A theory of change built for a continent that is moving fast.
RFLD exists for one outcome: gender equality across the African continent. We work toward an Africa where women and girls, Vulnerable Groups and people with disabilities exercise their rights fully, take part in the decisions that affect their lives, and live free from violence. Everything we raise and re-grant is spent to move the continent closer to that outcome.
An Africa where women and girls, Vulnerable Groups and people with disabilities exercise their rights fully, take part in the decisions that affect their lives, and live free from violence.
Lasting change requires action at three levels at the same time. Our theory moves through three concentric circles of influence, from the individual, to the institution, to the system. Each one strengthens the others.
The individual agent
We invest in the safety and the capacity of the leaders who are often the first targets of backlash: women, adolescent girls, Vulnerable Groups and people with disabilities. We secure their physical safety and build their technical skills so they stay in the movement rather than being pushed out of it.
The institutional fortress
We strengthen grassroots organisations until they become durable institutions, able to manage resources, generate their own data, and withstand political and economic shocks. An organisation that can run its own audit and produce a donor-ready report is one that will still be there in five years.
The systemic shift
When robust institutions form coalitions and engage in high-level advocacy, laws and norms shift. We work on the hard power of the state, meaning legislation, budgets and treaty ratification, and on the soft power of communities, meaning norms, media narratives and expectations, at the same time.
The process is not linear. Regression happens, and backlash is often a sign that our work is having an effect. The three circles are not a hierarchy either: an institution without leaders is a shell, leaders without institutions burn out, and laws without institutions to enforce them are dead letters.
The common thread across everything we do is a four-function operating model. What makes RFLD different from many organisations is that the first three functions sit alongside direct programmes as equal parts of one machine, rather than as add-ons.
Public tools that hold institutions to account
Continental reference tools that civil society, journalists and parliamentarians use to build their own campaigns: treaty and governance trackers, an AU reference, and a free course for francophone defenders.
Resources and systems moved to the grassroots
Our re-granting facility passes cash directly to members, our continental portfolio opens that door across all 55 AU states, and our resilience programme donates the management systems that make the money stick.
Open bilingual data as public infrastructure
A public platform of free, bilingual tools, with no login and no fees, with special depth in the French-speaking corridor where mainstream platforms are thinnest.
Community programmes delivered directly
Programmes on the ground: political leadership, safety and health, land rights and climate resilience, maternal health, and the work to end female genital mutilation and child marriage.
The four functions turn one another. The direct programmes generate evidence that feeds the tools, the tools inform the policy hubs, the hubs shape the next round of programmes, and the re-granting moves the resources so grassroots organisations reach further and last longer. That is what we mean by a flywheel: the parts drive each other.
At the level of individuals, success means more women in political and civic leadership, more defenders staying safely in the work, better access to sexual and reproductive health services, fewer girls subjected to female genital mutilation and child marriage, and more women with secure land rights. At the level of organisations, it means members can manage larger grants with confidence, pass donor due diligence, raise funding from more than one source, and carry work forward when a single funding cycle ends. At the level of the ecosystem, it means continental institutions engage with rigorous civil-society evidence, donors and researchers have open access to gender-disaggregated data, and the francophone corridor of the movement has infrastructure it can rely on.
We track these against a results framework with indicators, targets and verified annual figures, published in our annual report. Disaggregated counts of who our work reaches are drawn from our own Data Center and monitoring system and updated each reporting cycle.
We distinguish what RFLD caused from what it contributed to alongside partners and members, and we say which is which. We report setbacks as clearly as gains, because in this field a wave of backlash often means that something is shifting. Honest evidence serves the movement better than a flawless story, and it is the only basis on which a funder can trust us with more.
External and independent reviews of our programmes are published here as they are completed, alongside our annual audited accounts. Self-reported results carry less weight than third-party verification, so we invest in both.
PAWELE
Women’s political leadership: preparing and backing women to take up civic and elected office.
BRAVE
Sexual and reproductive health and rights, and keeping women and vulnerable groups safe and connected to health, protection and legal support.
Climate Justice
Women’s land rights, climate resilience and a gender-responsive approach to the green transition.
Health in Francophone Africa
Improving maternal health where mainstream health data and services are thinnest.
Ending FGM and Child Marriage
Community-led work to end female genital mutilation and child marriage, survivor-centred and intergenerational.
Our advocacy rests on the instruments African states have already adopted. We are not importing frameworks; we hold governments to the ones they signed.