NAFASI · A Sida-funded initiative · 2026 – 2028
NAFASI — space.
Swahili for “space.” Defending Africa’s digital civic space.
A three-year initiative — Magamba Network, DefendDefenders, and RFLD — to secure digital democracy across the continent through policy reform, practical resilience, and continental network power.
The context
Africa’s digital landscape — promise and repression.
Africa’s digital landscape empowers civic mobilisation while enabling state repression. AI-driven disinformation threatens the integrity of public information ecosystems. And crucially, this repression is gendered: Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence is used as a deliberate political tactic to silence women in public life.
NAFASI advances on three fronts — pushing for laws that protect digital rights, building practical capacity for those most exposed, and connecting fragmented digital activism into a coordinated continental network. The initiative’s overall objective is to secure Africa’s digital democracy against state repression and corporate technology misuse — by equipping civil society with resilient, sovereign infrastructure and cybersecurity capacity.
Within that strategic frame, RFLD’s role is the Feminist & Francophone Bridge — leveraging continental presence to ensure interventions are gender-responsive and inclusive of francophone West and Central Africa, with a specialised mandate for high-level diplomatic advocacy, protection of Women Human Rights Defenders, and gender mainstreaming to counter TFGBV.
NAFASI is the Swahili word for space. The initiative is a continental commitment to defend the space — online and offline — where civil society, journalists, and women human rights defenders do their work. RFLD’s role within that commitment is to make sure the space defended is gender-just, francophone-equitable, and grounded in community.
NAFASI · The strategy
Securing Africa’s digital democracy — by law, by practice, by network.
Each pillar is operationalised through specific consortium activities; RFLD contributes to all three.
Normative legal frameworks to counter repression
Working with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Universal Periodic Review, and parliaments across the continent. Advancing data protection, restricting overly broad “false information” laws, banning discriminatory AI surveillance, and preventing internet shutdowns during elections and protests.
A gender-responsive digital ecosystem
Training, fellowships, audits, and a 24/7 emergency response helpline. Across the consortium: SafeSisters trains women digital security trainers; cybersecurity workshops reach hundreds of participants; the helpline responds to emergencies in real time; and Civic Cloud hosts high-risk organisations on sovereign infrastructure.
Transnational civic solidarity
Hub Connect formalises digital innovation hubs across the continent; the African Changemakers MeetUp convenes youth annually; strategic litigation challenges repressive digital laws; and RFLD-led diplomatic dialogues brief foreign missions on spyware use and gendered repression.
RFLD as Implementing Partner
A specialised role — addressing the gaps mainstream digital rights work leaves open.
RFLD’s place in NAFASI is shaped by what we are uniquely positioned to deliver: francophone reach, feminist digital rights expertise, established ACHPR engagement, and a network of 670 grassroots organisations across 35+ African countries.
Feminist & Francophone Bridge
Addressing the funding gap in francophone West and Central Africa, ensuring digital rights resources reach under-served civil society organisations operating outside the anglophone mainstream of pan-African digital rights work.
Gender Mainstreaming Lead
Implementing the Gender Mainstreaming Tool consortium-wide — threat-assessment matrices, gender-disaggregated data, accountability dashboards, and live monitoring of Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence.
High-Level Diplomatic Advocacy
Convening diplomatic dialogues on spyware exports and gendered repression — escalating to the African Union, the United Nations, and ACHPR Special Rapporteurs through technical dossiers and shadow reports.
Protection of Women Human Rights Defenders
Direct protection for Women Human Rights Defenders and environmental advocates facing the compound surveillance pressure of gendered, political, and corporate adversaries.
Five activities · what RFLD will deliver
RFLD’s NAFASI implementation plan.
RFLD’s NAFASI workplan is structured around five activities, mapped to the consortium’s three strategic pillars. Each activity has its own targets, timeline, and accountability framework. Targets below are the workplan commitments to Sida and the consortium.
Digital Rights Training Workshops
Bi-annual digital rights training for both anglophone and francophone contexts — building legal capacity to challenge repressive laws and advocate for corporate accountability. Six workshops across the project lifetime: three anglophone, three francophone. Bilingual training manuals on digital rights litigation, advocacy toolkits, and annual progress reports with cohort impact case studies.
