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.