Réseau des Femmes Leaders pour le Développement
Empowering African Feminist Movements Across 55 Countries
RFLD is proud to present our comprehensive funding platform featuring Local and Regional Programs designed to support feminist organizations and movements across all regions of Africa—from the Sahel to Southern Africa, from West to East, and across North Africa.
These are initiatives that donors can fund. RFLD serves as a platform that also supports other NGOs across Africa.
As a regional organization, RFLD will fund other organizations that have already passed our rigorous due diligence process. Several initiatives on this platform will enable funding for these partner organizations.
Our network represents grassroots collectives, national organizations, and regional networks working on Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRD) protection, civic space defense, political participation, sexual and reproductive health rights, economic justice, climate justice, and feminist movement building.
U.S. Tax-Deductible: RFLD is certified by NGOsource as a U.S. Public Charity Equivalent, making all donations fully tax-deductible for American donors and foundations.
Visit our contact page: https://rflgd.org/contact-2/
Rapid response funding for women human rights defenders facing immediate threats, including emergency relocation, legal assistance, and security support across all African regions.
Comprehensive legal support for WHRDs facing criminalization, including bail, legal representation, court costs, and advocacy against unjust prosecution in restrictive environments.
Mental health services, trauma counseling, self-care retreats, and burnout prevention for WHRDs experiencing violence, harassment, or sustained advocacy stress.
Training and resources for secure digital communications, encrypted platforms, cybersecurity protocols, and protection against online harassment and surveillance targeting WHRDs.
Establishing and maintaining safe houses across Africa for WHRDs requiring temporary relocation due to immediate security threats, including operational and logistical support.
Supporting organizations documenting attacks on WHRDs, producing shadow reports, and advocating at national, regional (African Commission), and international human rights mechanisms.
Building organizational capacity in security protocols, risk assessment, threat analysis, and emergency preparedness for feminist organizations operating in hostile environments.
Creating and sustaining peer support networks for WHRDs working in isolation, particularly in rural areas, conflict zones, or countries with severe restrictions on civil society.
Strategic communications, media advocacy, and visibility campaigns for WHRDs facing smear campaigns, public harassment, or attempts to delegitimize their work.
Strengthening regional protection systems including African Commission's Special Rapporteur on WHRDs, regional courts, and inter-governmental mechanisms for defender protection.
Financial and practical support for families of detained or imprisoned WHRDs, including childcare, education costs, and basic needs during incarceration periods.
Comprehensive support for WHRDs after release from detention, including medical care, psychological support, livelihood restoration, and gradual reintegration into activism.
Tailored protection strategies for young women activists (18-30) who face unique vulnerabilities including digital harassment, family pressure, and age-based discrimination.
Specialized protection for LGBTQI+ rights defenders facing criminalization, violence, and discrimination, including safe spaces, legal defense, and emergency response in hostile contexts.
Assistance for WHRDs forced to flee their countries, including documentation, asylum applications, resettlement support, and maintaining connections to home-based activism.
Legal challenges and advocacy campaigns against restrictive NGO laws, registration barriers, and prohibitions on peaceful assembly affecting feminist organizing across Africa.
Advocacy against internet censorship, digital surveillance, and social media shutdowns used to silence feminist voices and restrict civic engagement in digital spaces.
Supporting feminist participation in pro-democracy movements, anti-coup resistance, and transitions to democratic governance across Sahel, West, East, and North Africa.
Supporting independent feminist media, investigative journalism on gender issues, and defending media freedom against censorship, harassment of journalists, and propaganda.
Feminist-led accountability initiatives exposing corruption, demanding transparency, and fighting impunity—recognizing that corruption disproportionately harms women and marginalized communities.
Supporting feminists challenging religious fundamentalism, extremist ideologies, and weaponized religion used to restrict women's rights and shrink civic space.
Feminist advocacy in constitutional reform processes, pushing for strong gender equality provisions, human rights protections, and safeguards for civic freedoms.
Community-level education on civic rights, democratic participation, and how to challenge restrictions on freedoms—empowering grassroots communities to defend civic space.
Defending academic freedom, supporting feminist research, and protecting student activists facing repression on campuses across Africa.
Supporting feminist peace-building, documenting gender-based violence in conflict, and challenging militarization that restricts civic freedoms in conflict-affected regions.
Test-case litigation challenging repressive laws, defending arrested activists, and establishing legal precedents that protect civic space and fundamental freedoms.
Building resilience of feminist CSOs facing threats, including institutional security, contingency planning, and adaptive strategies for operating in restrictive environments.
Engaging African Union, United Nations, and international mechanisms to pressure governments violating civic freedoms and protect feminist civil society space.
Supporting bottom-up organizing, community mobilization, and grassroots movements demanding civic freedoms, democratic governance, and accountability from local to national levels.
Developing creative funding channels for organizations facing government restrictions on foreign funding, bank account freezes, or financial barriers to civic work.
Financial and technical support for women running for office at local, regional, and national levels—including campaign training, voter outreach, and countering political violence.
Comprehensive political leadership training for aspiring and current women politicians, covering negotiation, coalition-building, public speaking, policy-making, and feminist governance.
Campaigns for gender quotas in legislatures, political parties, and public institutions—plus advocacy for electoral reforms that remove barriers to women's political participation.
Documentation, prevention, and response to violence targeting women in politics—including harassment, intimidation, physical attacks, and online abuse during and outside elections.
