By Mr Samuel ADEBENA, Programs Manager, RFLD Ghana Office, Mrs Abigail Oluwatoyin OLALEYE, Communications Officer, and Mrs Florence ENIAYEHOU, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Women Leaders Network for Development (RFLD)
Decisions about civic space in Africa are often taken in rooms where Francophone women’s organisations are absent. RFLD has chosen to be in those rooms. From our Africa office in Accra, we sit on the steering bodies of continental and global alliances, and we use each seat to carry the voice of the 1,143 member organisations of our network, in more than 35 countries.
Why we sit at these tables: our strategy
The need. Women’s organisations in Francophone Africa do the daily work of gender equality: they accompany survivors of violence, keep girls in school, train women candidates and defend women who speak up. Yet they remain largely invisible in the places where agendas and budgets are set. Women’s rights organisations receive about 1% of gender-related aid (Focus 2030, 2026), and organisations headquartered in Francophone Africa received 0.13% of the US$26.3 billion given by MacKenzie Scott since 2019 (Gbenagnon, 2026). Most coalitions and funders still work mainly in English, far from the organisations we serve.
The urgency. The pressure is rising fast. Official development assistance from OECD donors fell by a record 23.1% in 2025, and a further fall of 6.9% is projected for 2026 (OECD, 2026). French aid to women’s rights organisations fell by 71% in one year (Focus 2030, 2026). At the same time, civic space in West Africa is shrinking, elections are contested, and women defenders face threats both online and offline. When resources shrink, the organisations that are least visible are the first to close. If Francophone women’s groups are not at the table now, they will not be in the plans that decide the coming years.
Our strategy. RFLD has made a deliberate choice: to take seats in the steering bodies of the alliances that shape civic space and gender equality, and to use each seat for one purpose, which is to bring the realities of our 1,143 member organisations into the decisions. We combine this presence with concrete tools that give weight to our voice: direct grants, open data, protection for women defenders and advocacy at the African Commission. Each seat feeds our programmes, and each programme gives us evidence to bring back to the table.
The results so far. RFLD now holds a seat or a formal status in six continental and global bodies. Between June and September 2026, we awarded US$722,100 in 27 grants to women’s organisations in West Africa. Our Yéego Jigéen programme in Senegal will support 50 grassroots women’s organisations, and its first call received 34 applications from 9 regions. Our panel on protecting women human rights defenders reached the main agenda of the African Commission in October 2026, and our data now covers the Maputo Protocol in 49 countries. The rest of this article shows, alliance by alliance, how these results connect.
Here is what that work looks like, alliance by alliance.
Vuka! Coalition for Civic Action: Steering Group, 2025 to 2028
Vuka! is a global coalition of 225 civil society organisations working to regain civic space and to support new forms of resistance. Following a global selection process, RFLD was chosen to serve on the Vuka! Steering Group for 2025 to 2028.
- In February 2026, RFLD shared the Vuka! global enquiry Feminist Pathways in Civic Space with its network, so that Francophone feminist groups could add their experience.
- On 10 February 2026, Mrs Shupikai Gwabuya of the Vuka! Secretariat spoke at RFLD’s regional webinar Digital Violence Across Africa, which brought together 190 participants from 55 countries.
- In August 2026, a CIVICUS delegation visited the RFLD Africa Office in Accra ahead of the Vuka! Africa Civic Action Roundtable.
WADEMOS: Steering Committee member since 2023
The West Africa Democracy Solidarity Network (WADEMOS) brings together more than 45 civil society organisations in 15 West African countries to defend democracy, constitutional rule and term limits. RFLD joined its Steering Committee in March 2023 and brings to it our expertise on gender equality and women’s rights.
- In November 2023, RFLD took part in the 5th WADEMOS Steering Committee meeting and the network’s annual meeting in Accra.
- In February 2024, ahead of Senegal’s presidential election, RFLD’s President wrote as a WADEMOS Steering Committee member to call for dialogue and respect for the will of the people.
- In May 2025, RFLD and WADEMOS delivered a joint statement at the 83rd Ordinary Session of the African Commission in Banjul.
- On 12 February 2026, our Ghana office hosted Mr Paul Osei Kuffour, WADEMOS Programs Manager, to bring women’s issues into the network’s democracy work.
