Overview

Overview

Thirty civil society organizations and community-based organizations across Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya and Tanzania have come together to combat gender-based violence in Africa. This four-year project, spanning from March 2025 to February 2029, is led by International Planned Parenthood Federation Africa Region (IPPFAR), together with the Center for Reproductive Rights, and the Association des Femmes Juristes de Côte d’Ivoire (AFJCI).

Learn more about each organization’s contributions below:

• The Center: Provides technical expertise on access to justice, legal advocacy, and reproductive rights. Strengthens the capacity of Kenya and Tanzania community-based organizations to support survivors, navigate legal systems, advocate for rights, and advance policy to drive systemic change in Africa.
• IPPFAR: Leads and coordinates the J4S project, drawing on its regional expertise in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and gender-based violence (GBV) survivor support. It provides overall project management, capacity strengthening, grant management, networking, and coordination across the four countries.
• AFJCI: Brings country-level expertise in Côte d’Ivoire, particularly in legal support and access to justice for women and children. It contributes its network of legal clinics, survivor support experience, community engagement, and knowledge of Côte d’Ivoire’s legal and justice systems to strengthen the project’s implementation.

Justice for Survivors will expand the capacity of feminist civil society organizations to provide survivors with essential information and support such as medical care and legal services, while continuing to provide other aspects of holistic care. 

Background

Background

Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, and Tanzania each face a high prevalence of gender-based violence, compounded by inadequate government resources for prevention and survivor care. All four countries have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), a legally-binding international treaty. Despite ratifying CEDAW, enforcement of the convention’s principles remains weak. Customary practices and traditional norms often override codified law, leaving survivors without reliable access to justice.

Organizations that support survivors are frequently under-resourced and disconnected from formal legal systems. This limits survivors’ ability to report violence, pursue legal action, and obtain redress. The gap between community-level care and formal justice systems also makes it harder to hold perpetrators of gender-based violence accountable.

Objectives

J4S project objectives

The Center, IPPFAR, and AFJCI are working with 30 organizations in Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya and Tanzania to strengthen the holistic care of people facing gender-based violence. This includes accompanying survivors throughout legal proceedings to ensure the violence they have suffered is recognized, and the perpetrators are punished.

Specifically, the project aims to:

1. Strengthen support for women, girls, and structurally excluded persons facing gender-based violence. Ensure they have access to comprehensive care, can assert their rights, and obtain redress for the violence they have suffered, while being protected from possible reprisals.
2. Take action at the community level to address discourse and perceptions that normalize gender-based violence, promote survivor silence, stigma, or blame, and fail to hold perpetrators of violence accountable.
3. Take action at the systemic level, to promote a multisectoral approach to the care of gender-based violence survivors, with an end goal that the judicial system becomes more accessible and welcoming to all survivors.

Grantees

J4S grantees

Kenya

• Hope for Samburu communities (HFSC)  
• Wangu kanja foundation (WKF) 
• Hope foundation for African women (HFAW)  
• Youth for a Sustainable World (YSW)   
• Trust for indigenous culture & health (TICAH) 
• Safe online women Kenya (SOW) 
• Network of CSOs support the National Shelters Network in Kenya  

Tanzania

• Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) 
• Tanzania Women Lawyers Association (TAWLA) 
• Tanzania Women Initiatives for Development Organization (TAWIDO) 
• Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF) 
• Chama cha Uzazi na Malezi Bora Tanzania (UMATI) 
• Legal and Human Rights Center (LHRC) 
• Wote Sawa   

Cote D’Ivoire

• INITIATIVE TILE    
• Leadafricaines 
• Akwaba Mousso 
• Stop au chat noir 
• Alternative Côte d’ivoire 
• La Ligue ivoirienne des droits des femmes 
• Psychologues pour tous 
• ComFéministes 

Guinea

• Mon Enfant Ma Vie (MEMAV) 
• E-Education Citoyenne 
• Afrique Arc-En-Ciel Guinée   
• Fédération Mounafanyi de Kindia 
• WAFRICA Guinée 
• Femmes, Développement et Droits Humains en Guinée (F2DHG) 
• Initiative Rainbo   
• Réseau Ouest Africain des femmes handicapées (ROfah) 

J4S realized

Justice for Survivors realized

By the end of the J4S project, civil society organizations across Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, and Tanzania will provide effective, survivor-centered support. More survivors of gender-based violence will access timely services, understand their rights, navigate justice processes safely, obtain redress, and see perpetrators held accountable. 

Communities will increasingly challenge harmful norms that normalize gender-based violence and promote survivor silence, stigma, or blame. Referral pathways, networks and advocacy efforts will be strengthened for a more accessible, responsive, and survivor-friendly justice system.