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More funding must reach the women’s organisations doing the work in Francophone Africa

Bathor Seck, RFLD Country Director in Senegal: more funding must reach the grassroots women's organisations doing the work in Francophone Africa.

RFLD Team 11 min read
Bathor Seck, RFLD Country Director in Senegal, speaking to the press, with her quote: "Their work holds communities together. Yet the money meant for this work rarely reaches them."

By Bathor SECK, Country Director, Senegal, Women Leaders Network for Development (RFLD)

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Bathor Seck, RFLD Country Director in Senegal, speaking to the press, with her quote: Their work holds communities together. Yet the money meant for this work rarely reaches them.

Every week in Senegal, I meet women who run organisations on almost nothing. They take survivors to the police station, keep girls in school, train rural women to sell what they produce and defend their rights before the commune. Their work holds communities together. Yet the money meant for this work rarely reaches them. At the Women Leaders Network for Development (RFLD), we have made a clear commitment: to strengthen the Francophone nonprofit ecosystem and to make sure that more funding reaches the organisations doing this work across the region.

The gap we see every day

The figures confirm what we see on the ground. Women’s rights organisations receive about 1% of gender-related aid (Focus 2030, 2026). The median feminist organisation worldwide worked with US$22,000 in 2023. For 72% of them, grants last 18 months or less, and 64% could not keep operating for six months if their funding stopped (AWID, 2025). In the Global South, 64.4% of feminist organisations have annual budgets under €50,000 and 57% have no institutional funding at all (Groupe Egaé, 2022).

The pressure is growing. Official development assistance from OECD donors fell by a record 23.1% in 2025, and the OECD projects a further fall of 6.9% in 2026, with bilateral aid to sub-Saharan Africa expected to drop by 11.6% (OECD, 2026). In France, a leading partner of many French-speaking countries, aid to women’s rights organisations fell by 71% between 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 (Focus 2030, 2026). According to UN Women, at least one million women and girls have already lost access to critical support, and two in five organisations expect to close within a year (UN Women, 2026).

Francophone Africa is hit hardest. My colleague John Gbenagnon analysed the public database of gifts made by MacKenzie Scott, one of the most generous donors of our time and one known for giving with trust. Of US$26.3 billion given since 2019, organisations headquartered in Francophone Africa received 0.13% of the published amounts (Gbenagnon, 2026). His method is simple and open: each published gift is counted in the country where the recipient organisation has its headquarters. The figure shows how hard it is for organisations in the region to be seen, even by donors who want to reach those closest to communities. African-led organisations receive less than 2% of global philanthropy (Myriad USA, 2026), and more than 58% of funds intended for Africa still pass through Western intermediaries (Oak Foundation, 2024).

What keeps the money away

The obstacles are practical, and we meet them in every call we run. RFLD’s own research on the funding of feminist movements in Francophone West Africa documents them in detail (RFLD, 2026a).

  • Language. Most calls, forms and reports are in English. Funders favour English-speaking and East African initiatives, and many strong French-speaking organisations never apply (RFLD, 2026a).
  • Paperwork built for large NGOs. Audits, long logical frameworks and quarterly reports cost more than many small organisations earn in a year. Only 13% of direct human rights grants for sub-Saharan Africa are flexible (Human Rights Funders Network, 2023).
  • Banking. An international transfer needs the exact account name, a full street address, the bank’s SWIFT code and a bank certificate. A single missing detail can block a payment for weeks.
  • Visibility. Many funders, including some of the most generous, find their partners through their own research and recommendations and do not take applications (Associated Press, 2025). An organisation in Kaffrine, Matam or Sédhiou, with a website and reports only in French, rarely appears in that research.

This gap has a human cost. When a women’s organisation closes, survivors lose a place to turn to, girls lose a mentor and defenders lose the network that protects them. In Francophone Africa, women’s movements often hold the line alone, with funding that runs out before the work is done.

Grassroots organisations are also the ones that reach the women large programmes miss. They speak Wolof, Pulaar or Serer, they know which families keep girls at home and which local leaders can be convinced. They are often the first to respond when violence happens and the last to leave when a project ends. Funding them is the most direct way to turn commitments on gender equality into change that women can see in their own lives.

