West Africa Civil Society Institute wacsi.org

WACSI and GIZ identify new capacity development avenues for CSOs in Ghana

Ms. Sandra Jensen, NGO Technical Advisor and Ms. Susanne Giese, Civil Society Coordinator, both from the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) met with a WACSI team led by Capacity Building Officer, Mr. Charles Vandyck to share ideas on the possibility of initiating programmes that would empower non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Ghana to better implement projects under the Civil Society Support Program (CSSP) coordinated by the GIZ.

The meeting which held at the WACSI Secretariat on Wednesday June 27, 2012 enabled WACSI and GIZ to again, unanimously agree on a new avenue for collaboration. GIZ has identified a number of areas that NGOs in Ghana supported under the CSSP need strengthening, to enable them to better achieve project goals. Both organisations agreed that trainings would be organized by WACSI for staff from some NGOs in Ghana in the areas of Proposal Writing and Resource Mobilisation, Grants Management among other courses that would enable beneficiary organisations to better achieve their project objectives.

The GIZ team was very pleased to learn more about WACSI and to understand that WACSI engages with civil society organisations across the region. “WACSI seeks to professionalise civil society and to strengthen civil society organisations to better engage at local and national levels to galvanise development processes” stressed Mr. Vandyck.

He added that WACSI promotes the work of community NGOs, and the Institute has worked hard with its partners, the Embassy of France in Ghana, UNDP and the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare to develop a website dedicated to promote the work of CSOs in Ghana.

Both parties agreed upon an action plan that would enable them to specifically engage in tailoring some of WACSI’s skills and institutional strengthening courses to benefit NGOs in Ghana.

The meeting enabled the visitors to have a pragmatic feel of WACSI’s work and to identify areas for future cooperation and collaboration notably in the area of capacity building. WACSI and GIZ have over the years enjoyed an excellent and fruitful working relationship in the training of West African Civil Society Actors in Conflict Prevention and on the Responsibility to Protect in 2008 and 2012 respectively.

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