Defence for Children International Sierra Leone (DCI-SL) and the National Children and Youth Advisory Board (NCYAB) of Liberia emerged winners of a proposal pitching competition organised for a selected group of civil society organisations (CSOs) in Sierra Leone and Liberia respectively.

DCI-SL emerged winner out of four organisations in Sierra Leone while NCYAB beat five organisations in Liberia to win the competition. They pitched their ideas during a Resource Mobilisation and Proposal Writing training organised by the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) in their respective countries.

During the practical training, participants were exposed to tips in writing winning proposals. Participating organisations were given the opportunity to apply the knowledge gained during the training. The organisations were tasked to develop a proposal in response to an open call for proposal by the ACT Foundation in Nigeria.

This was a hands-on approach that characterises WACSI’s top-notch capacity development programmes for CSOs.

As a result, DCI-SL, a child rights organisation and NCYAB, a youth-led organisation in Liberia emerged winners of the competition.

Eugenia Thomas-Cole, Assistant Project Officer at DCI-SL, who pitched her organisation’s proposal with enthusiasm, passion and eloquence, found the exercise to be very useful. She says, it was quite relevant and her team will build on the process to submit a proposal in response to the call.

According to Satta Senesie who works in the Kenema office of DCI-SL, “pitching competition is good because it makes every participant listen, contribute and learn something. It makes participants be active throughout a day’s training. It again encourages active group work and retention of what a person is taught as learning by doing is the best way to train a person or people.”

The training which took place from 14 to 18 November 2019 and 21 to 25 November 2019 in Monrovia, Liberia and Bo, Sierra Leone, respectively, were for partners of the Fund for Global Human Rights (FGHR). The training addressed other key areas such as board governance, leadership and talent management, sustainability and communicating impact.

Benitha Dehfer of DCI Liberia pitched her organisation’s proposal during the training. It was her first time to participate in a proposal writing training. She expressed utmost satisfaction with the training.

“I am so proud to be one of the participants who participated in the training. To be frank, it has added valuable skills to me which I [will] apply in my institution as I stand firm in advocating for the rights and protection of children, girls and young women in Liberia and the larger society. Many thanks to WACSI for such an important training and my gratitude to FGHR for [supporting] such an initiative,” she said.

Pauline F. Gartor, Executive Secretary of NCYAB was very happy her organisation won the competition in Liberia. Overall, she was amazed by the training and considers this to be a boost to her organisation’s growth.

“It was an amazing opportunity to have participated in such a unique training facilitated by WACSI. Topics treated during the workshop provided us with valuable insights about organisational growth in the

fight for human rights, especially succession planning, sustainability and most of all organisational leadership and governance,” she happily commented on WACSI’s Facebook page after the training.

Gator has committed to using the knowledge and skills gained during the training to effectively lead NCYAB.

“I can proudly say that I am prepared to lead [NCYAB] with the knowledge gained from last week’s training. Thanks to WACSI and the FGHR who funded the training,” she added.

Of course, as a buoyant youth leader, she did not fail to commend WACSI for the top-notch training content and be-spoke facilitation.

“Keep it up WACSI, you are doing an amazing job”, she wrote on Facebook.