What works: trust, flexibility and direct funding

There is good evidence that a different way of funding works, and MacKenzie Scott’s giving has shown it at scale. Research by the Center for Effective Philanthropy found that her large, unrestricted gifts created sustained impact: organisations used them to hire, build reserves and plan beyond the next project (CEP, 2025). Flexible money allows small organisations to survive a bad year and grow. Bringing this kind of trust to Francophone Africa would reach organisations that have rarely received it.

Public funders are also showing the way. The SEA-T programme (Society. Equality. Africa – the Transformation), implemented by GIZ for the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, has €25 million for 2024 to 2028 to help local and regional civil society actors improve social justice and participation in Africa (GIZ, 2026a). It contracts directly with African organisations, works in French, and shares decisions with a Participatory Grant Council of regional feminist organisations that selects thirty organisations for institutional support (GIZ, 2026b). RFLD is a SEA-T partner and co-chairs its Advisory Council, so we know this model from the inside.

Yéego Jigéen: our commitment in practice

With Yéego Jigéen (Women Rising), RFLD puts these lessons to work in Senegal. The programme supports grassroots women’s rights organisations in the fourteen regions of the country, in two cohorts of 25 organisations (RFLD, 2026b).

  • Each organisation receives a flexible grant of US$20,000 for six months, from 1 December 2026 to 31 May 2027. It decides how to use it within its own priorities: staff and volunteers, rent, governance, equipment, safety or advocacy.
  • 85% is paid at the start, after signature and verification of the bank details, and 15% after the final report.
  • Reporting is light: a mid-term update at month three and a simple final report of no more than five pages. No external audit is required.
  • Every organisation takes part in two residential training sessions and in tailored support on financial management, governance and resource mobilisation.
  • The grant is paid only into a bank account in the organisation’s own name, which protects the organisation and those who fund it.

Since October, organisations of the first cohort have received their award letters and are signing their agreements. Our Dakar team works with each of them, document by document, so that no grant is lost because of a missing SWIFT code or an incomplete address. For many of them, it is the first time they manage a grant of this size, and the support matters as much as the money.

Yéego Jigéen is part of a wider effort. Between June and September 2026, RFLD awarded 27 grants worth US$722,100 to women’s organisations in West Africa, with an average of US$26,744 (RFLD, 2026c). That average is higher than the median annual budget of a feminist organisation worldwide.

Our commitments

  1. Flexible money, paid directly. We fund organisations themselves, in their own name, and let them decide what they need most.
  2. Calls in French, built for local realities. Our calls, forms and support are in French, with help by phone and WhatsApp for organisations far from Dakar.
  3. Support that builds strength. We accompany each organisation on its accounts, governance and fundraising, so that the next funder finds a stronger partner.
  4. Transparency. We publish our grants register every quarter, except where naming an organisation would put it at risk.
  5. Connections. We introduce funders to the organisations we know and trust, and we share our open data on women’s rights in all 55 African Union member States (RFLD, 2026d).

What we learn in Senegal will not stay in Senegal. With 1,143 member organisations in more than 35 countries, RFLD can share what works with partners across Francophone West and Central Africa: simple application forms in French, light reporting, careful checks of bank details and support that continues after the money arrives. Our aim is a stronger Francophone nonprofit ecosystem, where good organisations are known, trusted and funded.

A call to funders and partners

Strengthening the Francophone nonprofit ecosystem needs more than one network. We ask funders to take four steps.

  • Open calls in French and accept applications and reports in French.
  • Fund core costs with multi-year, flexible grants and simple reporting.
  • Fund through African networks and feminist funds that already know the organisations on the ground, with clear targets for Francophone Africa.
  • Measure where your money goes, by the country where recipients are based, not only where they work.

Banks and governments have a part to play too. They can make it easier to register associations and to receive international transfers, because money does not reach those the law and the banking system make fragile. Organisations, for their part, can keep clear accounts, publish their results in French and in English, and join forces to reach the scale large funders know how to fund.

If you are a funder, a foundation or a philanthropist who wants to support women’s organisations in Francophone Africa, write to us at admin@rflgd.org. We will be glad to share what we know and to introduce you to the organisations doing the work. The women I meet every week do not need to be convinced that their work matters. They need the means to keep doing it.

About Yéego Jigéen
See our 2026 grants

Bathor SECK is the Country Director of the Women Leaders Network for Development (Réseau des Femmes Leaders pour le Développement, RFLD) in Senegal.

References

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