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Founded on 4 June 2004 in Bukavu, Pilier aux Femmes Vulnérables Actives designs, manages and delivers projects at the intersection of women's rights, climate justice and biodiversity restoration. An overview of a portfolio that now spans five provinces.

PIFEVA was born into circumstances few organisations would choose as a starting point: recurrent wars, widespread poverty, malnutrition, violence against women, discrimination against Indigenous women and girls, exploitation of women and children in mining sites, and mass population displacement. Twenty years on, the organisation works across South Kivu, North Kivu, Ituri, Tanganyika and Maniema, and has established itself as an implementing partner trusted by demanding international donors.

An NGO that manages, not merely executes

The distinction matters. PIFEVA does not simply carry out activities decided elsewhere: it identifies problems together with communities, designs responses, mobilises funding, leads field teams and reports on results. Every project follows a tested cycle — participatory community diagnosis, transparent beneficiary targeting, training of trainers drawn from local farmers' organisations, establishment of community committees responsible for sustainability, then monitoring and evaluation with feedback sessions in the communities themselves.

This model explains why PIFEVA's work outlives its funding. Local nursery committees, forest monitoring committees, local units against sexual and gender-based violence, solidarity mutuals and village savings and loan associations keep functioning because they belong to the communities, not to the project.

Nine programmes, one common thread

PIFEVA's portfolio is organised around nine programmes: protection and promotion of the rights of Indigenous and marginalised women; peacebuilding and the fight against violence and discrimination; sexual and reproductive health and rights; formal and non-formal education; gender, environment and climate change adaptation; food and economic security; water, sanitation and hygiene; emergency humanitarian assistance; and advocacy for women's rights and climate justice.

The common thread never varies: the Indigenous, vulnerable or marginalised woman is not a passive beneficiary but the principal agent of change. That founding vision has been carried since the outset by the organisation's National Coordinator, Mrs Véronique Bulaya.

Partners that confirm the strength of its management

UN Women and the Women's Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), UNDP through the Adaptation Fund Climate Innovation Accelerator (AFCIA) together with the Adaptation Fund and the European Union, the Jane Goodall Institute, the AVINA Foundation through the BASE programme, the International Indigenous Women's Forum (FIMI) and its AYNI Fund, the Pawanka Fund, WEDO, AWDF, Cordaid, ICCO, IPACC and RSF: the sheer range of these partnerships is itself an indicator. It means PIFEVA's financial, administrative and accountability procedures are regularly tested by external audits and evaluations.

TWENTY YEARS IN NUMBERS

13,254 Indigenous women supported

17,227 survivors of SGBV assisted

5,725 women and girls made literate

7,247 displaced and returnee women assisted

8,113 women-led income-generating activities supported

300 / 600 solidarity mutuals and village savings groups supported

1,876,269 trees planted and restored by women and girls