Across Africa,  feminist and women’s rights movements are facing a threat that is  organised, funded, and deliberate. It is not simply isolated pushback, it is a deliberate coordinated effort to roll back decades of progress on gender equality and African feminist resistance. This  backlash is a daily reality for women’s rights and feminist movements.

Even with this sustained backlash,  every day, feminist movements are choosing not to go silent.

They are organising under  pressure. They are  standing with survivors when institutions fail them. They are demonstrating courageous leadership even in the most restricted spaces.

They are not retreating. They are resisting.

African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), Urgent Action Fund Africa, and Fonds pour les Femmes Congolaises have launched the #NoToBacklash campaign. A bold, collective response to the rising wave of anti-rights movements across Africa.

We are backing feminist organising across ten countries. We are investing in the leaders who already know what their communities need. And we are making the case that feminist funding is not a nice-to-have, it is how lasting change is built.  Feminist organising is not a trend. It is how communities survive. We will not go back.

We stand at a crossroads. Down one path lies regression, silence, and the systematic erasure of decades of progress.
Down the other lies a future where gender justice isn’t just an aspiration,  it’s a lived reality for every person across Africa.