Programme field · SRHR / DSSR · Flagship: BRAVE
Bodily autonomy is the foundation of every other right.
RFLD's sexual and reproductive health and rights portfolio spans policy reform, community mobilisation, defender protection, health-systems advocacy and regranting in more than 35 African countries, with the deepest presence in the francophone corridor where funding is thinnest.
RFLD serves as Co-Chair of the SEA-T Programme Advisory Council, the strategic dialogue body of the SEA-T programme (2024–2028), funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by GIZ. The Council is mandated to help ensure that the programme's direction, priorities and resources align with the visions of Afro-feminist civil society across the continent.
Notre position / Our position
What SRHR work means at RFLD.
RFLD is a pan-African feminist intermediary, not a clinical service provider. We work at the three levels where intermediaries are irreplaceable: continental advocacy at the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, public infrastructure such as legal trackers, open data and digital-safety tools, and the money and management systems that let grassroots organisations do their own work at scale.
Political representation is hollow without bodily autonomy, and legal rights are theoretical without the power to decide one's own reproductive future. Everything on this page follows from that position.
Le contexte / The moment
Why this work, now.
Gender inequality continues to undermine the rights of women, girls and boys across the continent. GBV remains widespread, HIV burdens persist, and regional protocols are implemented slowly and unevenly, where they are implemented at all.
The past two years added a coordinated legislative hardening. New laws build on colonial-era provisions, are mobilised in the name of "traditional values", and now explicitly target advocacy and funding. SRHR advocacy, GBV survivor accompaniment and support to young women's movements can therefore be recast as "promotion". RFLD's Annual Report on Women Human Rights Defenders documents that defenders working on sexuality, gender identity or reproductive rights are targeted first.
Maximum penalties doubled to ten years for "acts against nature"; promotion criminalised.
Comparable legislation adopted, with penalties of two to five years.
Similar bills under parliamentary consideration.
Bill criminalising not only conduct but "promotion" and "financing".
§ Sur le terrain · Moments from RFLD convenings and community programmes, 2026
L'ancrage juridique / The legal anchor
The Maputo Protocol, article by article.
Adopted at Maputo on 11 July 2003 and now ratified by 46 of 55 AU member states, the Protocol marked its twenty-third anniversary this month and remains the most progressive women's rights instrument in the world. Seven states have signed without ratifying; only Egypt and Morocco stand entirely outside it. The gap between continental commitment and national compliance is where RFLD works, and every strand of this portfolio is keyed to the article it implements.
Programme phare / Flagship programme
BRAVE · Bodily Rights And Violence Eradication.
The operational engine of RFLD's SRHR work, active in more than 15 African countries. Laws change when communities, courts and the media demand it; communities change when their own leaders carry the dialogue; survivors are protected when they lead the design of the systems built to protect them. Four pillars make that theory of change operational.
Policy & legal reform
Maputo domestication, parliamentary advocacy and strategic litigation through the West Africa Legislative Platform and continental mechanisms.
Community mobilisation
Traditional and religious leaders, men and boys, and former practitioners: the voices that make change durable.
Survivor-centred protection
Coordination with member organisations delivering legal aid, psychosocial support, medical referral and protection at imminent risk.
Narrative change
Data-driven advocacy through the DƆNÙESÈ Data Center, survivor testimony and gender-sensitive media training.
Six domaines / Six thematic areas
Where BRAVE works.
Safe abortion & reproductive choice
Translating the Protocol's safe-abortion provision into national health law and stigma-free practice.
- Legislative advocacy for domestication
- Provider training on safe & post-abortion care
- Legal accompaniment under restrictive frameworks
Family planning & sexuality education
Contraception is health care. It is also economic policy for households and labour markets.
- Removing spousal- & parental-consent barriers
- Free or subsidised contraception in public systems
- Evidence-based comprehensive sexuality education
Ending FGM & child marriage
Community-led abandonment plus ECOWAS-wide legislative harmonisation, so no border offers impunity.
- Community Conversations methodology
- Alternative livelihoods for former cutters
- 6 February Zero Tolerance campaign
GBV & technology-facilitated violence
Prevention, response and justice, including the online violence aimed at women in public life.
- One-Stop Centre coordination · justice-chain training
- Cyber Harassment Legal Toolkit (2026)
- ILO C190 ratification advocacy
Sex trafficking & exploitation
Economic disenfranchisement is the upstream cause; regional coordination is the response.
