News
Published on 2022
2024 highlighted the resilience, resistance, creativity, and extraordinary solidarity of LGBTQI movements, amidst a difficult regional context. Across the region, our communities have continued to mobilize, innovate, and support one another, asserting, with strength and love, their right to exist and thrive.
Indeed, across West Africa, 2024 was marked by volatility, political uncertainty, and deeply felt threats to LGBTQI communities. Our movements faced pressures unlike anything seen in recent years, from anti-rights legislation to coordinated anti-LBGTQI violence in several countries.
As these external pressures mounted, ISDAO also navigated internal disruptions that affected how we worked. Sudden administrative and operational roadblocks challenged our systems, but collaboration and shared leadership enabled us to adapt, stay steady, and continue showing up for our partners. Our 2024 annual report reflects this duality.
Even in a year defined by crisis, ISDAO continued to resource and support movements. We awarded 104 grants across our portfolios, disbursing over 3 million U.S. dollars to groups, organizations, and activists. We convened spaces for strategy, reflection, and healing, including our bilingual West African LBQ+ convening, and supported participation in key advocacy spaces.
Although the demands and challenges of 2025 delayed this publication, we are proud to share A Light Shining in the Darkness as both a testimony and an affirmation that our vision for a just and inclusive West Africa has not dimmed. It remains our steady, guiding light, held with and strengthened by our partners, supporters, and communities.
