This 25th of May, as the continent marks Africa Day, RFLD invites partners to explore the DƆNÙESÈ Data Center : twelve open tools, built and maintained as public infrastructure for African civil society.
DƆNÙESÈ — a West African word for knowledge held in common. Knowledge that is shared, transmitted, and belongs to a community rather than to any single owner. That is what this Data Center is. Not a proprietary platform. Not a donor deliverable. A set of public tools we build and maintain so that civil society on the continent does not have to choose between rigorous data and accessible data.
Why RFLD built this
Africa is not under-discussed. It is under-documented in the places where civil society actually needs documentation. Continental treaties are signed in Addis Ababa and then disappear from public view. Domestication data lives inside ministries, not on open platforms.
RFLD built DƆNÙESÈ because we saw the same gap repeated, year after year, in our own advocacy and in that of our 670 member organisations: rigorous continental data exists, but it is locked, paywalled, English-only, or scattered across PDFs that nobody can search. We decided to build the reference layer ourselves — bilingual by default, francophone-deep, civil society-led, and free at the point of use forever.
This is not a one-off project. It is infrastructure. The same way a road or a library is infrastructure: built once with care, maintained continuously, owned by no single user, useful to all.
The twelve tools
I · Safety & Civic Space
🔗 African Digital Safety Compendium. Our continental reference on technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) — legal frameworks, service providers, digital hygiene, and protective measures for Women Human Rights Defenders. — [https://rflgd.org/the-african-digital-safety-compendium/]
II· Policy Hubs
🔗 Francophone Human Rights MOOC. An open online learning hub for francophone human rights defenders, legal practitioners, and civil society organisers — accessible without registration. — [https://rflgd.org/hub-francophone/]
🔗 Maputo Protocol Hub. Tracking the ratification, domestication, and implementation of the Maputo Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa across the continent. — [https://rflgd.org/maputo-protocol/]
🔗ACDEG Hub. Civil society hub for the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance — tracking ratification, domestication, and implementation across AU member states. — [https://rflgd.org/rfld-acdeg-hub/]
🔗 AU Mechanisms Demystified. A practical reference for navigating the African Union system: AU Commission, Peace and Security Council, ACERWC, African Court, ECOSOCC, APRM, and the Regional Economic Communities. — [https://rflgd.org/au-mechanisms-rfld/]
III · Legislative & Law
🔗West Africa Legislative Platform. A consolidated reference on women’s rights legislation across ECOWAS — gender-specific laws, constitutional provisions, and comparative regional frameworks. — [https://rflgd.org/west-africa-legislative-platform/]
🔗 Legislative Database. A searchable archive of national laws and policies relevant to women’s rights — for benchmarking against continental and international human rights frameworks. — [https://rflgd.org/legislation-in-west-africa/]
IV · Economic & Climate
🔗 Gender-Responsive Budgeting. Tools for civil society to monitor public budgets through a gender lens — tracking whether national spending aligns with stated equality commitments. — [https://rflgd.org/eco/]
🔗Climate Action Platform. Gender-disaggregated climate data for francophone Africa — women’s land rights, agricultural vulnerability, adaptation leadership, and the intersection of climate and feminist advocacy. — [https://rflgd.org/rfld-climate-action/]
V · Health
🔗 Maternal Health Data. Maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) data reference for francophone Africa — supporting advocacy for improved care and service access. — [https://rflgd.org/maternal/]
🔗 My Health, My Right. Francophone sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) resource hub — connecting advocates to data, legal frameworks, and service mappings. — [https://rflgd.org/hub-donuese-ma-sante-mon-droit/]
🔗 Ending Malaria. Data reference on malaria eradication efforts and health service delivery across francophone Africa — with emphasis on women’s and children’s health outcomes. — [https://rflgd.org/end-malaria-in-africa/]
Who it is for, and what they get
- For African civil society organisations
- For journalists and media.
- For researchers and academics.
- For parliamentarians and policy practitioners.
- For lawyers, defenders, and frontline organisers.
COMING SOON
About RFLD
The Réseau des Femmes Leaders pour le Développement (RFLD) is a pan-African afrofeminist network founded in 2013. RFLD holds Observer Status N°553 with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and sits on the Working Group of the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders. RFLD is certified NGOsource 501(c)(3) Equivalent and was
selected by GIZ/BMZ as one of twelve African feminist organisations in the SEA-T flagship cohort, holding the 2026 Presidency of the SEA-T Advisory Council.
RFLD operates through four offices — Porto Novo (Benin), Dakar (Senegal), Accra (Africa Regional), and Banjul (ACHPR Liaison) — with a continental network of 670 member organisations across more than fifteen African countries. RFLD works across six integrated programme fields: SRHR/DSSR (flagship BRAVE), Civic Space and Human Rights Defenders, Economic Justice and Climate, Participatory Governance (flagship PAWELE), Peace and Security, and Ending FGM and Child Marriage.
RFLD re-grants through the WAFFF Fund and the Africa Portfolio Grant.
