At the time when AWDF was founded, not only were women's rights organisations led by African women not receiving enough funding, but also large international organisations predominantly funded women's rights projects. This meant that these large, predominantly Western, organisations got to determine what the African women's projects looked like. AWDF's founders created the organisation to address these issues in funding for African women's organisations, led by African women.
It is difficult to trace the history of feminism in Africa because African is not only very large and diverse, but also feminist practices and ideas had existed in Africa long before the term itself was imported to the continent. However, the beginning of the African feminist movement can be linked to liberation struggles when women played an integral part in combating colonial oppressors in Africa and subsequently gained rights in newly independent nations. For example, in Zimbabwe over 250, 000 women were active combatants in liberation struggles. Additionally, groups of women such as the market women of Lome, Ghana and Nigeria, the Kikuyu women in the Thuku revolt revolted due to a combination of colonial oppressions and frustration with male-dominated governments' inabilities to protect the rights of women. In the 1970s - 1980s formal feminist activism proliferated across the continent and Diaspora. Since then organisations such as the African Women's development and Communication Network (FEMNET), Solidarity for African Women’s Rights Coalition (SOAWR) and African Feminist Forum (AFF) have formally committed to African feminist principles which can be found in the AFF's feminist charter.
The African Women's Development Fund is continuing a tradition of uniting African women's rights organisations to ensure that women can exercise power and exercise their agency against patriarchal and other oppressive structures. In 2001, 3 African Feminist activists- Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi (Nigerian/UK), Joana Foster (Ghana) and Hilda Tadria (Uganda/Ethiopia)- founded the African Women's Development Fund as the first pan-African women's fund to be established. It's founders were established feminist activists and philanthropists. In its first 8 years, the African Women's development fund helped more than 800 women-led women's human rights organizations by awarding them grants. Since then, AWDF has funded over 1200 women's organizations in 42 African countries, as well as supporting these organizations and women with technical assistance.
AWDF is led by African women, aged above 21, of all backgrounds and nationalities. The Organisation uses a traditional NGO operating structure: There is a board of 6 directors including two of its founders: Dr. Hilda Tadria and Mrs Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, responsible for ensuring that the orgainsation is running according to its established principles and meeting its goals. In addition, there is a senior leadership team, in charge of everyday operations and decision-making for the orgainsation, as well as other teams dedicated to specific organisational tasks. For example, a fundraising and communications team, finance and administration team and grants team. All team members contribute to achieving the goals of the organisation and sharing ideas, but ultimately power is centralised with the board of directors and senior leadership team.