Call for applications · Open 5 to 23 August 2026 · Margins of the 89th Session · ACHPR · Dakar
Applications openSpace to Defend
Mainstreaming gender in the protection of Africa's digital civic space, and rolling out the RFLD Gender Mainstreaming Tool. Apply to take part in the Dakar convening.
Why Dakar, why now
A civic space that is contested, and unequally so.
The tools that let citizens organise and hold power to account are also turned into instruments of surveillance. That pressure is gendered. Technology-facilitated gender-based violence is used to push women out of public life, and it falls hardest on women defenders, women in politics and women-led organisations.
Francophone and lusophone West and Central Africa remain under-served by mainstream digital rights work. RFLD works to close that gap and to make sure the space defended is gender-just, francophone-equitable and grounded in community. This convening lands where it can inform continental advocacy from the start.
Why this work matters · continental evidence
The scale of harm is continental.
Four figures from RFLD's continental monitoring across African Union member states. Each is an aggregate across the most recent quarterly reporting cycles.
of women across member states have experienced some form of online violence.
of young women under 35 report direct experience of online harassment.
of women lack specific legal protection from digital abuse.
of survivors who report incidents describe lasting psychological harm.
RFLD continental monitoring · 2024 to 2025 quarterly aggregation
The method being put into service
The Gender Mainstreaming Tool, rolled out over two working days.
Participants do not watch a presentation. They work with each component of the tool and leave able to use it in their own organisations.
Threat-assessment matrices
Gender-responsive risk modelling for the compound pressures on women defenders, from judicial harassment to online smear campaigns.
Disaggregated registration
One intake instrument that records who is reached and who is exposed. It is the entry point for the dashboard.
Quarterly GESI dashboard
Disaggregated data turned into indicators tracked over time and reported to partners.
Cross-cutting · GESI · Pillar 1
What the tool works on · the typology
Eight forms of technology-facilitated gender-based violence.
The convening equips participants to recognise and respond to the forms of digital violence documented across RFLD's continental network.
Cyberstalking
Repeated unwanted monitoring, contact or surveillance through digital platforms, often targeting women in public life.
Online harassment
Abusive messaging, threats and coordinated pile-on attacks against women journalists, politicians and defenders.
Image-based abuse
Non-consensual creation or sharing of intimate images, increasingly including AI-generated imagery.
Doxxing
Publishing private personal information to enable offline harassment and physical-safety threats.
Sextortion
Coercion through threatened release of intimate images or sensitive information, frequently cross-border.
Deepfake abuse
AI-generated synthetic imagery, voice cloning and impersonation, moving faster than most legal frameworks.
Coordinated campaigns
Organised attacks during election cycles targeting women candidates and the journalists who cover them.
Surveillance and tracking
Stalkerware, biometric data abuse and surveillance with disproportionate impact on women defenders.
Working session · closed working group
Two days to ground the method and build the first dashboard.
Thursday 9 October · Grounding the method
Friday 10 October · Applying it, building the dashboard
Side-event programme · open to session participants
Four public sessions carry the work into the 89th Session.
Laws that protect, not silence
Data protection, overly broad false-information laws and election-period shutdowns, feeding the African Declaration process.
Women in politics and TFGBV
Documenting attacks on women in public life and connecting them with RFLD's monitoring of technology-facilitated gender-based violence.
Defend without being exposed
Protection, recognition and financing of women human rights defenders and environmental defenders across the continent.
The francophone & lusophone safety desk
Showcasing the French and Portuguese helpline desks, network building and sustainability, on African Human Rights Day.
The legal and normative anchor
Grounded in the continental human-rights framework.
The convening and the tool are anchored in the instruments that protect women's rights and freedom from digital violence in Africa.
Resolution 522
Protection of Women Against Digital Violence in Africa. The principal continental framework on cyber-harassment, image-based abuse and platform accountability.
Resolution 591
Study on Digital Violence Against Women's Rights. Mandates a continental study that informs harmonisation of national law.
Resolution 620
Access to Data as a Human Rights and Development Tool. Standards on data collection, transparency and algorithmic accountability.
Maputo Protocol
The foundational instrument on the rights of women in Africa, anchoring all work on digital rights and freedom from violence.
Malabo Convention
The continental cybersecurity and personal-data-protection framework, whose ratification RFLD tracks across member states.
ACDEG, Article 8
The continental framework on women's political participation, central where digital violence is used to suppress women's candidacy.
Who should apply
A francophone, lusophone and anglophone community of practice.
Applications are for the closed working session on 9 and 10 October. Priority goes to francophone and lusophone applicants and to women-led organisations.
- Women human rights defenders and environmental defenders
- Women in politics and women-led organisations
- Francophone and lusophone digital rights organisations
- RFLD member organisations across the continental network
The side-event programme, 12 to 15 October, is open to the wider audience of the 89th Session, including ACHPR commissioners and mechanisms, State party delegations, national human rights institutions and partners.
Where the tool lives
Part of RFLD's continental data infrastructure.
The Gender Mainstreaming Tool feeds RFLD's continental data infrastructure, the DƆNÙESÈ Data Center, alongside three further pillars.
Maputo Protocol Hub
Continental anchor on the rights of women in Africa. Ratification tracker, indigenous-language translations and reference documents.
West Africa Legislative Platform
Comparative legal analysis across fifteen West African countries and nine legal domains each.
Women in Politics Tracker
Continental representation data across executive, legislature, judiciary and local government.
Fourth pillar · African Digital Safety Compendium · continental TFGBV reference and curated resource library
How to apply
Apply to take part in Dakar.
Applications open on 5 August 2026 and close on 23 August 2026. Apply through the online form. Sensitive items are optional and confidential. Responses feed the quarterly dashboard in aggregated, anonymised form.
How to apply
Complete the online application form before 23 August 2026.
Deadline · 23 August 2026
Questions: program@rflgd.org · Interpretation available in French, English and Portuguese.
For funders and partnersPour les bailleurs et les partenaires
Fund the women who defend rights in Africa, nowFinancez maintenant les femmes qui défendent les droits en Afrique
Aid to women’s organisations is falling. RFLD moves funding fast to women-led organisations and defenders, in French and English, through a network of 1,143 member organisations in more than 35 African countries.L’aide aux organisations de femmes recule. Le RFLD achemine vite les financements vers les organisations de femmes et les défenseures, en français et en anglais, grâce à un réseau de 1 143 organisations membres dans plus de 35 pays africains.
RFLD currently serves as Co-Chair of the SEA-T Programme Advisory Council, mandated to ensure the programme’s direction, priorities, and resources are meaningfully aligned with the visions of African women-led civil society. The SEA-T Programme is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.Le RFLD assure actuellement la coprésidence du Conseil consultatif du programme SEA-T, chargé de veiller à ce que l’orientation, les priorités et les ressources du programme soient réellement alignées sur les visions de la société civile africaine portée par les femmes. Le programme SEA-T est financé par le ministère fédéral allemand de la Coopération économique et du Développement (BMZ) et mis en œuvre par la Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. See the partnershipVoir le partenariat
- 1,143member organisationsorganisations membres
- 35+African countriespays africains
- N°553ACHPR observer statusstatut d’observateur CADHP
- CandidSeal of Transparency 2025Sceau de transparence 2025
DonateFaire un don Partner with RFLDDevenir partenaire See our financialsVoir nos états financiers