By Hala Alkarib

Article first published in the Guardian 

Since April 2023, Sudan’s women and girls have been subjected to systematic rape and sexual torture. Specialised support and justice for them is key to the country’s recovery and future

In a village in South Darfur, I met a young girl about my daughter’s age – six or seven years old – who touched my hand and said: “I was taken by the Janjaweed.” This was more than 20 years ago, during the first Darfur crisis, and at the time, that was the term women and girls used as we struggled to articulate the scale of violence against civilians, especially sexual violence.

I saw my daughter in that little girl, and I saw myself in her mother. It was my first encounter with conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) in Sudan.

In the years since, I’ve seen how successive regimes and insurgents in Sudan deliberately utilise sexual violence to sustain their grip on power. Perpetrators use it to seize land, force displacement, extract resources, loot communities, silence women and communities, and strip women of their agency. I’ve also seen that it can happen to anyone, depending on their proximity to those in power.

In Darfur and South Kordofan, generations of women have endured repeated waves of CRSV for more than 25 years because of ongoing insurgencies. Since April 2023, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its allies have carried out one of the most widespread and coordinated assaults in Sudan’s recent history, committing sexual violence and other war crimes against women and communities in Khartoum, Gezira, and the towns and villages of the northern Blue Nile, White Nile and North Kordofan regions – areas that, until then, had not experienced such systematic CRSV in recent history.

I will never forget the schoolteacher who negotiated with seven RSF men to rape her instead of gang-raping her 14-year-old daughter, or the countless families who lost fathers and brothers, shot dead while the women and children in their households were gang-raped. One mother had lost her husband and was fleeing eastern Gezira on foot with her three daughters after they were gang-raped. One of her sons later found a lorry to carry them. On the journey, she mistook the blood coming from her 18-year-old daughter for menstrual bleeding, only to discover that her daughter had cut her vein. The young woman did not survive the journey.

I will also never forget the young bride who threw herself into the Nile or the 21-year-old woman whose family, after her rape became known, took her out of the hospital in shame and then hid her away, where she bled to death. Hundreds of women and children were kept on farms in northern Khartoum and in Omdurman city, and endured months of captivity as sexual slaves, with horrific encounters. The suffering and the torture do not end as the power relations turn; sexual violence against women and girls continues to exist in the Sudan Armed Forces’ territories.

Numerous victims who suffered violence from the RSF while trying to survive also faced blame and shame from their communities, as well as further criminalisation by the police and military intelligence.

In 2025, the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA), the organisation I work for, documented the cases of more than 850 women accused of collaboration with the RSF who were subjected to detention and long-term imprisonment; those women frequently experienced sexual violence during their time in detention.

My organisation, in partnership with grassroots lawyers, spent more than six months securing the release of four women who were held on suspicion of collaboration, without being charged, for more than a year. They say they endured sexual violence and torture while awaiting trial.

Fractured judicial and health systems, marked by limited capacity and inadequate legal, medical and mental health support, leaves hundreds of Sudanese women and children without access to justice or essential care and highly vulnerable to repeated cycles of violence.

To understand the cycles of sexual violence in Sudan, we must examine the legacies of the Sudanese state and how they shape views of women’s bodies, as well as the agency and voice of communities more broadly. CRSV in Sudan is rooted in the state’s violent and discriminatory character, which deepens collective trauma through anger, militarism and retaliation. The persistence of CRSV is further sustained by the unchecked flow of arms into a country that has long neglected demobilisation and security sector reform.

For more than 1,000 days, sexual violence didn’t stop, nor did anyone address it. Although the UK, EU and US have sanctioned a number of actors involved in Sudan’s war, none appear to have been specifically sanctioned or publicly held accountable for their role in perpetrating CRSV. At the same time, inadequate funding and support for women and communities affected by CRSV continues to deepen the crisis. This situation exacerbates the suffering of the survivors and their communities across Sudan and further demoralises Sudanese people as the violence continues.

Healing for survivors and communities is therefore deeply connected, and the fight against sexual violence must become central to the broader struggle for peace, justice and a new vision of sovereignty.