- ECOWAS-level route & prosecution coordination
- Identification training for border & consular staff
- Survivor reintegration through member networks
Inclusion & stigma reduction
Health systems that deny services on grounds of identity or status violate continental law.
- SRHR access for women with disabilities
- Humanitarian SRHR · MISP in crisis settings
- Stigma work across HIV, infertility & survivorship
Santé en Afrique francophone / Health programme
Malaria & maternal, newborn and child health.
The clinical interventions that would prevent most malaria and maternal deaths in West and Central Africa exist and are inexpensive. What is missing is the system around them: demand, financing, accountability, and the agency of the women whose lives depend on access. That gap is where RFLD works.
We are not a clinical service provider. Our contribution is deliberately complementary to the ministries of health, WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF and the clinical partners who lead facility-level work. The advocacy is anchored in Maputo Article 14 and the Abuja Declaration's 15% health-financing commitment.
Community mobilisation
Demand for ITN use, IPTp, SMC, antenatal care, skilled birth attendance and immunisation, carried through 670 member organisations.
Advocacy & rights literacy
Article 14 domestication, Abuja budget tracking, free maternal-care policy monitoring and gender-equitable UHC.
Operational research
Evidence on the behavioural and systemic barriers that stop proven interventions reaching women, feeding ministry planning.
Regranting
Direct grants to grassroots health-rights organisations through the WAFFF Fund, bypassing institutional bottlenecks.
Cadre stratégique 2026–2028 / Strategic framework
Eight highest-burden francophone states. Quantified commitments.
Calibrated against UNICEF's 2025 regional baselines and delivered with clinical and supply-chain partners. Benin serves as the operational hub where innovations are piloted before regional scale-up; Sahel contexts run under adapted duty-of-care protocols.
Integrated vaccination, nutrition and WASH pillars close the prevention envelope around clinical care. Regional baselines: UNICEF WCAR Snapshot 2025.
Hommes et garçons / Men & boys
Engaging men as agents of change.
Men continue to hold most leadership positions at community and policy level. A growing body of evidence shows that well-implemented programmes engaging men and boys shift attitudes, behaviours and their role in gender equality, GBV prevention and the HIV response.
RFLD trains male health activists alongside women community leaders, engages fathers on antenatal care and immunisation, works with husbands on family planning as a joint decision, and partners with religious leaders on health-seeking as care, in line with the MenEngage West Africa Network's prevention agenda on GBV and HIV.
Filles adolescentes / Adolescent girls
The population facing the steepest barriers.
Adolescent girls face the highest health risks from early pregnancy, the lowest rates of contraceptive use, and the steepest access barriers. RFLD works with this population through schools, youth groups and adolescent-friendly entry points.
Menstrual health
Sanitary products, school sanitation, and ending menstrual stigma.
Early pregnancy
Prevention, plus school re-entry support for adolescent mothers.
HIV prevention
PrEP awareness, STI screening and youth-friendly information.
GBV as a health issue
Recognition, referral and survivor-centred response for adolescent girls.
Redevabilité / Accountability infrastructure
The scorecards that hold states to their commitments.
Maputo Protocol Hub
Ratification and domestication tracked article by article across all 55 AU member states. The annual Barometer reports on it, alongside a Practical Guide and an Illustrated Booklet, and the Protocol itself is translated and recorded in Haoussa, Zarma, Yoruba and Goun.
West Africa Legislative Platform
The only consolidated women's-rights legislative database for ECOWAS, covering all fifteen member states, gender-based violence and political participation.
ACHPR standing
Observer Status N°553, Working Group membership and Article 62 shadow reporting carry civil-society evidence into the continental system.
Fonds de subventionnement / Regranting facility
WAFFF · the West African Francophone Feminist Fund.
By AWID's tracking, under 3% of global funds for women's rights organisations reach francophone West Africa. WAFFF operates precisely there, across the nine Ouagadougou Partnership countries, with applications and reporting in French and grant teams who know the legal systems involved.
In 2025 the fund regranted €250,000 to ten feminist organisations across the nine countries. Sub-grants pass through RFLD's audited systems with AML/CTF screening; data minimisation protects grantees in hostile environments; every grant is paired with accompaniment.
