The Africa Transitional Justice Legacy Fund (ATJLF) is pleased to announce a commitment of $2,680,000.00 in sub-grants and legacy projects following deliberations between staff and ATJLF’s Executive and Advisory Councils. A total of $1,555,000 will support fifteen (15) civil society organizations to advance transitional justice initiatives across six West African countries. The sum of $750,000 has been earmarked for a set of legacy-worthy projects that include organizational capacity building support for ATJLF grantees, and an additional $375,000 has been set aside for collaboration with regional and continental bodies.

As ATJLF enters its Legacy Phase, building on six years of impactful work and culminating in its sunset at the end of 2026, this final round of funding places a premium on sustainable interventions in Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Mali, Northeast Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia. In the grant awards criteria, we prioritized interventions that plug into institutional transitional justice efforts, and those with the potential to strengthen the agency of survivors and build the capacity of community-based partners to achieve policy and other outcomes that include the prevention of recurrence of gross violations of human rights. Approved grants prioritize the implementation of contextually relevant solutions that are in line with the African Union Transitional Justice Policy (AUTJP).

In this Legacy Phase, ATJLF made the decision to support fewer partners with more substantial financial and technical support through two-year grants, as opposed to smaller one-year grants in previous funding cycles. This is designed to deepen ATJLF’s commitment, maximize the prospect to amplify impact, and curate organizational strengthening as a key component of sustaining the important quest for transitional justice in the longer term.

ATJLF also aims to deepen its collaboration with the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to ensure the effective design and implementation of the AUTJP and sub-regional policies and programs.

The Legacy Phase grants and projects, will bring ATJLF’s total grant-related investment to the tune of $5.8 million. ATJLF-funded initiatives have contributed to establishing, amplifying, or scaling-up existing efforts to implement recommendations from truth, reconciliation, and reparation programs, and have advanced efforts to provide victims and survivors with a pathway to remedies.

In Guinea, the Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Northeastern Nigeria, ATJLF has supported interventions that put victims and survivors at the forefront of truth-seeking, reconciliation, and new forms of reparations at community levels. In Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, and the Gambia, sub-grantees have undertaken national advocacy and documentation projects to advance the popularization and adoption of the AUTJP. This has yielded results including laying the groundwork for the establishment of a War Crimes Court in Liberia, the passing of the Victims Reparations Bill into law, and the establishment of a Hybrid court in The Gambia.

ATJLF extends its gratitude and looks forward to continued work with grantee partners, the AU, ECOWAS, and the broader set of actors in the transitional justice space to build on these successes.