Programme field · SRHR / DSSR · Flagship: BRAVE
Sexual and reproductive health is where every other right begins.
RFLD’s sexual and reproductive health and rights portfolio combines policy reform, community mobilisation, defender protection, health-systems advocacy and re-granting in more than 35 African countries. Our deepest presence is in the francophone corridor, where a well-placed investment goes furthest.
Our strengths
Where an intermediary like RFLD adds the most.
RFLD is a pan-African intermediary for women-led organisations. We leave clinical services to health providers and concentrate on the levels where our network makes the biggest difference.
Continental advocacy.
Observer Status at the African Commission, shadow reporting under Article 62 and a seat on the Working Group on Human Rights Defenders.
Public infrastructure.
Legal trackers, open data and digital-safety tools, including the Maputo Protocol Hub and the West Africa Legislative Platform.
Money that reaches the ground.
The WAFFF Fund, the Africa Portfolio Grant and the Resilience Program move resources and management systems to grassroots groups.
A strategic seat.
As co-chair of the SEA-T Programme Advisory Council, funded by BMZ and implemented by GIZ, RFLD helps align the programme with African women-led civil society.
Opportunities
Why this work, now.
A strong treaty is already in force.
46 of 55 African Union member states have ratified the Maputo Protocol, which marked 23 years on 11 July 2026. Every strand of this portfolio is tied to the article it helps implement.
Proven, low-cost health solutions exist.
The interventions that prevent most malaria and maternal deaths in West and Central Africa are known and inexpensive. What they need is demand, financing and accountability, which is the work RFLD does.
An under-funded region with a ready partner.
By AWID’s tracking, under 3% of global funding for women’s rights organisations reaches francophone West Africa. RFLD already works there in French, with grant teams who know the legal systems.
Men and boys ready to be allies.
Evidence shows that well-run programmes with men and boys shift attitudes on GBV, family planning and HIV. RFLD trains male health activists alongside women community leaders.
Flagship programme
BRAVE: Bodily Rights And Violence Eradication.
The engine of RFLD’s SRHR work, active in more than 15 African countries.
Laws change when communities, courts and the media ask for it. Communities change when their own leaders carry the conversation. Survivors are safest when they help design the systems that protect them. BRAVE turns that approach into four pillars.
Maputo domestication, parliamentary advocacy and strategic litigation.
Traditional and religious leaders, men and boys, and former practitioners.
Legal aid, psychosocial support, medical referral and emergency protection through members.
Data from the DƆNÙESÈ Data Center, survivor testimony and media training.
Six thematic areas
Where BRAVE works.
Safe abortion & reproductive choice
Maputo Protocol, Art. 14(2)(c)
Bringing the Protocol’s safe-abortion provision into national health law and stigma-free practice.
- Legislative advocacy for domestication
- Provider training on safe and post-abortion care
- Legal accompaniment under restrictive frameworks
Family planning & sexuality education
Maputo Protocol, Art. 14(1)
Contraception is health care, and it strengthens household and national economies.
- Removing spousal and parental consent barriers
- Free or subsidised contraception in public systems
- Evidence-based comprehensive sexuality education
Ending FGM & child marriage
Maputo Protocol, Art. 5 and 6
Community-led abandonment with ECOWAS-wide legal harmonisation, so the same protection holds on both sides of every border.
- Community Conversations methodology
- Alternative livelihoods for former cutters
- 6 February Zero Tolerance campaign
GBV & technology-facilitated violence
Maputo Protocol, Art. 3, 4 and 11
Prevention, response and justice, including online violence aimed at women in public life.
- One-Stop Centre coordination and justice-chain training
- Cyber Harassment Legal Toolkit (2026)
- Advocacy for ratification of ILO Convention 190
Trafficking & exploitation
Maputo Protocol, Art. 2 and 4
Economic empowerment upstream and regional coordination downstream.
- ECOWAS-level coordination on routes and prosecution
- Identification training for border and consular staff
- Survivor reintegration through member networks
Inclusion & stigma reduction
Maputo Protocol, Art. 2 and 23
Health systems open to every woman, whatever her identity or status.
- SRHR access for women with disabilities
- Humanitarian SRHR and the Minimum Initial Service Package
- Stigma work on HIV, infertility and survivorship
The legal anchor
The Maputo Protocol, article by article.
Adopted on 11 July 2003 and ratified by 46 of 55 AU member states, the Protocol is one of the most progressive women’s rights instruments in the world. Article 14 is clear: states shall ensure that women’s right to health, including sexual and reproductive health, is respected and promoted.
Health in Francophone Africa
Malaria and maternal, newborn and child health.
We work alongside ministries of health, WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF and clinical partners, adding the community and accountability layer they need. The advocacy is anchored in Maputo Article 14 and the Abuja Declaration’s 15% health-financing commitment.
