WACSI TRAINS 31 YOUNG LEADERS FROM WEST AFRICA
[Accra, Ghana] 31 March 2022 — As part of efforts to groom the next generation of leaders in the West African region, the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) has successfully co-facilitated a capacity building workshop for young civil society actors at the Young African Leaders Initiative Regional Leadership Center, YALI- RLCs programme.
The five days 9 (22-29 March 2022) intensive training workshop took place at the Accra RLC auditorium at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and brought together 31 young participants from nine different countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Togo, Gambia, Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
During the training, participants were taken through topics like, leadership, civil society sustainability, policies formulation and advocacy, communicating for impact, storytelling in civil society (success stories), proposal writing and budgeting among others.
As experts in strengthening the institutional and operational capacity of CSOs to engage in policy intervention and the promotion of democratic values and principles, WACSI also took time to share with participants alternative funding models for CSOs that would enable their organisations to diversify their sources of funding. This marvelled participants.
“The training by WACSI is rich in content and timely with valid research backup and I have benefitted a lot. In my opinion WACSI should be supported with the requisite resources to reach out to other young people with their expertise,” said Dinatu Emmanuel Ishaku, Founder Kasham Girls, Women, Youth and Community Development Network (KGWYCD), based in Nigeria.
The training was characterised by activities including post facilitation group discussions where participants were given the opportunity to dialogue, exchange ideas and network among themselves.
At the end of WACSI’s five-day facilitation, Adama Bittaye, a fellow from The Gambia said his major highlight was the idea of telling one’s story (success stories) for impact. He said going forward, he will support his organisation to improve upon their communication strategy and that will go a long way to enhance their visibility and identity sustainability.
Jones Amarkai Amarteifio, a participant from Ghana said “the training was insightful and motivating. I’m optimistic that I will make an impact when I go back to my community”.
WACSI has been a key implementing partner of the YALI- RLC’s programme. So far, over 1402 YALI fellows from Accra RLC have benefitted from WACSI’s interventions over the past seven years.