The Consortium for Human Rights and Media in Africa: Steering Committee member
The Consortium for Human Rights and Media in Africa protects human rights defenders and independent media across the continent. RFLD sits on its Steering Committee, and Mr Samuel Adebena represents RFLD on its Programme Committee. In September 2026, following the Steering Committee meeting of 3 September, the Programme Committee worked on the consortium’s results framework and master work plan. Our role is to make sure that women defenders and women journalists, who face specific online and physical attacks, are named and protected in that plan. Read more about our Consortium for Human Rights and Media in Africa work.
SEA-T: co-chair of the Advisory Council
SEA-T (Society. Equality. Africa – The Transformation) is a programme of German Cooperation, running from 2024 to 2028, that supports African civil society working for gender equality and civic space. Its Advisory Council gathers eleven African organisations, including the African Women’s Development Fund, FEMNET, Urgent Action Fund Africa and Pollicy. In 2026, RFLD took up the council’s rotating presidency, and it co-chairs the council today. We use this seat to put the needs of Francophone organisations on the agenda, starting with grantmaking open to French-speaking groups and stronger protection for women human rights defenders.
SOAWR: member of the Maputo Protocol coalition
Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR), created in 2004, is a coalition of more than 70 civil society organisations in 33 countries that campaigns for the ratification and the use of the Maputo Protocol. As a regional member, RFLD brings to the coalition its work on the Protocol in Francophone Africa, including the Maputo Barometer and translations of the Protocol into African languages.
At the African Commission
RFLD holds Observer Status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (N°553/2017) and is part of the Working Group of the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, where it represents Francophone Africa. In July 2025, RFLD facilitated the meeting of the NGOs Forum Steering Committee in Banjul. In October 2026, in Dakar, RFLD’s panel on protecting women human rights defenders was placed on the main agenda of the 89th Ordinary Session.
Gender equality and human rights, one agenda
Our seats in these alliances are not only about human rights in the narrow sense. For RFLD, gender equality is the test of every civic space. A democracy where women cannot stand for office is incomplete, and so is a funding system that bypasses women’s organisations. In each coalition, we bring gender equality into the core of the work, from election observation to the protection of defenders and the allocation of resources.
This matters most in French-speaking Africa. Women’s organisations there often work in French, far from the capitals where funders and coalitions meet in English. Many are small and run by volunteers. When decisions are taken without them, their realities disappear from the priorities. Our role is to close that distance.
What RFLD brings to the Francophone ecosystem
Our influence in these alliances rests on the work we do every day with women’s organisations across Francophone Africa. Five areas of work give weight to our voice.
1. Money that reaches women’s organisations
Francophone women’s organisations remain among the least funded in the world. John Gbenagnon’s analysis of the public record of MacKenzie Scott’s giving shows that, of US$26.3 billion given since 2019, organisations headquartered in Francophone Africa received 0.13% (Gbenagnon, 2026). RFLD answers this gap with direct grants. Between June and September 2026, we awarded 27 grants worth US$722,100 to women’s organisations in West Africa, with an average of US$26,744 (RFLD, 2026).
In Senegal, our Yéego Jigéen (Women Rising) programme will support 50 grassroots women’s rights organisations in two cohorts of 25, each with a flexible grant of US$20,000, light reporting and tailored support. The first call received 34 applications from 9 of the country’s 14 regions, and 33 of these organisations are led by women. For many of them, it is the first time they can apply for a grant of this size, in French, with a team that answers their questions by phone and WhatsApp.
2. Women in politics and public life
Gender equality starts where decisions are made. Through the Afrofeminist Initiative for Human Rights Development in Francophone West Africa, supported by German Cooperation, RFLD brought together fifty women in Porto-Novo, Benin, in 2026 to prepare their participation in political life. In May 2026, thirty women leaders met in Dakar to build on Senegal’s 2010 parity law, and they formed a network to support women candidates. This experience feeds directly into our work on WADEMOS, where we push for women’s voices in democracy and election observation.
3. Protection for women human rights defenders
- In November 2025, RFLD brought together 70 women human rights defenders from several African regions for five days of work, from Dakar to Accra.
- In February 2026, our Accra office convened a cross-border network to protect women human rights defenders across West Africa.
- On 10 February 2026, our webinar Digital Violence Across Africa, built on the RFLD Digital Safety Compendium, reached 190 participants from 55 countries.
- In July 2026, the Advocacy Nexus 2026 gathered 30 women defenders from 9 countries in Benin.
- In October 2026, RFLD joined the national consultation on technology-facilitated gender-based violence in Abuja, Nigeria.
These are the experiences we carry to the Consortium for Human Rights and Media in Africa and Vuka!. When coalitions plan their protection work, we bring the specific risks women face: threats that extend to their families, and online campaigns that target their private lives.
