DƆNÙESÈ Data Center
Data as public infrastructure for African civil society.
The DƆNÙESÈ Data Center is RFLD’s collection of twelve open tools: policy hubs, legislative trackers and gender-disaggregated datasets, kept as public goods. It covers the whole continent and goes deepest in the francophone corridor that most mainstream tools overlook.
- 12 open tools
- Hubs, trackers, databases and courses
- English and French
- Every tool is bilingual
- Free to use
- No login, licence or fee
- 55 AU member states
- Continental scope, francophone depth
The name
DƆNÙESÈ
A word from West African languages meaning knowledge held in common.
DƆNÙESÈ carries the meaning of knowledge that is shared, passed on and owned by a community. That is what this data center is: a set of public tools we build and maintain so that African civil society can have data that is both rigorous and easy to reach.
Each tool fills a specific gap, such as a legal framework with no tracker, a rights instrument with no data on domestication, or a policy field with no continental reference. The collection covers African Union mechanisms, ECOWAS legislation and continent-wide rights instruments, and specialises in the francophone corridor where mainstream platforms are thinnest.
The Data Center feeds RFLD’s policy hubs, informs programme design and helps our 670 member organisations ground local advocacy in continental evidence. Any organisation, researcher, journalist or advocate can use it, with no registration, fees or API keys.
Twelve open tools, every one of them public
Grouped by field. Each opens the full tool.
Policy hubs
4 tools
AU Mechanisms Demystified
A practical guide for civil society to the African Union system: the AU Commission, the Peace and Security Council, the ACERWC, the African Court, ECOSOCC, the APRM and the Regional Economic Communities.
Open the tool
ACDEG Hub
A civil society hub for the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, tracking ratification, domestication and implementation across AU member states.
Open the tool
Maputo Protocol Hub
Tracks how AU member states ratify, domesticate and implement the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa.
Open the tool
Francophone Human Rights MOOC
An open online course for francophone human rights defenders, legal practitioners and organisers, with no registration needed.
Open the toolLegislation and law
2 tools
West Africa Legislative Platform
One reference for women’s rights legislation across ECOWAS, covering gender-specific laws, constitutional provisions and regional frameworks side by side.
Open the tool
Legislative Database
A searchable archive of national laws and policies on women’s rights, for benchmarking against continental and international frameworks.
Open the toolSafety and civic space
Flagship toolAfrican Digital Safety Compendium
A continental reference on technology-facilitated gender-based violence. It documents legal frameworks, service providers, digital hygiene practices and protective measures for women human rights defenders across Africa.
Explore the Compendium
Economic justice and climate
2 tools
Gender-Responsive Budgeting
Tools for civil society to read public budgets through a gender lens and check whether spending matches stated equality commitments.
Open the tool
Climate Action Platform
Gender-disaggregated climate data for francophone Africa, covering women’s land rights, agricultural vulnerability and women’s leadership in adaptation.
Open the toolHealth
3 tools
Maternal Health Data
A reference on maternal, newborn and child health in francophone Africa, for advocacy on maternal care and access to services.
Open the tool
My Health, My Right
A francophone hub on sexual and reproductive health and rights, linking advocates to data, legal frameworks and service maps.
Open the tool
Ending Malaria
Data on malaria elimination and health service delivery in francophone Africa, with a focus on outcomes for women and children.
Open the toolHow the data works
The Data Center is one of RFLD’s four linked functions, alongside policy hubs, re-granting and direct programmes. Its outputs feed the other three, and they feed back into it.
- Collect from the networkMember organisations in more than 35 countries report what the law says and what happens in practice. RFLD analysts check this against official sources.
- Structure it into public toolsThe twelve tools organise the data into formats civil society uses: hubs, trackers, comparative databases, course modules and compendiums.
- Return it to the fieldMembers, WAFF Fund grantees and the flagship programmes use the tools in their work, and that work becomes input for the next cycle.
We do not sell, license or lock the data. If a journalist in Senegal, a parliamentarian in Kenya or an organiser in Cameroon can use it, it is doing its job.
Continental reach, francophone depth
The AU Mechanisms guide, the ACDEG Hub, the Maputo Protocol Hub, the Digital Safety Compendium and the Climate Action Platform cover the whole continent, tracking instruments, ratifications and civic space across all 55 AU member states.
We also go further into francophone Africa than most continental platforms, which usually work in English first. The Data Center is bilingual by design, and the West Africa Legislative Platform, the Francophone Human Rights MOOC and My Health, My Right fill gaps that continental tools leave open. RFLD is Co-Chair of the GIZ / BMZ SEA-T Advisory Council.
Who uses DƆNÙESÈ
- Civil society organisations
- Our 670 members and peer organisations across anglophone and francophone Africa, for advocacy and programme design.
- Journalists and researchers
- Reporters and academics who need verified reference material on African legal frameworks.
- Legal drafters and parliamentarians
- Benchmarking national bills against continental frameworks and neighbouring countries.
- Students and community educators
- Learners using the Francophone Human Rights MOOC and other open resources.
Take what you need and cite us if you can
There is no licence to sign and no access fee. A citation is not required, but it helps us show funders that the tools are valued.