Togo and Guinea share the same civic space score in October 2026: 29 out of 100, which places both in the CIVICUS “repressed” category. RFLD’s 2026 data report, Funding Feminist Movements in Francophone West Africa, includes both countries among the eight it covers. Their situations differ in many ways. Together they illustrate what it means for women’s organisations to work, and to seek funding, under repression.
Togo: protests, arrests and internet restrictions
In 2025, protests in Togo against constitutional changes were met with deaths, arrests and internet restrictions (CIVICUS Monitor, n.d.). For women’s organisations, restrictions on the internet are more than an inconvenience. Many of them coordinate through messaging applications and receive reports of violence by phone. When connections are cut or slowed, these channels close.
Togo is coastal, like Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, which are rated obstructed. Its repressed rating shows that the divide between coastal States and the Sahel is not absolute. Funders who treat the coastal countries as uniformly open may underestimate the risks their partners in Togo face.
Digital rights in Lomé
One of RFLD’s three digital rights grants in 2026 goes to JAIE in Togo. With US$25,000, JAIE provides digital rights training and advocacy for young people and women in Lomé. The grant responds directly to the context: young activists and women leaders need to know how to protect their accounts and document violations online.
Togo is also part of AgroMEC-Benin’s project, funded under the SEA-T programme, which safeguards indigenous women’s traditional knowledge on a multilingual platform in Benin and Togo. Projects that cross borders help organisations share skills and maintain links when national space narrows.
Guinea: parties dissolved, activists missing
In Guinea, 40 political parties were dissolved in March 2026, and activists have been missing since 2024 (CIVICUS Monitor, n.d.). RFLD’s report notes that few funders report active programmes for women’s organisations in Guinea. The country receives less attention than its neighbours in the Sahel, although its civic space score is equally low.
For women’s organisations in Guinea, the combination of political repression and donor absence is severe. They lose both the freedom to speak and the resources to act. RFLD’s network includes member organisations in Guinea and a country representative in Conakry, who help keep the links with these organisations alive.
Working under repression
Feminist leaders from the region have described what funders can do in repressive contexts. At the April 2025 dialogue on resourcing feminist movements in francophone West Africa, they asked funders to fund informal groups and individuals as well as registered organisations. They also asked them to stop relying on media visibility as a measure of an organisation’s worth (RFLD, 2025).
These requests have particular force in Togo and Guinea. Organisations that keep a low profile to protect their members may look less active to funders who judge by websites and social media. Groups that cannot register may still deliver real services in their communities. Funders that require visibility and formal registration will miss them.
Protecting partners
RFLD’s report asks funders to assess the legal and security risks that new laws on associations and foreign funding create for their grantees in each country, and to adapt their reporting requirements. In practice, this can mean not publishing the names of grantees in sensitive countries and accepting simplified reports.
It also means investing in digital safety. Four of RFLD’s 27 grants in 2026 address the safety of women defenders, online and offline. RFLD’s work on protecting women human rights defenders and its digital rights grants aim to give defenders practical tools to protect themselves.
The role of regional networks
When national space closes, regional networks become more important. They can channel small grants through partners in neighbouring countries and raise concerns before regional mechanisms such as the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, where RFLD holds observer status (No. 553). RFLD’s offices in Porto-Novo, Accra and Dakar make it possible to keep supporting organisations in Togo and Guinea when direct action becomes difficult.
Key figures
- 29 out of 100: the CIVICUS score of both Togo and Guinea, rated repressed.
- 40: political parties dissolved in Guinea in March 2026.
- US$25,000: RFLD’s digital rights grant to JAIE in Lomé.
- 4 of 17: RFLD grants focused on the safety of women defenders.
About the report
This article draws on RFLD’s data report Funding Feminist Movements in Francophone West Africa: 2026 Data (RFLD/DR/2026/03), published on 4 October 2026. Read the summary, download the English edition or the French edition. Sources cited in this article are listed in full in the data report.
