Every year, donor governments report tens of billions of dollars in aid that has gender equality as one of its objectives. Yet the organisations that defend women’s rights every day, in villages, courts and community radios, see very little of that money. RFLD’s 2026 data report, Funding Feminist Movements in Francophone West Africa, brings together the main estimates. They all point to the same conclusion: about 1% of gender-related aid reaches women’s rights organisations directly.
Two decades of growth in gender-related aid
For twenty years, the share of aid marked for gender equality grew steadily. It rose from 5% of screened bilateral aid in 2002 to about 42% in 2020, then levelled off at a little over 40%, around US$65 billion a year. Aid with gender equality as its principal objective remained much smaller, at just over US$5 billion (George and Gulrajani, 2023).
For 2023 and 2024, Focus 2030 reports average commitments of US$70.8 billion a year, or 48.2% of screened bilateral aid. Of this amount, US$6 billion had gender equality as the principal objective. Commitments fell by 15% between 2023 and 2024, while disbursements rose by 16% (Focus 2030, 2026a).
Why the totals mislead
These totals are misleading if read alone. Most gender-related aid is “significant objective” funding. In these programmes, gender is one consideration within a larger project on health, agriculture or governance. The money flows to ministries, United Nations agencies and large international NGOs. Very little of it reaches women’s organisations as grants they can manage themselves.
Donors use the OECD gender equality policy marker to classify their aid. A programme marked 2 has gender equality as its principal objective, a programme marked 1 has it as a significant objective and a programme marked 0 does not target it. A separate OECD purpose code, 15170, records aid to women’s rights organisations and movements and to government institutions. Analysts count these flows in different ways, which explains why the figures below vary.
Four estimates, one conclusion
Every major study reaches the same result. In 2017 and 2018, only US$198 million of US$48.7 billion in gender-focused aid reached women’s rights organisations, about 1% (Lever et al., 2020). Equal Measures 2030, citing the OECD, gives US$481 million a year for 2022 and 2023, below 0.2% of total aid and down from US$603.2 million in 2020 and 2021 (Equal Measures 2030, 2025). Focus 2030, analysing OECD data for 2023 and 2024, estimates US$784 million a year, roughly 1% of gender-related aid (Focus 2030, 2026b).
Philanthropy does not change the picture much. Women’s rights organisations received US$223 million from foundations in 2021 and 2022, or 1.8% of tracked giving. Of US$1.2 billion granted by human rights foundations for women and girls, 50.8% went to groups based in the Global North (Morena et al., 2025). The OECD also found that just ten international foundations provided 97% of cross-border giving for gender equality in developing countries in 2021 and 2022.
| Source and period | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Lever et al. (2020), aid 2017 to 2018 | US$198 million | About 1% of gender-focused aid |
| Equal Measures 2030 (2025), aid 2022 to 2023 | US$481 million a year | Less than 0.2% of total aid |
| Focus 2030 (2026b), aid 2023 to 2024 | US$784 million a year | About 1% of gender-related aid |
| Morena et al. (2025), philanthropy 2021 to 2022 | US$223 million | 1.8% of tracked giving |
Money for Africa managed outside Africa
Human rights funding worldwide reached US$4.1 billion in 2019, an increase of 242% since 2010. Funding for sub-Saharan Africa, however, declined for a second year in a row, and funders based in the Global South and East controlled only about 1% of grant dollars (Roohi, 2022). Earlier, the Human Rights Funders Network had found that 49% of the US$1.2 billion in human rights funding for sub-Saharan Africa between 2011 and 2015 went to organisations based outside the region (Thomas, 2018).
The pattern is consistent over time. A large share of the money described as being “for Africa” is decided and managed elsewhere. For a feminist organisation in Cotonou, Lomé or Bamako, the result is that the international budget lines that carry its name rarely become a grant in its own bank account.
Why this matters now
When aid budgets were growing, the small share reaching women’s organisations was at least a share of a larger total. Since 2025, the total itself is shrinking. OECD aid fell by 23.1% in 2025 and is projected to fall again in 2026. If the share reaching women’s organisations stays at about 1%, the amount they receive falls with it. If donors cut first what is smallest and most flexible, it could fall even faster.
RFLD therefore asks donors to use the OECD purpose code for women’s rights organisations consistently and to publish every year the share of their gender funding that reaches francophone West Africa. Without this data, the gap remains invisible. No public dataset today measures funding to women’s organisations by language area, and that absence is itself one of the findings of the report.
Key figures
- US$70.8 billion a year: gender-related aid commitments in 2023 and 2024.
- US$481 million to US$784 million a year: aid reaching women’s rights organisations, depending on the definition.
- 1.8%: the share of tracked philanthropic giving that reached women’s rights organisations in 2021 and 2022.
- 97%: the share of cross-border giving for gender equality provided by ten foundations.
Organisations looking for funders that work in French can consult the list of opportunities in Annex B of the report and RFLD’s page on tenders and grants.
About the report
This article draws on RFLD’s data report Funding Feminist Movements in Francophone West Africa: 2026 Data (RFLD/DR/2026/03), published on 4 October 2026. Read the summary of the report, download the English edition or the French edition. Sources cited in this article are listed in full in the report.