- Community mobilisation: demand for bed nets, IPTp, SMC, antenatal care, skilled birth attendance and immunisation through 1,143 members.
- Advocacy and rights literacy: Article 14 domestication, Abuja budget tracking and free maternal-care monitoring.
- Operational research: evidence on the barriers that stop proven interventions reaching women.
- Re-granting: direct grants to grassroots health-rights organisations through the WAFFF Fund.
Reaching every woman
Adolescent girls, and the men around them.
We reach adolescent girls through schools, youth groups and adolescent-friendly services, and we bring fathers, husbands and religious leaders into the conversation, in line with the MenEngage West Africa Network’s agenda on GBV and HIV.
Menstrual health.
Sanitary products, school sanitation and an end to menstrual stigma.
Early pregnancy.
Prevention, and support for adolescent mothers to return to school.
HIV prevention.
PrEP awareness, STI screening and youth-friendly information.
Men as allies.
Fathers engaged on antenatal care, couples on family planning, faith leaders on health-seeking.
Why it makes an impact
Scorecards that hold states to their word.
Every part of the portfolio feeds the same accountability system, so progress on paper can be checked against progress in communities.
“Investment in RFLD’s programme to end female genital mutilation has strengthened grassroots movements, shifted harmful social norms, and protected thousands of girls.”
RFLD 2025 Annual Report · AWDF Leading from the South
Re-granting
WAFFF: the West African Francophone Feminist Fund.
In 2025 WAFFF re-granted €235,000 to ten women-led organisations across the nine Ouagadougou Partnership countries. Applications and reporting are in French, every sub-grant passes through RFLD’s audited systems with AML/CTF screening, and every grant comes with accompaniment.
Urgent Action
Decision within 5 business days
Legal defence, medical costs and digital threats facing women human rights defenders.
Up to $5,000
Capacity Building
Periodic calls
Core funding for salaries, operations, financial systems and strategic planning.
Up to $20,000
Advocacy
Periodic calls
Evidence-based campaigns, legislative engagement, research and coalitions.
Up to $30,000
Vulnerable Groups Inclusion
Dedicated envelope
For organisations that traditional funding leaves out because of stigma or marginalisation.
Up to $30,000
Opening September 2026
The Africa Portfolio Grant
Five grant products, from $25,000 rapid-response grants to $500,000 movement-building grants, ring-fenced for organisations led by women and girls, vulnerable groups and people with disabilities in all 55 AU member states. Applications in French, English or Portuguese.
In-kind support
The Organizational Resilience Program
A full management software suite, worth about US$5,000 per organisation, donated to a first cohort of 500 grassroots nonprofits. It is bilingual, works offline and covers the ten areas donor due diligence tests, from finance and grants to encrypted safeguarding records.
Protection
Standing with defenders when the ground shifts.
RFLD’s Annual Report on Women Human Rights Defenders documents a wave of new laws that now also target advocacy and funding. Our urgent-action grants, legal accompaniment and data-minimisation practices exist so partners can keep working safely.
If funders invest
What your investment unlocks.
The portfolio is running today. Our 2026–2028 health framework sets quantified targets for the eight highest-burden francophone states, calibrated against UNICEF’s 2025 regional baselines. Benin is the hub where innovations are piloted before regional scale-up.
Service availability
Demand generation, referral pathways and One-Stop Centre coordination through member organisations.
The framework targets above, including 800+ midwives trained with partner facilities.
Social norms
Community Conversations with religious and traditional leaders, former practitioners, men and boys.
A regional norm-change architecture on FGM and harmful practices, active in more districts.
Accountability
The Maputo Barometer, the Protocol Hub and the West Africa Legislative Platform.
Bilingual scorecards updated regularly, complementing EAC and SADC tools where coverage is thinnest.
Local ownership
16 grants awarded between June and September 2026, including €160,000 in sub-grants and a first Resilience Program cohort of 500 organisations.
The Africa Portfolio Grant at full scale, reaching organisations in all 55 AU member states.
This portfolio maps onto the priorities found in most bilateral SRHR strategies, with Sweden’s 2025–2029 strategy as a worked example. Partnership conversations begin with a 25-minute introductory call, and the full due diligence package is available on request.
Due diligence & safeguarding
Built to pass any audit.
Policy suite.
Safeguarding and PSEAH, anti-fraud, whistleblowing and conflict of interest, all in force and available on request.
Annual audit.
Independent external financial audits, shared with institutional partners.
Data protection.
Aligned with the AU Malabo Convention and GDPR, with encryption and data minimisation for at-risk grantees.
Legal presence.
Six offices across the continent, able to hold funds, contract staff and deliver across the corridor.
Engage with this work
Get in touch.
Confidential channel for safeguarding and integrity concerns: integrity@rflgd.org
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