* All information regarding cases is based on SIHA’s database; specific locations are not mentioned to protect survivors’ privacy.

This articles was published by Guardian

Hala Alkarib is the director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA). She works with women and communities affected by war, religious militancy and humanitarian crises in Sudan, South Sudan and the Horn of Africa

By Dr. Isatou Touray

In July 2024, The Gambia came closer than any country in the world to reversing a ban on female genital mutilation. A practice that had been criminalised for nearly a decade was on the verge of becoming legal again.

Then feminist organisers stopped it.

After months of sustained organising, community mobilisation and public campaigning, the National Assembly voted 34 to 19 to reject a bill that would have repealed the country’s 2015 ban on FGM. It was a major victory, not only for Gambian women and girls, but for feminist movements across the continent.

The fact that the vote happened at all should alarm us. Just months earlier, in March 2024, 42 members of the same Parliament had voted to advance the repeal bill. Its supporters argued that FGM is Islamic and the ban was a Western imposition – that Gambians, up to 96% of whom are practising Muslims, should be free to practise their faith as they see fit. These false arguments – there is no requirement for FGM in Islamic law – were not new, but they were better coordinated and more politically embedded than before. At a moment when anti-rights forces are better funded, better organised and more confident, The Gambia offers something the feminist movement badly needs: a documented win, and a template worth studying. It is a rare case of a movement turning a political crisis into momentum. But it is also a reminder that ‘winning’ in legislation does not automatically deliver change.

In August 2025, a one-month-old baby girl, Sarjo Conteh, was rushed to a hospital in Banjul. She had been cut. By the time doctors reached her, she had bled to death. The Gambian authorities confirmed that her injuries were the result of FGM. Conteh’s death was not an isolated incident. Activists on the ground have for years reported that the 2015 ban has not ended FGM, but pushed it underground, and led to girls being cut younger than ever. Many families believe that infants as young as a few days old will heal faster from the cutting, meaning evidence will be harder to detect.

Recently, activist Dr Leyla Hussein wrote about this tragedy with the clarity and fury it deserved. She named what so many institutions still refuse to: that FGM is sexual violence, that it is child abuse, and that the world’s reluctance to say so plainly is inseparable from the fact that the children being harmed are overwhelmingly Black and Brown girls. She asked why, if this violence were happening to white children, there would be any hesitation at all in calling it assault. There would not be.

Hussein also wrote about the particular cruelty of normalisation: the way survivors are taught to question the legitimacy of their own pain when the world has minimised it first. That is the atmosphere in which Sarjo Conteh died. That is the atmosphere in which three women were recently acquitted in connection with her death. And that is why the legislative fight in The Gambia, as hard-won as it was, cannot be the end of the story. Even now, the people who tried to roll back this right are petitioning the Supreme Court, claiming that the ban violates their right to religious and cultural freedom. This is a story about a victory. But it is also a story about the fragility of that victory, and about what enforcement, long-term cultural change and sustained feminist organising actually require.

How we got here

The 2015 ban was introduced under former president Yahya Jammeh. It was imperfect legislation, lacking a serious enforcement strategy, and many Gambians associated it with Jammeh’s dictatorship rather than with the rights it was designed to protect. For years, FGM continued largely unabated.Then, in August 2023, three women were convicted under the law for performing FGM on eight girls under the age of five, one of whom was just four months old.

Those convictions – the first for perpetrators of FGM in a Gambian court – were a breakthrough. Although the law states offenders can be imprisoned for up to three years, the women were issued fines of 15,000 dalasis – equivalent to up to half a year’s income for women in rural areas of the country – or one-year prison sentences if they were unable to pay. Amid national outrage, a prominent imam paid the women’s fines, lawmakers began to talk openly about repealing the ban, and, in February 2024, a private member’s bill was introduced in the National Assembly to do exactly that – arguing that it was ‘anti-Islamic’.

