From Participation to Power: Reflections from Africa at the Centre
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What does it really mean for Africa to be at the centre of its own development?
This was one of the questions I carried with me throughout the Africa at the Centre: Leading Change, Shifting Power convening in Accra, Ghana, from 1–3 September 2026.
Representing the Green to Abundance Development and Empowerment Foundation, I arrived ready to learn, contribute and connect with other African change makers. I left with a deeper understanding that shifting power means changing who gets to make decisions, whose knowledge is valued and who has control over resources and solutions. It means moving beyond simply inviting communities to participate in projects to giving them a meaningful role in deciding what is needed, how it should be done and what success should look like.
One of my strongest takeaways was that participation does not automatically mean power. Being invited into a room is different from having the agency to influence what happens in that room. The conversations led by Charles Kojo Vandyck, Head of the Capacity Development Unit at the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI), Dr Nana Afadzinu, Executive Director of WACSI, and Moulaye Camara, Founder of Civitas Resilience Platform, challenged me to think more critically about ownership, decision making, African knowledge and the systems that shape development on the continent.
This is important for me because the same principle applies to the biodiversity and conservation sector. A community can be invited to a tree planting exercise, consultation or training without having much influence over what species are prioritised, where restoration takes place, how local ecological knowledge is used, or how responsibilities and benefits are shared. Shifting power therefore means moving from asking communities to participate in activities that have already been designed to involving them in defining the problem, shaping the intervention and deciding what success should look like.
Moulaye Camara’s reflections particularly challenged the way we sometimes view African organisations. We are not only recipients of knowledge and capacity building. African organisations are also generating knowledge, developing solutions and learning from the realities within which we work. For organisations working in biodiversity conservation, this means valuing locally developed restoration practices, community knowledge of indigenous species and landscapes, and lessons generated through years of working directly with communities.
This connected strongly with my own work in biodiversity conservation, ecological restoration and community development. It made me ask: Are the communities we work with simply participating in our projects, or are they genuinely shaping them?
The Youth at the Centre session, facilitated by Deborah Nana Ama, brought another important dimension to this conversation. I had the opportunity to contribute my perspective on youth participation, particularly the importance of accountability and mentorship.
I believe that when young people are given space at the centre, we must also be prepared to take responsibility for what we do with that space. Youth leadership should not mean leadership without accountability, and the push for new voices should not mean losing the wisdom that comes through mentorship.
For me, meaningful inclusion requires space, voice, responsibility, learning and action. In practical terms, this means creating opportunities for young people to contribute to decisions, while also equipping them with the knowledge, guidance and accountability structures needed to turn that participation into meaningful action.
Perhaps one of the most valuable parts of the convening was learning across borders. Conversations with people from different countries reminded me that while our contexts may differ, many of the challenges facing African communities and civil society organisations are connected.
I returned to Nigeria with new relationships, new questions and a stronger commitment to examine how power and ownership show up in my own work. I also returned with a practical question for our biodiversity and restoration work: how can we create more opportunities for communities to influence not only implementation, but also the decisions that determine what we conserve, restore and prioritise?
Africa being at the centre cannot only be a statement. It has to be reflected in who decides, whose knowledge counts, who owns the solutions and who benefits from them.
The question I now carry with me is simple: If I have been given space, what am I doing with it? For me, that means using opportunities to contribute responsibly, learning from those with more experience, creating space for others and turning conversations into practical action.
That is where the conversation moves from participation to responsibility, and from conversation to action.
About the author
Faith Eriaremhien
FaithEriaremhienis a SeniorProgrammeOfficer at the Green to Abundance Development and Empowerment Foundation, where she works across biodiversity conservation, ecological restoration, communitydevelopmentand climate resilience. She holds a BSc in Forestry and an MSc in Energy and Environment from the University of Ibadan. Her work combines community engagement, environmental education, restorationinitiativesand the use of GIS and environmental data to support sustainable development. Faith is particularly interested in indigenous knowledge,community-ledrestoration, youthparticipationand practical approaches to building resilient landscapes and communities.
