The Value of Strategic Thinking in Restricted Communities
Within the context of closing civic spaces, conventional thinking offers limited opportunities as improvements are mostly incremental or in most cases almost non-existent. Conventional thinking tends to lead to conforming …
An Overview of the Asset Based Community Development Model and the Opportunities it Presents for Civil Society in Africa
In 1993 an alternative model called the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) Model was devised by Jody Kretzmann and John McKnight of the ABCD Institute at Northwestern University in Chicago. …
The Importance of Strategic Thinking for Grassroots Organising in Africa
Grassroots organising has become an indispensable catalyst for social change in Africa. Political organising continues to fail to deliver development dividends citizens are therefore, more than ever eager to invest …
Personal Branding: The Why & How of Building a Professional Online Presence
When the word brand is mentioned, the mind often regurgitates brand identity elements, such as: logo, colour palette, design, website, and the like; or we think of the general business …
Nigeria: A Country or A Nation
Nigeria is destined to be prosperous, and despite the odds, Nigerians will get her to prosperity because millions will rise and re-establish her. The problem is not Nigeria; it is …
Events in Afghanistan and their implications on Women and Children in Central Africa
The Taliban entered Kabul, capital of Afghanistan on Sunday August 15th, 2021, two weeks before the United States of America (USA) was set to complete its troops withdrawal, forcing President …
Building your Personal Brand: 7 Tips to Consider
You own a brand called, “You.” In other words, we all own a personal brand, whether you like it or not, or are aware of it or not. That is …
Why International Development Projects Fail in Africa and What We Can Do Differently
Sub-Saharan Africa is a graveyard of numerous development projects. While some of these projects failed structurally, others failed functionally. An example was a library stocked with English-language books in a …
Pursuit of an Ideal Nigerian Society in the Post-Covid-19 Era
Early ideologies that birthed socialism began with great minds like Henri de Saint Simon, and morphed through the inputs of the likes of Karl Marx who was the proponent of …
Personal Branding: Pathway to a Successful Career
Before consciousness about the essence of personal branding was raised by Tom Peters some two decades ago, the power and potential of branding was mostly utilised by corporate organs, evidently …
Community As A Response: Communities Organizing for their Development
In March 2021, the World Communities Forum brought together organizations working with local communities to reflect on the past year and how Covid-19 has impacted the work that they do. TrustAfrica hosted …
Branding Tips for Civil Society Organisations
There is no gainsaying that branding plays a central role in ensuring the success of any corporate organ, its product(s) and/or service(s) in any market milieu, notwithstanding the challenges. When …
How CSOs Can Set Up and Sustain an M&E System: An Introduction for Development Practitioners
Most civil society organisations (CSOs) grapple with the difficulty of measuring and demonstrating impact. While many factors account for this, the inability of CSOs to institutionalise and make monitoring and …
Access to Public Information: Between Obstacles & Opportunities Towards Open Government in Benin
Open government in Benin has been on the agenda of politicians and civil society for the past five years. The concept aims at effective governance through transparency and accountability of …
COVID-19 and it’s Impact on Youth Participation in Development in West Africa
The coronavirus health crisis has exacerbated the challenges of youth participation and inclusion in development in West Africa. The impact of this crisis has been twofold. On one hand, it …
Protecting the Rights of Air Passengers in West Africa
While it is undeniable that air transport in Africa presents a rather disappointing image today, its future seems promising with the various initiatives taken here and there by States and, …
A Critical Conception of Democracy in Facilitating Development in Africa
In the last few years, studies to understand democracy in Africa have intensified with an objective to comprehend firstly if it is a contextually, culturally relevant and appropriate system of …
Leadership Development: Fixing a Flat Tire, or Re-inventing the Wheel
The paper argues that many of the forms of leadership development performed by international actors targeting youth in civil society become a futile attempt to reinvent the wheel if they …
The Third Sector in West Africa – Maimed by COVID-19
One sector in West Africa that has found itself crippled on many levels by COVID 19 is the third sector and specifically non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs). The …