I want to be direct about this framing, because it is used to silence us – and we should not let it. The Quran does not mention FGM. There is no authentic hadith that promotes it. FGM predates Islam, is practised by communities of multiple faiths, and is opposed by Muslim scholars across the world. Associating FGM with Islam is not theology. It is politics. And its political purpose is to put the practice beyond critique.

The organising that turned it around

When the bill to repeal the ban was introduced, the Gambian government said very little, with the main opposition parties saying even less. Civil society did not wait for either.

GAMCOTRAP, which has spent three decades working community by community across this country, mobilised immediately. We were joined by organisations across the Network Against Gender-Based Violence, which became the coordination spine of the campaign. Together, activists ran events across the country. We ran radio programmes, put up billboards, and called legislators directly. We brought survivors to testify at the National Assembly, gathered evidence on death rates and health consequences, and put it in front of anyone who would look at it.

We also took the religious argument seriously, rather than dismissing it. Activists and lawyers facilitated a fact-finding mission to Al-Azhar University in Egypt, one of the most respected institutions in Islamic scholarship. The findings were clear: FGM is not required by Islam. That evidence was placed before lawmakers, and it mattered. At the international level, I took this fight to the UN Human Rights Council. I met with the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls, with UNFPA, WHO and state delegations, urging them all to use their mandates. I also warned them of something the global conversation tends to underestimate: if The Gambia had fallen, girls from neighbouring countries where FGM is banned could have been transferred across the border to be cut.

None of this was without cost. Activists faced harassment, particularly online. Speaking out against the repeal made people targets. Some survivors who were prepared to testify chose silence because the atmosphere had become too threatening. I want that recorded. The victory was real, and so was the price paid to achieve it.

What the movement needs now

The organisations that held the line in The Gambia need continued, sustained resourcing, not project funding tied to deliverables and donor reporting cycles. They need core funding that allows movements to respond to a political crisis in real time, coordinate across networks, and sustain community engagement over the years that real norm change requires. The fight against FGM is not the responsibility of women alone. It never was. It requires men, religious leaders, community elders, young people and lawmakers who are willing to be on the right side of this, even when it is uncomfortable. In The Gambia, we have seen what happens when enough of them are brought into the work. We have also seen what happens when they stand aside. I have spent decades on this. I will spend whatever decades remain on it. But two years on from July 2024, I want to be clear about what that moment meant, and what it did not. It meant that a specific, coordinated rollback was defeated. It meant that activists who risked a great deal showed it was possible to turn a political crisis into momentum. It did not mean that the work is done, or that the protections are secure, or that the next attempt will not come. We stood on the right side of history. Now we have to make sure we stay there.

Dr. Isatou Touray is the Executive Director of GAMCOTRAP (The Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children) and a former Vice President of The Gambia. A survivor of FGM, she has led community-based advocacy against the practice for over three decades, reaching more than 1,000 communities across the country. This reflection article was first published by Open Democracy. 

The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights – a binding treaty between the member states of the African Union which guarantees individual and collective rights – was born from a radical dream in 1981 as a continent emerging from the scars of colonialism  built its own architecture of hope. It was a promise of radical interdependence, a commitment to a world where the rights of one were the security of all.

But today, a look at our landscape one can’t help but see how this key pillar of our social-political existence is being systematically dismantled, brick by digital brick, by a coordinated transnational machinery of hate.

We are navigating the internal and external storms in our feminist advocacy every single day as we hold onto the remains of the African Charter. In high-level meetings, we talk about mechanisms and sterile frameworks. We use the language of the boardroom. But behind that legalese are real human lives caught in a pincer movement between rising state-sanctioned authoritarianism and what we have come to call the Algorithm of Violence. This isn’t some abstract theory. It is a reality that exists in the terrifying distance between the ink on a human rights treaty and the lived experience of a person simply trying to walk down a street in Lagos or Banjul.

Read more HERE

This article was first published by African Feminisms a pan-African feminists digital platform and collaborative writing project between African  authors/writers .

An exciting opportunity has opened up at  African Women’s Development Fund. We are looking for a passionate, dynamic, values aligned individual who believes in the true value of effective and efficient financial management.