Supporting women's participation in local councils, municipal governments, and community leadership—where policy decisions directly impact daily lives.
Programs specifically targeting young women (18-35) entering politics, addressing age-based barriers, intergenerational tensions, and building the next generation of feminist political leaders.
Training women legislators and advocates in budget analysis, policy development, and ensuring government spending addresses women's needs and promotes gender equality.
Supporting women's ascension to leadership positions within political parties, challenging male-dominated party structures, and institutionalizing feminist principles in party platforms.
Training feminist observers to monitor elections through a gender lens, documenting barriers women voters and candidates face, and advocating for free and fair electoral processes.
Establishing and strengthening cross-party women's caucuses, regional networks of women politicians, and support systems for women in elected and appointed positions.
Addressing barriers faced by marginalized women in politics—including rural women, women with disabilities, indigenous women, and women from minority ethnic/religious groups.
Equipping women in politics with media skills, crisis communication, social media strategy, and tools to counter sexist media coverage and public harassment.
Educating women voters on their rights, encouraging political participation, and mobilizing women to vote for feminist candidates and policies.
Ensuring women's meaningful participation in peace processes, transitional governments, constitution-making, and post-conflict political reconstruction.
Supporting women legislators and advocates in drafting, proposing, and passing feminist legislation on gender-based violence, reproductive rights, economic justice, and equality.
Building and sustaining regional feminist networks connecting organizations across borders for shared learning, solidarity, and coordinated advocacy on Pan-African issues.
Creating spaces for knowledge transfer between veteran feminists and young activists, healing intergenerational tensions, and building unified multi-generational movements.
Supporting community-level feminist organizing, consciousness-raising, and building strong grassroots bases that connect local struggles to national and regional movements.
Developing and implementing popular education methodologies that build feminist consciousness, political analysis, and organizing skills among diverse communities.
Supporting feminist research, knowledge creation, documentation of African feminist histories, and challenging dominant narratives that erase or distort feminist contributions.
Using arts, culture, music, theater, visual arts, and creative expression as tools for feminist messaging, movement building, and social transformation.
Leveraging digital platforms for feminist organizing, online campaigns, social media activism, and building virtual communities that transcend geographic boundaries.
Core funding and capacity building for feminist organizations—strengthening governance, financial management, strategic planning, and organizational sustainability.
Supporting regional and Pan-African feminist convenings, strategy sessions, and movement gatherings that build solidarity, coordinate action, and strengthen collective power.
Building bridges between feminist movements and allied social justice movements—labor, environmental, racial justice, disability rights—for intersectional solidarity.
Building feminist organizations' capacity to mobilize resources, diversify funding, and reduce dependency on traditional donors through innovative fundraising strategies.
Documenting feminist struggles, victories, and histories through oral histories, archives, documentary films, and storytelling that preserve movement memory.
Strengthening ties between continental African feminists and diaspora feminists, facilitating knowledge exchange, resource flows, and transnational solidarity.
Building feminist media platforms, communications infrastructure, and strategic messaging capacity to shape public discourse and counter anti-feminist narratives.
Recognizing and supporting veteran feminists who've dedicated decades to the movement, providing wellness support, honoring contributions, and facilitating knowledge transfer.
Supporting organizations providing safe abortion services, advocating for abortion law reform, and ensuring access to quality post-abortion care across Africa.
Delivering age-appropriate, rights-based sexuality education that covers consent, pleasure, bodily autonomy, LGBTQI+ inclusion, and challenging harmful gender norms.
Reducing maternal mortality through improved healthcare access, skilled birth attendance, emergency obstetric care, and addressing systemic barriers to quality maternal health.
Community-led initiatives to abandon FGM/C, supporting survivors, challenging harmful traditional practices, and working with communities to protect girls' bodily integrity.
Ensuring healthcare access for LGBTQI+ people, addressing discrimination in health systems, supporting gender-affirming care, and advocating for legal recognition and protection.
Expanding access to diverse contraceptive options, ensuring informed choice, addressing barriers to family planning, and supporting women's reproductive autonomy.
Combating obstetric violence, coerced sterilization, and other forms of GBV within healthcare settings, while ensuring trauma-informed care for survivors.
Supporting women-owned businesses, cooperatives, and economic initiatives that create livelihoods while challenging exploitative economic systems.
Organizing women workers, challenging exploitation in formal and informal sectors, advocating for living wages, safe working conditions, and labor protections.
Securing women's land ownership, inheritance rights, and access to productive resources—challenging patriarchal land tenure systems and discriminatory laws.
Expanding women's access to financial services, credit, savings groups, and challenging discriminatory banking practices that exclude women from economic opportunities.
Developing and promoting feminist economic models—cooperatives, solidarity economies, care-centered economics—that challenge capitalist exploitation and patriarchal structures.
Centering women's voices in climate policy, advocating for gender-responsive climate action, and ensuring women's leadership in environmental decision-making.
Protecting women environmental defenders, challenging extractive industries, and defending communities' rights to land, water, and natural resources.
Open funding for creative, innovative feminist projects that don't fit traditional categories—supporting experimental approaches, pilot programs, and emerging issues.
Ready to support African feminist movements? Get in touch with us today.
Regional Offices: Banjul (The Gambia) | Accra (Ghana) | Porto Novo (Benin - Headquarters)
Complete this form to inquire about funding opportunities. Our team will review your inquiry and respond within 2 weeks.