency. Gender-responsive budgeting, women's land rights and the care economy. Open, inclusive and sustainable trade, regional and continental economic integration, food security.
Women's political leadership via the PAWELE Programme. ACDEG implementation and legislative tracking across West Africa. Increased gender equality and women's full participation in decision-making — political influence and economic empowerment. Young people's meaningful participation in political decision-making, in society, and in continental advocacy — Africa is the youngest continent, more than 60 per cent under 25.
Women's inclusion in peace processes, regional dialogue, and conflict prevention across ECOWAS and Sahel contexts. Strengthened regional initiatives and capacity for sustainable peace — early warning systems, mediation, peacebuilding and resilience. Support for the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) and the AU Continental Results Framework on Women, Peace and Security. Focus on the regions of greatest vulnerability.
Community-led abandonment of female genital mutilation and child marriage. Survivor-centred advocacy and intergenerational mentorship. Maputo Protocol Article 5 implementation. Cross-border community engagement where practice and migration overlap. Centred on the dignity and bodily integrity of African girls and the meaningful participation of young women in shaping the work that affects their lives.
"African civil society contributes to sustainable development through the 2030 Agenda, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the Paris Agreement. RFLD's continental architecture is built to deliver across all these frames simultaneously."
Proven capacity to move resources to grassroots defenders across francophone West Africa — with the four-window structure expanding in 2026.
Africa's demographic, climatic and political conditions are reshaping the operating environment for women's rights every year. RFLD's work is designed to meet that movement.
Women and girls are particularly affected by increased prevalence of gender-based violence, limited schooling, and child marriage. Access to needs-based health and medical care is lacking in several countries. RFLD's BRAVE Programme, our Ending FGM and Child Marriage work, and our Maternal Health Data infrastructure exist to confront these realities at continental scale.
Africa has a young population — more than 60 per cent under the age of 25 — and many young people lack job opportunities and possibilities to participate on equal terms in political decision-making. RFLD's PAWELE Programme builds the political-leadership pipeline. Our methodology workshops and Continental Advisory Committee guarantee intergenerational presence in our governance.
Migration and forced displacement continue to increase in Africa — driven by conflict, rapid population growth, labour market imbalances, environmental and climate factors, and economic crises. Migration contributes positively to development through remittances, knowledge exchange and diaspora engagement; meanwhile irregular migration and forced displacement leave migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons especially vulnerable. Women, children and ethnic minorities face the greatest exposure. RFLD's Defender Security Toolkit and rapid-response support address these realities directly.
Our continental advocacy is built on the African instruments that codify women's, civic-space and governance rights. We are not importing frameworks — we are implementing those that African states have already adopted.
The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa — RFLD tracks ratification, domestication and Article-by-Article implementation through the Maputo Protocol Hub.
Maputo Protocol Hub →The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights — including Articles 9, 10, 13 on civic-space freedoms and Article 62 on state reporting. RFLD engages under ACHPR Observer Status N°553.
AU Mechanisms →The African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance — RFLD's ACDEG Hub is the leading civil-society monitoring platform on this Charter's implementation across the continent.
ACDEG Hub →The Africa We Want — particularly Aspiration 6 on people-driven development relying on the potential of African people, especially women and youth.
Continental frameworkThe AU Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa — a commitment by African Heads of State to gender equality across continental policy. RFLD is a civil-society partner on its follow-up.
AU continental commitmentThe AU Continental Results Framework on Women, Peace and Security — RFLD's peace and security work is structured against its indicators and reporting cycle.
Peace & Security anchorRFLD supports regional actors, structures and initiatives to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts in an inclusive manner — early warning systems, preventive activities, democratic governance, mediation, peacebuilding and resilience.
Our focus is on regions where vulnerability and tensions are greatest — including the Sahel, the Lake Chad basin and the Liptako-Gourma cross-border zone. Women's active participation in conflict resolution, peace processes and strengthened resilience to conflict are promoted, as is young people's meaningful participation for sustainable and inclusive peace.
Our work supports the institutional framework of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), and the actors and processes that complement APSA — including regional and local cross-border cooperation, and the AU Continental Results Framework on Women, Peace and Security.
RFLD's peace and security work is structured against the AU Continental Results Framework for Monitoring and Reporting on the Implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Africa.
RFLD's continental architecture contributes directly to the 2030 Agenda, the financing-for-development commitments under the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, and the Paris Agreement.
Our work contributes to particularly relevant SDGs — 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 — and to the financing-for-development commitments under the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the Paris Agreement.
Bilingual. Verified. Downloadable under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0. Built once for the continent.
Continental reference on digital violence against women and civil society — protocols and protection frameworks.
Tracking ratification, domestication, and implementation across the African Charter on the Rights of Women framework.
Leading civil society hub for monitoring and advocacy on the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance.
Accessible bilingual guides for African civil society on navigating the AU's policy and oversight mechanisms.
A consolidated public database tracking women's rights legislation across the ECOWAS region.
Online human rights learning hub for francophone African civil society.
670 women-led, community-rooted organisations across 35+ African countries who receive sub-grants, capacity-building, continental advocacy infrastructure, and peer connection.
Member directory →Rapid-response grants, legal accompaniment, secure communications via RFLD-Connect, and continental advocacy through the ACHPR Working Group on Human Rights Defenders.
Defender protection →An investment-grade, compliant gateway into African feminist work — NGOsource 501(c)(3) Equivalent, audited finances, and demonstrated capacity to move resources to grassroots organisations.
Partner with RFLD →Civil society engagement, evidence submissions, oral statements under ACHPR Observer Status, and policy briefs across the Maputo Protocol, ACDEG, and AU GEWE frameworks.
AU engagement →Verified, citable continental data through the DONUESE Data Center. Press-ready statistics, traceable sources, and bilingual publications under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Data Center →Tax-deductible giving for US donors via NGOsource Equivalency Determination. Donor-Advised Fund eligible at Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, NPT, CAF America.
Give through your DAF →Every contribution moves through a network that is audited, NGOsource 501(c)(3) Equivalent, and accountable to the communities it serves — with the majority of funds directed to field activities.
Reach our leadership directly — for partnership inquiries, due diligence requests, defender protection support, or to schedule a briefing.