About the position

AWDF requires the services of a Finance Intern to support the work of the Finance Department. The intern will have the opportunity to learn as well as support the finance team to achieve its set objectives. We are looking for an intern who is dynamic, curious, innovative, conscientious, and believes in the true value of effective and efficient financial management. The Finance intern will report to the Finance Manager and will have responsibilities of supporting key financial management processes including planning, transaction processing and reporting and risk management. The Intern will be responsible for receiving, reviewing, recording, uploading, filing documents for processing documentation and any other duties assigned.

How to apply

Interested and qualified persons should please submit a cover letter and CV indicating previous experience and relevant field knowledge via email to consultants@awdf.org with “Finance Intern (Due Diligence Desk)” in the subject line.

The deadline for submission of proposals is Friday, 5th June 2026.

In line with AWDF’s mission, qualified and interested African women are encouraged to apply.

Find more details on this role in the Terms of Reference  HERE 

I stepped into the Women Deliver Conference in Naarm, Australia, carrying memories of Kigali. Three years earlier, at Women Deliver in Kigali, Rwanda, I had just begun my journey with the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) and was part of the team that contributed to the launch of our 10-year Strategic Framework, Lemlem. Three years later, we gathered again, carrying the same agenda, now sharpened by experience, to ensure that the voices of women, girls, and gender-diverse persons across the African continent continue to be heard. We came to stay connected to the needs of movements across the African continent and beyond, particularly for this conference, the Oceanic Pacific.  We came as change called us to Naarm.

The Weight of Three Years

But the three years between Kigali and Naarm have been heavy. We have witnessed the rupture of warfare in Sudan, mounting instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and ongoing genocides across the continent, the Middle East, and the Caucasus Region. Across the continent, there has been a rollback in rights and targeted attacks on LGBTQI+ persons in Uganda, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, and many other countries. We have watched as women and girls in the Gambia fight for their bodily autonomy in the Supreme Court, as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) supporters move to repeal hard-worn protections.  Three years ago, we celebrated two decades of the Maputo Protocol, and yet in those three years, that very Protocol has been systemically undermined, with opponents pushing for the enactment of the African Charter on Family, Sovereignty and Values. We have seen targeted funding cuts deliberately engineered to reduce investments in gender equality, SRHR, and HIV/AIDS programming, the very lifelines that have sustained movements for years. Only three years, and the rollback has been vast.

Yet We Arrived Defiant

When we arrived in Naarm, the space was alive. The conversations, the energy, and the people. It spoke to something deeper. A gathering intended for restoration, reconnection, and continuing conversations that disrupt while also sustaining movements. As I stepped into the Conference walls, I carried all that weight. I was tired from jet lag, but I stepped in with hope, because even as we battle the storms, we ourselves, collectively and in solidarity, are the storms that anti-rights forces fear.

Moving With the Moment: AWDF at the Women Deliver Conference 2026

Over the last three years, implementing Lemlem in a volatile landscape has required us to adapt and reframe our work in response to shifting contexts. Movement accompaniment remains critical as we resource partners navigating increased backlash. At the Women Deliver Conference, we carved out space to make that visible. We engaged with and brought African feminist partners into key conversations, creating room to reflect on where we have come from, where we stand, and where we are headed.

The conversations led by AWDF founding CEO Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, outgoing CEO  Francoise Moudouthe, and Programmes Director Nana Zulu, mirrored the direction of travel we are seeing as a feminist fund that has been in existence for over 25 years.  Listening to the three in many ways was a mirror of the conditions that gave birth to AWDF: the defunding, the dismissal, and the deliberate shifting of goalposts for women’s rights and feminist movements across the continent, challenges that persist to this day.

Across the different spaces we navigated, those we shaped and those within the broader space, we responded to a singular question: How is AWDF responding in this moment? Our answer rests on three commitments.

Defending the hard-won gains of feminist movements, pushing back against the current backsliding, and sustaining the very architecture the movement needs to build from. 

Disrupting the very ecosystems and narratives that work against women, girls, and LBTQI+ persons and refusing to operate in frameworks that were never designed to allow us to thrive. 

