RFLD News | Abuja, Nigeria | 6 and 7 October 2026
On 6 and 7 October 2026, the Women Leaders Network for Development (RFLD) takes part in the Nigeria National Consultation and Planning Workshop on Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence in Abuja.
The workshop is organised by Expertise France under the Team Europe Initiative on Women’s Leadership in the Public ICT Sector (WLICT). It brings together Nigerian institutions, civil society and technical partners to look at how online and technology-facilitated violence affects women and girls in Nigeria, and to plan a national response.
RFLD will be represented by Simbiat BAKARE, our Nigeria Country Representative, who leads our national partnerships and our work with Nigerian women’s rights organisations.
Why this matters
Technology-facilitated gender-based violence follows women from their phones into their homes, their workplaces and their public lives. Women journalists, women in politics, activists and women human rights defenders are often the first targets. Many stop speaking online, and some leave public life altogether.
Nigeria has one of the largest online populations in Africa. How the country responds to this violence, through its laws, its institutions and the services available to survivors, will shape the experience of millions of women and girls.
What RFLD brings to the table
RFLD will share what our members see on the ground and the tools we have built with them:
- the African Digital Safety Compendium, a practical resource on digital safety for women and the organisations that support them;
- our continental work on the Maputo Protocol and the free open-data tools of our Countries Data Center;
- the experience of the new RFLD Nigeria Network, which links Nigerian women’s rights organisations from the six geopolitical zones to national and continental advocacy.
Our aim is simple. We want the plan that comes out of Abuja to reach grassroots women, including women outside Lagos and Abuja and women with disabilities, and to give survivors a clear path to support.
Women should be able to speak, organise and lead online without fear. Nigerian organisations already know what works in their communities, and this consultation is a chance to put their knowledge at the centre of the national response.
From Abuja to Dakar
The conversation will continue a few days later in Dakar, where RFLD takes part in the 89th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. There, RFLD will carry the voices of women human rights defenders, including on technology-facilitated violence, to the Commission and its Special Rapporteurs.
We thank Expertise France and the Team Europe partners for the invitation, and we look forward to working with Nigerian institutions and organisations on the next steps.
Join the RFLD Nigeria Network
Is your organisation working for the rights of women, girls and Vulnerable Groups in Nigeria? Applications for the founding intake of the RFLD Nigeria Network are open until 25 October 2026.
Media and partnership enquiries: admin@rflgd.org
About RFLD
The Women Leaders Network for Development (RFLD) is a pan-African Afrofeminist network of 1,143 member organisations in more than 35 African countries. Together, they advance the rights of women and girls, with RFLD standing behind them.
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