The West Africa Drug Policy Network (WADPN) participated in a series of training organised by the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) and its partners as part of the Civic Space Resource Hub (CSR-Hub) project to Enhance Civic Engagement & Strengthen Organisational Capacity.
WADPN is one of the 25 organisations in Ghana, Senegal, and Nigeria to benefit from this training under four pillars: Civic Space Protection (Laws and Regulations), Leadership and Governance, Digital Security and Protection, and Resource Mobilisation and Financial Resilience. Each training session equipped participants with skills to define and monitor government policies related to civic space, supported board governance for organisational efficiency, provided technical assistance in developing internal digital security policies and digital innovation and offered expert support in financial reporting and auditing.
WADPN is a regional drug policy reform advocacy organisation that promotes the well-being and human rights of people and communities who use/inject drugs in 16 West African countries, including Mauritania.
The CSR-Hub aims to strengthen the capacity of civil society organisations (CSOs) and reposition the third sector to effectively address challenges to civic space and democratic governance in the region and fulfil their mandates and development objectives. The project supports grantee organisations in developing organisational and thematic competencies through capacity building, learning, and technical support, aiming to enhance the relevance, effectiveness, and efficiency of participating CSOs.
The CSR-Hub project has provided training participants with insights into new trends and best practices for promoting effective civic space engagement and sustainability. This training will promote an enabling environment for civic operations, enhance organisational resilience, improve operational efficiency, develop competencies in technology and digital security, and strengthen resourcing and financial management capacity for effective operations and safe activism.
WADPN and other attendees believe that this project has and will significantly enhance the organisation's capacity development to conduct step-down training for its network members, the communities it engages with, and other relevant beneficiaries and stakeholders. This also means that WADPN will incorporate best practices and key learnings from the training to strengthen its resilience in the four pillars while advocating for safe and open civic space throughout the West African region.
The West Africa Civic Space Resource Hub is a resource centre designed to holistically strengthen the capacities of civic space actors and civil society organisations in West Africa to effectively respond to emerging and longstanding challenges to the civic space and democratic governance in the region and to strategically reposition the third sector to deliver on their development objectives.
The West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) in Ghana and Spaces for Change (S4C) in Nigeria, with support from Ford Foundation, co-lead the Civic Space Resource Hub (CSR-Hub) project in three West African countries – Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal.
The CSR Hub focuses on four strategic pillars:
Civic Space Protection,
Governance and Regulatory Compliance,
Digital Security and Protection, and
Resource Mobilization and Financial Resilience.
Learn more about the CSR Hub via https://csrhubwestafrica.org/