Defining and articulating the feminist futures that we desire and refusing to wait for permission to experiment, build, and make them a reality. 

What this Moment Demands

Strengthening feminist ecosystems is critical. The attacks we face are not isolated; they are interconnected, coordinated assaults on our rights, resources, and our legitimacy to organise. Responding to them requires us to be deliberate in our collaboration across movements and regions. But collaboration cannot only mean gathering the usual voices, the ones we already agree with, those most likely to affirm our convictions. Transformation requires friction. It demands that we open our spaces widely and engage with the unlikely, with those who do not see what we see. At times, our collective spaces grow too familiar, too comfortable. Disruption requires bringing those whose presence could shift the terrain entirely. This is how we make the case beyond the choir, how we expand and thrive. The question is not whether we can afford discomfort in our expansion, but whether we can afford not to.

Centre the Most Impacted

Even as we expand, we must not lose our centre. Across numerous spaces, including the one convened by AWDF, one priority was repeatedly emphasised: the voices of the most impacted must come first. That means being intentional about ensuring that those most affected by crises, climate change, and inaccessible systems are never an afterthought. Their voices must shape the transformation we seek. On funding, what emerged was equally clear. Communities must be resourced with trust, as experts of their own contexts and needs. That calls on us, as funders and movements, to build funding models that actually fit the communities we serve. It also calls for courage: moving beyond the normative frameworks of what is considered fundable. Transformation does not happen within the boundaries of what is familiar. If we truly want change, we must fund the unconventional and back approaches that do not yet have a track record or measurable outcomes, because the systems they challenge were never designed to let them succeed.

A Call for Change 

As I reflect on the few days we gathered for the Women Deliver Conference, I carry this with me: funders must build flexibility into their models to account for the shifts that organisations and collectives on the frontlines face. Rigid frameworks cannot hold the weight of movements navigating conflict, shrinking civic space, political instability and chronic underfunding. They must also continue learning alongside women’s rights and feminist movements and build models that truly serve them. Feminist movements exist within spaces shaped by compounding crises. To resource feminist movements meaningfully means moving with them, adapting alongside them, and trusting them, because, in the end, they are the experts of their contexts and realities, even as those realities change. This is the work ahead. This is what solidarity demands. This is what change calls from us.

This reflection article was written by Chandapiwa Sisila. She  is the Programme Coordinator – Countering Backlash at the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF). 

AWDF is thrilled to announce an exciting opportunity that has arisen in its team.

Are you experienced in providing administrative and programmatic support and contribute to an efficient operation of grantmaking work?

Are you experienced in working to support processes that ensure learning, monitoring and evaluation that informs grant making approaches?

Are you ready to work to support departmental conceptualisation of projects and reports

Then join our team as the next Programme Assistant – Resourcing (Bilingual) on a short term basis  from July 2026 to June 2027.

Job summary

The Programme Assistant, Resourcing is responsible for providing administrative and programmatic support, contributing to the efficient operation of AWDF’s resourcing work. The role will work in close collaboration with all the Programmes units, and collaborate more closely with the Programme Manager, Senior Programme Officers and the Programme Officer in the Resourcing Unit to support grant making processes, partner engagement and compliance. The Programme Assistant will also support processes that ensure learning, monitoring and evaluation, informs our grant making approaches and learning facilitates adaptation. The role functions will include budgeting/financial support, data gathering, programme administration and implementation of the resourcing/grant making guidelines and processes. The Programme Assistant will also support the departmental conceptualisation of projects and reporting to relevant stakeholders.

How to Apply:

Qualified and interested persons should send:

• A cover letter of not more than 2 pages via this link: https://awdf.simplicant.com/jobs/60910-programme-assistant-bilingual-short-term/detail to the Human Resources Manager explaining their interest and excitement in applying for the position to work for AWDF, highlighting their experience and competencies demonstrating the alignment to the role.
• A CV of not more than 3 pages outlining their educational qualifications and employment records with key achievements in relevant positions held.

