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INTERNSHIP REPORT

OCTOBER 2010 TO APRIL 2011

BY:

ASSIATOU DIALLO

WEST AFRICA CIVIL SOCIETY INSTITUTE

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Acknowledgement

Working as an intern at WACSI from October 2010 to March 2011 has been an enriching professional

experience. I have acquired a lot of social and professional skills while working for WACSI. The

acquisition of knowledge was not an individual achievement. It was the result of collective support,

assistance and encouragement from my family, friends and colleagues at WACSI.

For that, I would like to thank the Almighty God who has opened the doors of WACSI to me, my dear

mother and Mrs. Dorcas Nema Dione without whom I would have never known about WACSI.

I want to thank the Executive Director of WACSI for her concern about my stay in Ghana, especially

both inside and outside office hours. My Sincere thanks also to Mr. Charles K. Vandyck, the Training

and Capacity Building Officer of the Institute, for his excellent supervision. I also appreciate the

constant advice and counseling given by Omolara Balogun, the Policy Advocacy officer. I also wish to

acknowledge the enduring support that all WACSI staff gave me during the six months I served as an

intern at WACSI, and my co-interns for making the period a memorable one. I am grateful to all of

you for making me feel at home.

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Table of contents

Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………2 List of Acronyms……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………4 Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….5 Background…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...6

The Internship Experience……………………………………………………………………………………………………..7

Skills Acquired……………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………8

Recommendations………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….8

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………9

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List of acronyms and abbreviations

CSOs………………………………………………………………………………………………… Civil Society Organisations

NGOS…………………………………………………………………………………………Non-Governmental Organisations

OSIWA………………………………………………………………………………….Open Society Initiative for West Africa

WACSI………………………………………………………………………………………West Africa Civil Society Institute

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Executive Summary

In this report, I define civil society as consisting of community-based organizations, traditional

leaders, implementing NGOs, unions, business associations, religious organizations, independent

media, student groups, co-operatives, and other associational groups. Civil society's role in

decentralised and democratic governance has four major functions:

Representing and advocating for the diversity of community interests

Delivering services in education, health and other social sectors.

Partnering with government in development planning and promoting understanding of

decentralisation

Acting as a watchdog over government.

These roles are not played by all civil society actors or at all times. Therefore, in a bid to redress the

challenges confronting CSOs in the sub-region and making them serve as strategic partners in the

promotion of democracy, good governance and national development in West Africa, the Open Society

Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) established an institute with the primary responsibility of

strengthening CSOs’ institutional and technical capacity, namely West Africa Civil Society Institute

(WACSI). WACSI became fully operational in July 2007 with the commitment to bridge institutional

and operational gaps within civil society and facilitate strategic partnerships between civil society

and government. The Institute also serves as a regional resource centre focused on training, sharing

research experience and facilitating policy dialogue within CSOs in West Africa.

In addition, the institute was created in order to respond to the lack of technically astute civil society

actors through the implementation of an internship program. Therefore, the Institute is committed to

enhancing competencies of the new generation of responsible civil society actors and future leaders.

This process led to the initiation of the institute’s “Next Generation Internship program”; which I was

fortunate to participate in.

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Background

Civil society is a complex concept. It is commonly viewed as consisting of groups and associations

pursuing common interests to improve the lives of citizens. Also, civil society may be perceived as a

dynamic offshoot of the State. Both of these cases imply that civil society consists of groups of citizens

coming together in an effort to influence policymakers in terms of their specific interests and

aspirations. This is the basic concept underlying our manner of carving the civil society sector from

the other diverse social clusters in contemporary society.

The civil society sector is populated by organizations such as registered charities, developmental non-

governmental organisations, community groups, women's organizations, faith-based organizations,

professional associations, trade unions, self-help groups, social movements, business associations,

coalitions and advocacy groups. Civil society organisations may carry out one or more of the four (4)

primary functions in order to represent the interests, needs and concerns of their constituencies, as

mentioned above.