Legal defence, medical costs and digital threats facing women human rights defenders.
Core funding: salaries, operations, financial systems and strategic planning.
Evidence-based campaigns, legislative engagement, research and coalitions.
For organisations excluded from traditional funding by stigma or marginalisation.
Lancement septembre 2026 / Opening September 2026
The Africa Portfolio Grant: scaling the model continentally.
Five grant products from $25,000 rapid-response to $500,000 movement-building grants, ring-fenced for organisations led by women & girls, Vulnerable Groups, and people with disabilities across all 55 AU member states. Applications in French, English or Portuguese.
Résilience organisationnelle / The in-kind pillar
Cash grants without systems fall apart at the first audit.
Systems without cash grants sit unused. RFLD provides both together and takes the compliance burden onto itself.
The Organizational Resilience Program donates a full institutional management software suite, an in-kind grant worth roughly US$5,000 per organisation, bilingual and offline-capable, to a first cohort of 500 grassroots nonprofits. Ten integrated departments cover exactly what donor due diligence tests: finance & grants, programmes, M&E, HR, communications, membership, procurement, governance, and encrypted gender and safeguarding records.
Notre contribution / Our contribution
Where RFLD leads.
Health-systems strengthening is not the work of any single organisation. RFLD concentrates where community relationships, political presence and compliance capacity decide the outcome.
Where RFLD leads
- Community mobilisation & demand through 670 member organisations
- Maputo Article 14 & Abuja Declaration advocacy
- Operational research on behavioural & systemic barriers
- Regranting to grassroots organisations · WAFFF
- Open data through the DƆNÙESÈ Data Center
Données ouvertes / Open data · DƆNÙESÈ
Evidence as a public good.
Twelve free, bilingual, no-login tools: knowledge held in common. Three anchor this portfolio.
Maternal Health Tracker
Maternal, newborn and child health data across francophone Africa with intervention mapping and policy reference.
Ending Malaria Platform
IPTp coverage, prevention data and last-mile delivery patterns for the region carrying 95% of the global burden.
My Health, My Right
Francophone SRHR resource hub for community organisers, youth peer educators and grassroots health workers.
Pour les bailleurs / For institutional donors
How this portfolio serves a bilateral SRHR strategy.
Mapped against the priorities that recur across bilateral SRHR strategies: service availability, social norms, accountability and local ownership, with Sweden's 2025–2029 strategy as a worked example.
Service availability
The community layer that makes integrated SRHR, HIV and GBV services real: demand generation, referral pathways and One-Stop Centre coordination, plus a commitment to train more than 800 midwives with partner facilities.
Social norms
Community Conversations, religious and traditional authorities, former practitioners and men-and-boys engagement: a working regional architecture for norm change on FGM and harmful practices.
Accountability
The Maputo Barometer, Protocol Hub and West Africa Legislative Platform are regional SRHR scorecards, complementing EAC and SADC mechanisms with bilingual coverage where such tools are scarcest.
Local ownership
WAFFF, the Africa Portfolio Grant and the Resilience Program move flexible resources to the most vulnerable, with the audited compliance layer donors require.
Diligence raisonnable / Due diligence & safeguarding
Institutional rigour is a condition of survival.
Institutional policy suite
Safeguarding & PSEA/PSEAH, anti-fraud, whistleblowing and conflict of interest: ratified, in force and available on request.
Annually audited
Independent external financial audits, available to institutional partners on request.
Data protection
Aligned to the AU Malabo Convention and GDPR, with encryption and data minimisation for at-risk grantees.
Four legal registrations
Benin, Ghana, Senegal and The Gambia: funds held, staff contracted, delivery across the corridor.
"Investment in RFLD's programme to end female genital mutilation has strengthened grassroots movements, shifted harmful social norms, and protected thousands of girls."RFLD 2025 Annual Report · AWDF Leading from the South
Engagez-vous / Engage with this work
Get in touch.
Partnership conversations begin with a 25-minute introductory call. The full due-diligence package, covering audited statements, policies and the strategic plan, is available on request.
John Gbenagnon
Development Director · Resource Mobilization & Partnerships
Programmes team
Research collaboration, member organisations, WAFFF applicants
Confidential channel for safeguarding and integrity concerns: integrity@rflgd.org
Stay close to the movement.
Field notes, data releases and calls for proposals — monthly, EN/FR.