Deadline :

Applications for the vacancy should reach AWDF no later than Thursday, 28th May 2026. Due to our limited capacity, only short-listed candidates will be contacted for additional information and interviews.

In line with AWDF’s Mission, qualified African women and gender-diverse persons are encouraged to apply. 

The just published KASA! Evaluation Report (2021–2024) captures key lessons, achievements, challenges, and transformative impact of one of West Africa’s  most ambitious feminist initiatives working to end sexual violence across Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal.

Since 2021,  The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) in partnership with the Ford Foundation and Open Society West Africa (OSIWA), the KASA! Initiative worked alongside women’s rights and feminist organisations.

Here are five key lessons emerging from the KASA evaluation.

Transformation is relational, not event- based.

Sustained change emerged from repeated engagement, trust-building, and long-term presence, not one-off campaigns. Communities shifted norms when organisations returned consistently, listened deeply, and followed up over time, especially in contexts shaped by silence and stigma.

Accompaniment is the core of protection, not referral.

Survivors were protected not by referrals alone, but by advocates walking alongside them through reporting, healthcare, family negotiations, and recovery. Accompaniment requires time, emotional labour, and resources; without it, survivors often disengage from justice pathways.

Youth leadership accelerates cultural change.

Young feminists, peer educators, and school- based clubs were among the most effective norm-shifting actors. When trusted with meaningful roles, not just awareness-raising, youth became catalysts for wider community change and stigma reduction.

Legitimacy multiplies impact.

Norm change deepened and endured when trusted leaders, chiefs, queen mothers, imams, pastors, and market leaders, publicly supported survivor protection. These alliances, built through patience and co-creation, reframed sexual violence as a collective concern and sustained momentum beyond project timelines.

Staff wellbeing is central to programme success.

Frontline workers face high emotional strain, secondary trauma, and burnout. Staff care, supervision, and wellness support are not internal HR issues, they are essential to survivor safety, sound decision-making, and the sustainability of feminist protection systems.

The lessons emerging from the KASA! evaluation are both encouraging and urgent. They also reminds us that much more work still remains to be done in the fight against sexual violence.

Join the Conversation

We invite feminist movements and organisations funders, researchers,  policy makers community leaders and media to engage with the findings and recommendations this work.

To access the full report: Download and read the full report HERE  

Access the infographic in English.

Learn  more about the KASA! initiative HERE

The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) invites applications from qualified feminist consultants based in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon to undertake Monitoring and Learning Support Visits with funded partners.

Scope of Work

Consultants will conduct site visits, assess organisational systems (MEL, finance, governance), document impact stories, and produce country and organisational reports in line with AWDF’s feminist values and accountability framework.

Consultant Profile: Applicants must identify as feminists, be fluent in English and French, and demonstrate experience in evaluating donor-supported programmes, organisational capacity assessments, and feminist leadership coaching in Central Africa. Strong interpersonal skills, project management expertise, and the ability to deliver under tight deadlines are essential.

Timeframe

The consultancy will be conducted in May 2026 over 10–15 working days.

Application Requirements

• Technical proposal (max. 3 pages) outlining understanding of the TOR and proposed approach
• CV
• Indication of country of residence and daily rate (USD)
• Overview/sample of similar work undertaken
• Cover email (subject line: Application to Undertake Site Visit Consultancy – [Country]) explaining motivation and interest

Deadline

Applications must be submitted by 11:59 PM GMT, 13th May 2026, to consultants@awdf.org.

Read more HERE 

AWDF strongly encourages applications from diverse feminist voices committed to advancing gender justice and inclusive leadership.

The African Women’s Development Fund  is inviting applications for a participatory Grant Advisory Panel (GAP) that will play a key role in shaping funding decisions for initiatives addressing Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) across Africa. This panel brings together survivors of CSA (including those who choose not to disclose) and allies to ensure that grantmaking is informed by lived experience, community knowledge and contextual realities across the continent.

By participating, panel members will directly influence how resources are allocated to prevention, response, and survivor support efforts.