Digital Transformation: Meaning and Relevance
Technology has invaded our daily lives and has changed the way we go about work. However, technology seems to have changed more significantly the way individuals interact than the extent …
COVID-19 and Democracy
The world is today confronted with a new threat; the novel Coronavirus infection (Covid-19). The virus first broke in China in November 2019, and has since swept across countries, overwhelmed …
COVID-19 Pandemic and Adolescent Girls
These times are not normal times! We are in difficult times! This too shall pass! We are all in this together! These are recurring assuring statements made by governments to …
The Catalytic Effect of CSOs on the Nigerian Economy
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are major drivers of socio-economic transformation in both the industrialised and developing world. According to estimates by the International Council for Small Business (ICSB), …
CSOs as Accountability Agents
From the Niger Delta in Nigeria to the southern part of Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa is blessed with a vast array of natural resources. To paint a more vivid picture, …
Elevating your Organisational Effectiveness
The outbreak of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges to the organisational health of community-based organisations (CBOs) especially in the global south. CBOs are important public health system …
A Multidisciplinary Approach to Contain COVID-19 in Sierra Leone
On April 11, the Republic of Sierra Leone marked the start of a fourteen days inter-district lockdown (from 11 to 24 April 2020) to combat the spread of the COVID-19 …
Social Movement: A Vital Instrument for Social Accountability in Africa
Social accountability is an approach towards building accountability that relies on civic engagement in which citizens participate directly or indirectly in demanding accountability from service providers and public officials. It …
Impact of Social Media on African Youth
In contemporary society, social media has made access to information easier. Social media has the potential to fundamentally change the character of our social lives, both on an interpersonal and …
7 Feasible Ways to Expand Civic Space in West Africa in 2020
The effective implementation of WACSI’s interventions is dependent on civil society’s contributions and feedback on the Institute’s work in promoting an open, safe and prosperous West Africa. WACSI’s interventions are …
Enhancing Digital Security Awareness for CSOs in Africa
Over the last two decades, technology tools available for civil society actors in Africa have tremendously evolved. Journalists and activists relied mostly on print media to call out dictators and …
Legal Practices & Regulatory Frameworks
In the last two decades, civil society has made significant strides in giving communities a voice to challenge governments and be involved in governance processes. The 2011 Arab-Spring, a by-product …
4 Common Reasons why CSOs Struggle with M&E
Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) are two separate but complementary functions, that together form part of an emerging development practice within the civil society sector. M&E is defined as “a process …
Analysis of the DDR processes of Women ex-combatants
The DDR process is a vital program in the phase of rebuilding lasting peace. In Africa, many states weakened by civil wars have experienced it. The result of these experiences …
Social Movements and Social Change in Africa
The last decade saw an apparent resurgence of social movements in Africa, especially in the aftermath of the 2011 “Arab Spring” in North Africa. This article presents key characteristics, challenges …
Demystifying the Concept of Social Accountability
Citizen’s voices are increasingly being shut down. Their rights are equally being violated and worst so, by representatives of institutions created by the state to protect the rights of citizens. …
One Too Many Child Marriages: Time To Act Is Now!
Across the world, a girl becomes a child-wife every two (2) seconds. Annually, 15 million girls marry before the age of 18, making 41,000 girls a day. It has been …
Advancing The Financial Sustainability of Civil Society in Africa
Civil society in Africa is facing financial sustainability challenges. In this article, we share valuable lessons from a Shared Learning Convening on Alternative Funding Models for Civil Society Organisations. It …
4 Critical Ways to Support the Women’s Movement in West Africa
Forty women from diverse walks of life have stressed the need for stakeholders, especially decision-makers in Africa to take necessary actions that will create equal opportunities for women on the …
Media Reporting on Substance Use: Magnifying or Reducing the Harm?
Over the past four months, phrases such as “sweet, sweet codeine” and “end tramadol abuse now” have become very popular in Ghana and Nigeria. These terms emanated from a title …
