By Angela Atabo, NAN
The West Africa Civil Society Institute, WACSI, a brainchild If the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, OSIWA was on Thursday inaugurated in Nigeria.
WACSI was conceptualized and opened in Ghana in 2005. It began operations in 2007 with the mandate to strengthen civil society in West Africa to be responsive, collaborative, representative, resilient and influential through knowledge sharing, learning, connecting and influencing.
The Executive Director of the institute, Ms. Nana Afadzinu told journalists at a news conference in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory that the establishment of WACSI in Nigeria is a significant milestone as more opportunities would be opened for civic space actors even as she hoped that the study conducted by WACSI will lead to significant input from local donors while reports of international donor fatigue continue to make the news.
“From a study, WACSI commissioned to ascertain the extent of the impact of COVID-19 on CSOs in Nigeria, it became evident that CSOs were significantly affected, negatively.
“Out of the 80 CSOs who took part in the survey, 38.4 percent reported having funding reductions from major donors.
“However, 58.1 percent CSOs were unable to raise any domestic resources during the pandemic to complement external donor funding; 55.8 percent of the CSOs agreed that they did not have the capacity to mobilize domestic resources.
“This revealed the fragility of the financial sustainability of many CSOs in the country,’’ she said.
The Institute estimates the total number of Civil Society Organizations in Nigeria to be around 46,000 and said the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerability of CSOs to digital security threats and the technological capacity gaps plaguing actors within the sector.
In response to this, Afadzinu said the Institute, with support from TechSoup Global, donated 14 laptops to six organizations, relevant software, and training to enable effective use of these.
This was part of the institute’s NODE program, a pilot project, she said was notably beneficial to the institutions that benefited from it, and based on the results, WACSI was pursuing more opportunities to support needy civil society organizations in a similar manner.
“Civic Space in Nigeria like many other West African countries is shrinking and creating a disabling environment for civil society’s effectiveness.
“With support from the Ford Foundation, WACSI is implementing the Civic Space Resource Hub in collaboration with Spaces for Change to provide the needed resources to civil society actors to build their resilience and confront the civic space challenges.’’
Afadzinu said the program targeted three West African countries, including Nigeria adding that Civil society actors in Nigeria were therefore key players in WACSI’s sphere of influence.
The NODE program will act as a liaison office and connect civil society organizations and their partners to the various service offerings provided by WACSI which include training, mentoring, and coaching to strengthen capacity in institutional governance, management, and operations of non-profit organizations; and this is not limited to NGOs.
Also, she said that as a regional organization, WACSI’s long-standing engagement with ECOWAS would also be enhanced with its presence in Abuja.
“In addition to launching the WACSI Node, the Institute will also hold a Tech event that will showcase what service offerings exist for civic actors in Nigeria.
“We are hopeful that WACSI node Nigeria, will bring us even closer and strengthen our long-standing relationship.
“Together we will work to build a strong, influential, resilient, and sustainable civil society sector in Nigeria, that can contribute effectively to the peace, security, and prosperity of Nigeria and West Africa.
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