Who Should Apply

We welcome applications from individuals across Africa who are:

• Survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA), whether publicly disclosed or undisclosed
• Allies, including advocates, practitioners, community leaders, or individuals working in child protection, gender justice or related fields
• Passionate about advancing survivor-centered and trauma-informed approaches
• Able to commit time to reviewing applications and participating in discussions

How to Apply 

If you are interested in being part of this panel, please send your CV and a letter of interest to consultants@awdf.org  by Close Of Business  on May 18, 2026.

Important:

You are not required to disclose any personal experience of CSA at any stage of the application or participation process.

Read more in the Terms of Reference attached.

The fight against sexual violence demands more than short-term interventions and reactive responses. It requires sustained feminist organising, community-led solutions, survivor-centered support systems, and long-term investment in structural change.

The just published KASA! Evaluation Report (2021–2024) captures the lessons, achievements, challenges, and transformative impact of one of the region’s most ambitious feminist initiatives working to end sexual violence across Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal.

Led by The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) in partnership with the Ford Foundation and Open Society West Africa (OSIWA), the KASA! Initiative was established in 2021 to strengthen prevention, accountability, advocacy, and support systems addressing sexual violence in West Africa.

Why the KASA! Initiative Matters

Sexual violence remains pervasive across West Africa, fueled by deeply rooted gender inequalities, harmful social norms, weak accountability systems, and inadequate survivor support structures. The KASA! Initiative recognised that ending violence requires addressing not only individual incidents, but also the systems and cultures that normalise violence against women and girls.

Since 2021, AWDF through the KASA! initiative  has supported resourcing and accompaniment for 54 women’s rights and feminist organizations (24 in Nigeria, 17 in Ghana, and 13 in Senegal) working to:

• Prevent sexual violence through community education and advocacy
• Strengthen survivor-centered support and justice mechanisms
• Challenge harmful cultural and institutional norms
• Influence policy reform and accountability
• Build feminist movement solidarity across West Africa

The initiative has worked closely with activists, survivors, community leaders, media practitioners, health professionals, legal actors, and policymakers to create more coordinated and responsive approaches. The KASA  interventions have led to legal and policy reforms, stronger movements, stronger collaboration among key actors, including duty bearers, traditional and religious leaders; increased awareness and agency among women, girls, gender-diverse persons, and communities most affected by sexual violence; improved emergency response; and the transformation of social and cultural narratives that fuel sexual violence. Our interventions have also contributed to the prioritization of Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV) and gender justice within the funding ecosystem through advocacy and influencing

Some key findings

Some of the key findings from this evaluation across countries where AWDF worked with partners included

-Kasa!’s feminist accompaniment model, grassroots leadership, cultural fluency—remains essential. The  feminist accompaniment model enabled high levels of reflexivity, with partners continuously adapting strategies in response to context and feedback.

-Sexual violence remains pervasive, underreported, socially minimised.

-Across countries there are shared barriers: stigma, victim-blaming, informal resolution, weak accountability systems.

-There are rising disclosures—but systems unprepared.

-Economic precarity, youth unemployment, religious authority, digital harassment shape risk.

-Feminist organisations are the de facto first responders. Women’s rights and feminist organisations are central drivers of progress; sustained investment in their organisational health is essential.

Voices of our partners

Movements who we engaged shared their reflections throughout the evaluation highlighting both the impact of the initiative as well as the realities of sustaining this work. Their reflections are evidence that ending sexual violence work is deeply human, collective and rooted in courage care and needs to be sustained. Here is what they had to say.

We face the same issues, why should we struggle alone? Senegalese Participant

We realised our strongest tool is voice, Facilitator in Ghana

Speaking out is not enough if she has to stand alone.- Programme Lead in Nigeria

This is the first fund where we did not have to dilute who we are. Ghanaian Partner during a workshop

What we are sustaining is the community of women who refuse silence- AWDF Staff Member

Join the Conversation

We invite feminist movements and organisations funders, researchers,  policy makers community leaders and media to engage with the findings and recommendations of this work.

To access the full report: Download and read the full report HERE 

Learn  more about the initiative HERE

Access the KASA evaluation infographic in English.