4. Data that makes women visible
Policy follows evidence. RFLD produces open data that organisations and governments can use:
- the Maputo Barometer, a citizen scorecard of the Maputo Protocol in 49 countries, published in English and, since July 2026, in French;
- the Africa Women in Leadership Tracker, with 37 country profiles;
- the RFLD Countries Data Center, with data on women’s rights in all 55 African Union member States;
- the Maputo Protocol in eight African languages, online, as PDF and as audio, so that women can read or hear their rights in their own language.
This data is what we bring to SOAWR and to the SEA-T Advisory Council when we argue for the ratification of the Maputo Protocol and for funding that reaches Francophone organisations.
5. A voice at the African Commission
In October 2026, at the 89th Ordinary Session in Dakar, RFLD led a delegation of women defenders and partners. Our panel Defending without being exposed was placed on the Commission’s main agenda, and on 10 October we organised a working day on the Gender Mainstreaming Tool. In May 2026, RFLD also committed to fund a study by the African Commission on a legal framework to protect people displaced by climate change, a crisis that falls hardest on women and girls.
From the steering table to results
Our seats and our programmes strengthen each other. The organisations we fund and train bring us their realities, and we carry these realities to the coalitions. The coalitions, in turn, open doors for our members: joint statements at the African Commission, solidarity during elections, protection when a defender is threatened and new partners who discover Francophone organisations they did not know.
Bridges between language communities are part of this work. In May 2026, RFLD and Nalafem signed a two-year framework agreement to strengthen feminist solidarity across Africa and to bridge the linguistic divide between movements. In November 2026, RFLD is providing financial support to the International Symposium on Feminist Diplomacy in Francophone Africa in Dakar, convened by Pr Ndioro Ndiaye.
Our results at a glance
- 1,143 member organisations in more than 35 countries.
- US$722,100 in 27 grants to women’s organisations in West Africa between June and September 2026.
- 50 Senegalese women’s organisations to be supported through Yéego Jigéen, with 34 applications received in the first call.
- 190 participants from 55 countries at our webinar on digital violence.
- 49 countries scored in the Maputo Barometer, 37 country profiles in the Women in Leadership Tracker.
- 6 continental and global bodies where RFLD holds a seat or a formal status.
- 79.8% of RFLD’s 2025 spending reached field programmes, and our 2024 and 2025 accounts received clean audit opinions.
What comes next
The coming weeks will test this work. The 16 Days of Activism start on 25 November, and RFLD will mobilise its network across the continent. From 8 to 10 December, the first organisations supported by Yéego Jigéen will meet in Dakar for their training on financial management and governance. Within the SEA-T Advisory Council, we will keep pushing for a strategic framework for 2027 and 2028 that gives Francophone priorities their full place.
Why these seats matter
A seat on a steering body is useful only if it changes what the alliance does. Each time we speak in these rooms, we bring evidence from our members: the women defenders who receive threats, and the organisations that cannot answer a call written only in English. When a coalition sets its priorities or prepares a statement, we make sure Francophone women’s organisations are part of it.
Your support carries the voice of Francophone women’s organisations into these rooms. To partner with RFLD or to support this work, write to us at admin@rflgd.org.
Mr Samuel ADEBENA is the Programs Manager of RFLD’s Ghana Office in Accra. Mrs Abigail Oluwatoyin OLALEYE is RFLD’s Communications Officer. Mrs Florence ENIAYEHOU is RFLD’s Monitoring and Evaluation Officer.
References
- Focus 2030 (2026) The state of gender inequalities around the world in 2026. Paris: Focus 2030. Available at: https://focus2030.org/en/special-edition-the-state-of-gender-inequalities-around-the-world-in-2026/ (Accessed: 12 November 2026).
- Gbenagnon, J. (2026) US$26 billion, and almost nothing for Francophone Africa. Accra: Réseau des Femmes Leaders pour le Développement. Available at: https://rflgd.org/us26-billion-almost-nothing-francophone-africa/ (Accessed: 12 November 2026).
- OECD (2026) ODA projections for 2026 and the near-term. Paris: OECD Publishing. Available at: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/oda-projections-for-2026-and-the-near-term_d7c74fa2-en/full-report.html (Accessed: 12 November 2026).
- RFLD (2026) RFLD 2026 grants: US$722,100. Accra: Réseau des Femmes Leaders pour le Développement. Available at: https://rflgd.org/rfld-2026-grants-722100/ (Accessed: 12 November 2026).
