By Sarah Mawerere
African women media and gender-focused organisations, have embarked on advancing gender equality, strengthening media sustainability, and supporting organisations to build a more inclusive media system across the Africa continent.
The women-led Coalition for Gender Equality and Media Sustainability in Africa (CGEMSA) continental Alliance, has been launched, bringing together organisations with vast experience in championing media women development, gender advocacy, and press freedom.
The founding members have united at a time when organisations advancing gender equality and independent media are facing increasing sustainability challenges due to declining funding, shifting donor priorities, and growing pressures on civil society.
Executive Director, Association of Media Women in Kenya Queenter Mbori, on behalf of the founding members noted that as media continues to position itself in the transformative social change, new digital media is unlocking dynamic opportunities,yet amid declining funding for civil society and media initiatives, are facing unprecedented challenges.
Mbori said organizations across Africa have long spearheaded gender equality and media development, adding that, this coalition aims at uniting these efforts, thereby creating a unitedplatform to mobilize resources, champion regional collaboration, and empower organizations to continue driving meaningful change beyond borders.
She further explained that the Coalition represents a shared commitment to sustaining and strengthening the critical work that organisations across Africa are already doing to advance gender equality and media development.
The African Women in Media (AWiM) – a network of African women journalists, serves as the Coalition Secretariat, providing coordination and administrative support while the Coalition’s strategic direction and priorities are collectively shaped by its founding member organisations.
The Chief Executive Officer AWiM, Dr. Yemisi Akinbobola, will soon focus on strengthening collaboration among its founding members, advancing shared advocacy priorities, facilitating knowledge exchange and building strategic partnerships that enable organisations to expand their impact.
She said the Coalition will engage development partners, donors and private sector stakeholders to mobilise support and investment for gender equality and media sustainability initiatives across Africa. The founding members of the Coalition are; African Women in Media (AWiM), Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK), Ethiopian Media Women Association (EMWA), SisterSpeak 237, Tanzania Media Women’s Association (TAMWA), Uganda Media Women’s Association (UMWA), and Women in Media Sierra Leone (WIMSAL).
Investing in this collective effort means investing in a more inclusive, sustainable, and equitable future for African media.”
CGEMSA brings together organisations with decades of experience championing women in media, media development, gender advocacy, and press freedom. The founding members have united at a time when organisations advancing gender equality and independent media are facing increasing sustainability challenges due to declining funding, shifting donor priorities, and growing pressures on civil society.
Recent data highlights the urgency of this moment. The UN Women Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2026 reports that a survey of 855 women-led and women’s rights organisations across 52 crisis-affected countries and contexts found significant impacts on organisational sustainability, with advocacy and accountability efforts among the first functions affected. With 31% of organisations reporting reduced capacity to advocate, 21% scaling back longer-term gender equality work, nearly half reporting six months or less of operational funding and two in five organisations considered suspension or closure likely within the following year.
The media sector is experiencing similar pressures. Free Press Unlimited 2026 report highlights the impact of reduced international support on independent media globally, noting that up to 80% of surveyed independent media outlets have been forced to downsize following sudden reductions in international aid, affecting their ability to sustain public-interest journalism.
Recognising that these interconnected challenges cannot be addressed by individual organisations working alone, the Coalition has been established as a platform for collaborative resilience, resource mobilisation, shared expertise, collective action across Africa.