In an ideal situation, effective co-operation should exist between the civil society and the State. In

many parts of Africa, however, there is a wide gap between the two. In traditional Africa, civil society

has placed itself in a rather uncritical and non-confrontational position with respect to the State in

Africa. Given this position, civil society tends to uphold a compromising stance which impedes civil

society from achieving its goals within the sub-region. Also, the lack of adequate skills and poor

organisational techniques by civil society organisations (CSOs) may boost these problems.

West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) acquires its momentum to strengthen weak civil society in

the sub-region based on the aforementioned background. WACSI was established by the Open Society

Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) to enhance and strengthen the capacity of CSOs in the sub region

by bridging identified institutional and operational gaps. WACSI’s programs aim at rendering CSOs as

viable partners of government in the pursuit of democracy, good governance, peace and development

in the sub-region. The central mission of WACSI is to act as a capacity builder for CSOs. In order to do

so, WACSI initiated the Internship program that trains future professionals for the civil society sector.

This program seeks to ensure the continuity of educating potential ground-breakers and future

prominent decision makers in the civil society sector. Through this program, young scholars and

professionals are empowered and endowed with the appropriate skills to face the challenges inherent

to civil society.

The program provides interns with opportunities in research, policy advocacy, training and capacity

building, which are the core operational areas of WACSI. Through these areas, interns are assigned

tasks which enable them to acquire and improve upon their skills in analysis, report writing, program

conceptualisation, planning and implementation. Most especially, working in such an environment

endows interns with a comprehensive understanding of how organisations function.

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I joined WACSI's “Next Generation Internship program” in October 2010 for a period of six months.

During this period, I harnessed my understanding of civil society, the modus operandi of civil society

organisations and the pertinent role of civil society actors. Most of all, the fun, excitement and strings

of stress attached to working in a cross-cultural work setting gave me valuable professional

experience. This report describes my experience during my internship period at WACSI, and the

knowledge and skills I gained whilst working for this dynamic, growing institution committed to

enhancing the capacity of West-African civil society.

The Internship Experience

My internship started in October 2010 and lasted until March 2011. During this period, I worked

under the Institute’s Training and Capacity Building Unit that provides courses specifically designed to

suit the varying nature of civil society in West Africa. Courses are structured based on a system

perspective, recognising the dynamics and connections between various actors and issues in the sub-

region. The courses attract community based organisations, NGOs, women and youth groups, the

private sector, government officials and inter-organisational.

NGO Management workshop for civil society actors in Ghana

The workshop was targeted at strengthening the managerial skills of middle level staffs of NGOs in

Ghana to withstand management related challenges.

For my first training workshop in this Growing Institute, I was involved in different level: As a

participant; Responsible for ensuring that the participants were comfortable during the training

period; and also I was the rapporteur for the training workshop and thus wrote a thorough report

capturing all the activities during the training period.

Policy Advocacy training for civil society actors in Benin

The objective of this training was to enhance the ability and capacity of Benin civil society actors to

engage in constructive policy discourses, interact with policy makers and influence policy

formulation processes. The workshop also aimed at increasing the grantees practical skills and

techniques in policy analysis, influencing and formulation, as well as in writing effective policy briefs,

conducting policy research and studies, strengthening their capacities to develop effective strategies

and communication tools for Policy Advocacy. Ultimately I was involved in all the different stages of

organising this training work shop, from facilitating the calls for application to writing the final

report.

Project Proposal Formulation and Grant Management for civil society actors in West Africa

In this training workshop I worked with the Training and Capacity Building officer. In that particular

training I was responsible for monitoring the different stages of organising from the calls for

application to the training reports. The workshop attracted 30 participants’, 11 females and 19 males

from civil society organisations across West Africa.

