West Africa Civil Society Institute wacsi.org

WACSI harnesses the proposal writing and grants management skills of project officers from CSOs in West Africa

The stress of using complicated approaches to develop project proposals has been greatly reduced for eighteen participants from civil society organisations (CSOs) across West Africa who took part in a Resource Mobilisation and Proposal Writing training organized by WACSI. The training took place at the WACSI Training Centre in Accra from July 16 – 18, 2012. It brought together staff involved in proposal writing and resource mobilization from organisations in Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Nigeria.

The participants at this training were equipped with simplified techniques of writing proposals that will capture the interests of philanthropists and funding organisations. The three day training provided them with an interactive platform which enabled them to share and gain insights into best practice modalities on writing winning proposals. The strategic delivery approach utilised for the training focused on pertinent practical issues to consider when writing a project proposal that would elicit favourable responses from donors.

This training was immediately followed by a two day training in Grants Management which enabled participants to acquire knowledge and skills that would strengthen the grants management systems of their organisations.

Mr. Adonadaga Justin, Managing Director of Kalabash Ghana in the Upper East Region of Ghana lamented on the stressful approach he had been using over the years to appropriately utilize projects funds for his organization. “I just realized how I have punished myself all these years struggling with the management of our grants. This programme just made me ask myself why I never thought of building capacity all this while. Thanks WACSI for this [training] programme”, stated the Managing Director.

Many organisations in West Africa are faced with such capacity challenges and are craving to have opportunities that will enable them to deepen their understanding of issues related to their work and sharpen their operational skills. Ms. Jenet Kanachukuma from Ageibo Cecilia Care Foundation in Nigeria explained how she had paid little attention to the grants management issues in her organization.

Because of her participation in this training, she stated that, her “knowledge about grants management was very sketchy and I was practically unable to know the grants management plans and process from start to finish. Right now, I know in details the grants management process”.

Robert Dakwa from OrphanAid Africa stressed on the interesting aspects he bagged home from the training. “One of the interesting things I have learned during this workshop concerns the seven principles of good financial management skills for NGOs. The seven principles really confirm, and gave me confidence as to my systems and procedures. It is a benchmark for me”.

All participants expressed utmost satisfaction towards the training. They were quick to call on the Institute to organize more of such trainings regularly and in regional locations in Ghana and in other West African Countries. WACSI is seeking for feasible ways of responding to these growing demands b civil society in West Africa.

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