WACSI Welcomes New Talents from Nigeria and Chad
[Accra – 1 September 2022] The West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) has welcomed new talents to its pool of civic actors and experts, as part of efforts to propel the Institute’s mandate of strengthening and building a resilient civic space in West Africa.
The new staff: Tinuola Makinde [Nigerian], Project Officer, Civic Space Resource Hub for Civil Society in West Africa (CSR-hub) and Tograbaye Alnoudjim [Chadian], Programme Assistant, Policy Influencing and Advocacy unit (PIA) will contribute to the Institute’s mission of building a more responsive, collaborative, resilient and influential civil society in the region through knowledge sharing, learning, capacity strengthening, connecting, and policy influencing.
Tograbaye Alnoudjim, the first Chadian to join WACSI since the Institute’s establishment in 2005, will be supporting the designing and implementation of programmes in the PIA unit while working collaboratively with other departments to drive the Institute’s core objectives. 
Alnoudjim is motivated by the multi-focus nature of WACSI, which he believes will give him the opportunity to learn new skills and grow professionally.
“Considering my experience in project management, public governance, gender and the challenges of civil society in Africa, I am well positioned to contribute to the achievement of the objectives of my department and that of WACSI in general,” he said.
Before joining the team, Alnoudjim worked as Supervisor, Emergency Food and Livestock Crisis Response Project (PURCAE II) for the International Organisation for Migration, Chad –a United Nations agency that provides services and advice concerning migration to governments and migrants, including internally displaced persons, refugees, and migrant workers.
He comes to this role with years of experience in the civic space having also worked as Head of Research at the Voice for Thought Academy in Mali.
On her part, Makinde will be supporting the implementation of the CSR-hub, which aims to build the capacity of civil society organisations (CSOs) and reposition the third sector in three West African countries: Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal, to effectively respond to the emerging and longstanding challenges to civic freedom, enabling environment, democratic consolidation, and transformational social change.
In an interview with the Communications Team at WACSI, the new CSR-hub officer could not hide her joy having successfully gone through the Institute’s competitive recruitment process and being given the opportunity to build on the skills and experience she had acquired over the years working in the civic space in Nigeria.
“WACSI’s mission which is to strengthen the capacity of CSOs across West Africa, answers my major career ambition to move from the local to regional phase in terms of policy change, advocacy, and institutional strengthening.
WACSI not being a thematic organisation, affords the opportunity to build a diverse skillset in the civic space which is a major motivation for me, ‘’ she said.
Makinde brings to this role years of expertise and experience in project management, monitoring and evaluation, which will help her to contribute to the creation of an enabling environment for CSOs to operate in diverse civic space across West Africa.
Before joining the team, she worked with the Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development in Nigeria as Project Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, a position she held for five years.
Since the establishment of the Institute by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA),it has experienced steady growth and continues to invest in human capital to help build a robust and skillful team capable of driving the mission, reinforce its values and mandate across the region.