High-Level Diplomatic Dialogues
Strategic forums on state spyware and TFGBV — convening diplomatic partners, UN bodies, and ACHPR officials to raise the political cost of repressive technology use. Joint-action communiqués from each dialogue. Policy recommendations advanced toward ACHPR and AU resolutions. Strategic litigation cases filed in collaboration with allied legal teams. Sustained engagement with foreign missions on gendered digital repression.
Environmental Justice Network for WHRDs
Mapping and integrating West African environmental Women Human Rights Defenders into a rapid-response digital security system — protecting those whose work threatens extractive economic interests. Eco-defenders face high-level corporate surveillance; mainstream HRD networks under-serve gendered, intersectional vulnerabilities. RFLD’s francophone reach covers regions where eco-activism is concentrated, and the network connects rapid response with long-term protection.
Gender Mainstreaming & GESI Integration
RFLD leads the application of the Gender Mainstreaming Tool across all NAFASI activities — threat-assessment matrices, gender-disaggregated data, accountability dashboards, and live monitoring of Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence including deepfake pornography, doxxing, and image-based abuse. Tools include the Gender Mainstreaming Tool adapted from RFLD’s existing methodology, threat-assessment matrices for gender-responsive risk modelling, disaggregated registration and survey instruments across all activities, and quarterly GESI accountability dashboards published to the consortium and to Sida.
Digital Security Helpline · French & Portuguese desks
Co-managed with DefendDefenders — adding French and Portuguese language capability to support francophone and lusophone activists during digital emergencies and internet shutdowns. The helpline provides 24/7 triage and resolution for digital emergencies, French and Portuguese desks closing the language gap in pan-African digital protection, VPN and eSIM distribution during shutdowns, and live coordination with DefendDefenders’ incident response infrastructure.
Geographic reach
Anchored in francophone West Africa — continental reach.
RFLD’s NAFASI delivery is concentrated where the project’s twin pressures — gendered repression and francophone funding gaps — hit hardest, while continental policy hubs extend influence across the African Union’s 55 member states.
African countries of direct RFLD programme delivery under NAFASI.
Porto-Novo · Accra (Africa Office) · Dakar (Francophone Hub) · Banjul (AU Liaison Hub)
Member organisations across the continent — the grassroots reach NAFASI flows through.
AU member states reached through RFLD’s DΩNÙESÈ Data Center, Maputo Protocol Hub, ACDEG Hub, and West Africa Legislative Platform.
The francophone digital rights ecosystem is chronically under-resourced. Mainstream pan-African digital rights consortia tend to anchor in anglophone East and Southern Africa — leaving francophone West and Central Africa, where civic space is among the most contested on the continent, without proportionate protection or advocacy capacity.
RFLD’s offices, member network, and accumulated relationships with ECOWAS, the African Commission, and francophone parliaments make us uniquely positioned to close that gap. NAFASI’s reach into Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, and Togo flows directly through RFLD’s existing presence.
Implementation · 36 months
From foundation to consolidation — a three-phase path.
RFLD’s NAFASI delivery moves through three distinct phases — laying institutional foundations in Year 1, scaling activities through Year 2, and consolidating advocacy gains for sustainability in Year 3.
Foundation
- Activate Digital Security Helpline — French and Portuguese desks live
- Establish the Environmental Justice Network for WHRDs
- First bi-annual digital rights training (anglophone & francophone)
- Host three diplomatic dialogues — spyware, TFGBV, AU/UN forum
Expansion
- Scale up training workshops to advanced cohorts
- Expand WHRDs network integration across the region
- File first strategic litigation cases via ACHPR
- Fully operationalise GESI accountability dashboards
Consolidation
- Sustainability planning for WHRD networks & alumni structures
- Consolidate advocacy gains — resolutions and legislation tracking
- External impact assessment & documentation of the model
- Publish final GESI synthesis & consortium handover
Without a gender-responsive intervention, digital authoritarianism threatens to enforce a “digital apartheid” — silencing women activists across the continent.
Engage with NAFASI
Ready to invest in gender justice across Africa?
NAFASI is a continental commitment to defend the space — online and off — where civil society, journalists, and women human rights defenders do their work. RFLD’s role is to make sure that space is gender-just, francophone-equitable, and grounded in community.