In parts of francophone West Africa, the most direct threat to funding for women’s organisations comes from measures taken against associations themselves. RFLD’s 2026 data report, Funding Feminist Movements in Francophone West Africa, documents mass suspensions in Niger and Burkina Faso and explains why they matter for every funder working in the region.
Niger: 2,900 NGOs suspended
In April 2026, the authorities of Niger announced that about 2,900 of the 4,700 registered NGOs in the country had been suspended in 2025. They cited transparency and financial reporting as the reasons (Africanews, 2026). In a single year, more than six in ten registered NGOs lost the legal right to operate.
Niger’s civic space is rated repressed by the CIVICUS Monitor, with a score of 32 out of 100. The country has not ratified the Maputo Protocol, the African instrument on women’s rights, and it has been excluded from some recent funding calls.
Burkina Faso: 1,174 organisations suspended or dissolved
In Burkina Faso, a new law on freedom of association was adopted in July 2025. By June 2026, CIVICUS counted at least 1,174 civil society organisations suspended or dissolved (CIVICUS Monitor, 2026). Burkina Faso has the lowest CIVICUS score of the eight countries covered by RFLD’s report, 25 out of 100, and has been on the CIVICUS watchlist since July 2026.
Sweden maintains only limited cooperation with Burkina Faso since the 2022 coups, mostly earmarked food security funding (Sida, n.d.). Like Niger, Burkina Faso has been excluded from some recent funding calls.
Mali and Guinea
The pattern extends beyond these two countries. In Mali, associations were suspended in 2024 and political parties banned in June 2025. Sweden ended its development aid to Mali in 2024, and new penal provisions adopted in 2024 increase legal risks for some groups. In Guinea, 40 political parties were dissolved in March 2026 and activists have been missing since 2024. Few funders report active programmes for women’s organisations in Guinea.
How suspensions cut the flow of money
When the organisations that receive grants are suspended, funds cannot flow. Banks refuse transfers to accounts of suspended associations. Donors that require legal registration must stop payments. Programmes are interrupted halfway, and staff are dismissed. The women the organisations serve lose support: survivors of violence lose their counsellor and rural women lose the paralegal who helped them claim land.
Suspensions also create fear among organisations that remain registered. Many reduce their visibility, avoid public statements and hesitate to accept foreign funding that could attract attention. The space for advocacy shrinks even where the law has not yet been applied.
Funding in restrictive contexts
Feminist leaders from the region have asked funders to treat the Sahel and the coastal States differently, and to fund informal groups and individuals as well as registered organisations (RFLD, 2025). RFLD’s report translates these demands into recommendations:
- Develop specific approaches for countries with severe restrictions, including support to informal groups, organisations in exile and regional networks.
- Assess the legal and security risks that new laws on associations and foreign funding create for grantees, and adapt reporting requirements to protect them.
- Allow informal or unregistered groups to apply through a fiscal host or intermediary.
- Keep a record of suspensions, dissolutions and funding restrictions affecting women’s organisations, as part of the research agenda for 2027.
Regional networks such as RFLD, with members across the region and offices in Dakar, Porto-Novo, Accra and Banjul, can keep links with organisations in the Sahel when direct funding becomes impossible. Peer support, training and protection services can continue through regional channels.
The coastal States are not immune
Civic space in the coastal States of the region is less restricted, yet it is under pressure as well. Côte d’Ivoire is rated obstructed, with arrests at banned opposition protests around the October 2025 presidential election and new rules for civil society organisations adopted in 2024. Togo is rated repressed after protests in 2025 against constitutional changes were met with deaths, arrests and internet restrictions.
Senegal is the only country covered by the report whose rating improved recently, from repressed to obstructed in December 2025. Even there, a law adopted in March 2026 creates legal uncertainty for funders of some groups. Organisations across the region therefore need funders who understand the local context and can adapt quickly when rules change.
RFLD’s report proposes that funders keep a list of the countries where their partners face the greatest legal risk, and review it at least once a year with regional intermediaries.
Key figures
- About 2,900 of 4,700: registered NGOs suspended in Niger in 2025.
- At least 1,174: civil society organisations suspended or dissolved in Burkina Faso by June 2026.
- 25 and 32: the CIVICUS scores of Burkina Faso and Niger, out of 100.
- 40: political parties dissolved in Guinea in March 2026.
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.