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The objective of the training was to provide development practitioners with proposal formulation

competencies to meet international grant reporting requirements. The workshop also aimed to

enhance the ability of CSOs to formulate winning proposals to solicit funds from International Donors

and to manage program and project funds.

Database of Experts I have also worked on the WACSI’s Experts Database. The Institute is creating an Expert Database of Development and Policy Practitioners in West Africa. The Institute utilises the services of indigenous resource persons for its various capacity building and policy advocacy and research interventions. The expert’s database will form an integral component of the Institute professional associates.

Project Implementation After the experience of being involved in organising these successful events, I have been able to improve on my decision making skills as well as gain a better understanding of the process of planning and implementing projects.

These tasks have enhanced my ability to marshal facts. Working as an intern in the Training and

Capacity Building Unit of WACSI has helped me to acquire strategic skills and knowledge on regional

trends and global issues, organisation and project management. The training period has also made me

an effective communicator in organisational settings. During this period, I have been given challenges

to be accomplished within rigorously stipulated deadlines. Meeting all these deadlines has been an

added impetus which makes me optimistic about facing greater challenges in the future.

Skills Acquired

The internship programme at WACSI is a great opportunity for young professionals in West Africa. It

is a gateway towards the professional world and allows us to address issues relating to our areas of

competence. Being part of the WACSI team is also a great privilege, since the experience enables

young Francophone to work in a multicultural environment.

Despite the challenges, my experience at WACSI has been an important step in strengthening my

skills in research, report writing, leadership and communication in both English and French. The

internship program is structured around the three focal areas of WACSI: Training and Capacity

Building, Advocacy and Policy Research and Documentation.

During my six months internship I also learned about the ways of working in a well-structured

organisation, collaborating with colleagues from different nationalities and cultures, exchanging ideas

and accepting the opinion of others, as well as learning from one another. This experience has

positioned me to face future challenges in the civil society sector.

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Recommendations

As mentioned above, my duty is to bring in a modest contribution in the form of constructive

recommendations to WACSI. I hope these contributions will improve the functioning of the “Next

Generation Internship Programme”. My recommendations are as follows:

The involvement of the interns in the functioning of the Institute

WACSI should involve interns in the major debates on the functions of the institute, since I

believe that this kind of program should be comprehensive and address all aspects of the

organisation. I also would like to suggest that Interns should be involved in all stages of

project formulation and management.

Internship exchange

WACSI should effectively implement an internship exchange program. It was initially

planned that interns would serve for two months in a partner organization during their

period as interns, but this program has been dormant. Through this practice, interns

would gain the experience of learning from diverse organizations. Also, the interns will

apply the experience acquired from other organizations to working at WACSI, which will

contribute to ameliorating the functions at WACSI and successfully implementing its

strategic plan.

Effective Gender Programme

After having obtained an overview on the Gender issues in West Africa, I could identify a

clear need for better capacity building and training in order to increase the viability and

effectiveness of gender policies to remedy the situation. I hope WACSI can play an effective

role in this endeavor after organising the first Women’s Policy Forum in Accra Ghana in

2008 in partnership with other women’s organisations.

Conclusion

Six months at WACSI as an intern has been a period of great learning. I acquired pertinent knowledge

in the areas of training and capacity building and policy advocacy. I learned extensively about civil

society and about the issues relevant to civil society and vital for a healthy society such as democracy,

peace and peace processes, policy advocacy, gender, human rights, among others. I became familiar

with the needs, challenges and opportunities inherent in civil society and the processes of

strengthening CSOs capacity to better engage with the ongoing transformation in the region.

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Through the “Next Generation Internship Programme”, WACSI has distinguished itself as a warehouse

for the civil society sector. This program does not only strengthen personnel in the sector, but also

trains personnel needed to fill human resource gap. Interns who have graduated from this program

now provide substantial intellectual outputs to meet institutional needs within the West-African civil

society sector.

My six months at WACSI was an important and enriching experience. I wish long life and all the

success to the Institute.