October 27, 2025 In Newsroom By WACSI
West African CSOs Unite to Drive Cyber Resilience
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[20 October 2025] -The fight for civic space is no longer limited to streets, courts, or parliaments; it has shifted online. Civil society organisations in West Africa now face rising cyberattacks, misinformation, and the risks posed by artificial intelligence. In response, groups from Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire joined forces this September for two workshops under the Digital Security & Resilience Deep Dive for Civil Society in West Africa, funded by Ford Foundation, designed to give them the tools to defend themselves in the digital era.
This initiative builds upon the foundation laid by two previous interventions: Technology Capacity Strengthening and Support in Digital Security and Digital Rights Advocacy and Equipping CSOs with Digital Resilience and Data Rights Advocacy Skills to Drive Organisational Effectiveness. These efforts significantly improved the digital capacities of participating organisations, enabling them to operate more securely and advocate more effectively within the digital space.
“As CSOs, we are constantly under attack, and it is very important for us to protect our digital space,” said Joanes Jang, Executive Director of the Partners for Relief and Development Organisation (PARDO). His words underscored the urgency that drove the four-day workshops, From 1 to 4 September in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Eight participants representing eight organisations from Guinea, Cameroon, and Côte d’Ivoire strengthened their knowledge of digital security, organisational resilience, and the responsible use of emerging technologies. A week later, from 8 to 11 September in Nigeria, nine participants from nine organisations drawn from Cameroon, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria built their skills in the same areas.
Across both workshops, participants worked through practical sessions. The workshop provided hands on assistance in the development and implementation of digital security policies, incident response plans, and the integration of practical tools tailored to each organisation’s operational context. They also examined the legal and policy environment around digital rights knowledge that will help them respond to threats while protecting both staff and communities. A special attention was given to the growing risks posed by emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), ensuring that CSOs are better equipped to respond to the rapid evolving of digital threat landscape.
For many, the workshops exposed how quickly the digital landscape is changing.
“By taking part in this workshop, I realised just how fast technology is moving and how complex the threats have become,” said Charlie Martial Ngounou, President of AfroLeadership in Cameroon. “The training helped me to measure the gap between our current procedures and real practice, while also building solutions together with colleagues from other organisations.”
Others emphasised the responsibility to share what they had learned.
“These four days taught me the importance of checking the truth and originality of content, including that generated by AI,” said Dr Aleley Angèle Ouraga of the West African Network on Small Arms (RASALAO-CI). “It is a lesson I intend to integrate into our organisation’s digital security policy.”
A standout feature of the workshops was the incorporation of a Train-the-Trainer model, aimed at enabling participants to cascade digital security knowledge within their organisations and wider networks, thereby ensuring sustainability and widespread impact.
Several participants pledged to take their new skills back into their communities, with plans ranging from internal staff workshops to radio broadcasts on online safety.
By the close of the sessions, organisations reported greater confidence in identifying and countering digital threats, clearer ethical guidelines for using AI, and stronger peer networks across West Africa.
For the organisers, the lesson is simple: in an age of tightening civic space, resilience online is no longer a choice but a necessity. As Jang warned, “Protecting our digital space is essential if we are to continue serving our communities. Without it, our voices risk being silenced.”
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