END OF INTERNSHIP

REPORT

Sept. 2008 – Apr. 2009

By

Omolara T. BALOGUN

WEST AFRICA CIVIL SOCIETY INSTITUTE

2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Acronyms........................................................................................................................................... 3

Executive Summary..................................................................................................................................... 4

Acknowledgment.......................................................................................................................................... 5

Background................................................................................................................... .................................. 6

Internship Overview ................................................................................................................................. 6

Internship Exchange........................................................................................................... ........... 9

Capacity building............................................................................................................................. 9

Recommendations....................................................................................................................................... 10

Conclusion................................................................................................................... ................................... 12

3

ABBREVIATIONS

APRM Africa Peer Review Mechanism

AU African Union

BPfA Beijing Platform for Action

CEDAW Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

CS Civil Society

CSO Civil Society Organisation

ECOMOG ECOWAS Monitoring Group

ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States

GTZ German technical Cooperation

KAIPTC Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre

MGD Millennium Development Goals

NEPAD New Partnership for Africa’s Development

NGO Non-Governmental Organisation

OSIWA Open Society Initiative for West Africa

R2P Responsibility to Protect

RnD Research and Documentation

UN United Nations

UNSC United Nations Security Council

WACSI West African Civil Society Institute

WIPSEN-A Women Peace Security Network-Africa

ZIF Centre for International Peace Operations

4

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Civil Society Organisations in West Africa have been growing exponentially in recent

decades. There are over 2200 CSOs i.e. Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Community

Based Organisations (CBOs), Faith-Based Organisations, Women and Youth Organisations

operating within the sub-region1. These organisations are engaged in all levels of

development within the sub-region, however their activities, challenges and achievements

are not appropriately highlighted and documented. A majority of these CSOs have

organisational and technical capacity challenges including; human/intellectual

competence; and institutional capacity to effectively implement their mandate and make a

meaningful impact to the development of West Africa.

In a bid to redress the challenges confronting CSOs in the sub-region and make 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. Thus, West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) was established

and commenced full operations in July 2007 with 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, research, experience sharing and policy dialogue for CSOs in West Africa.

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

society actors through the implementation of an internship programme. Therefore, the

Institute committed itself to expanding the human resource competencies of the new set of

responsible civil society actors and future leaders. This process has led to the

implementation of the institute’s “Next Generation Internship programme”. Thus far, 4

interns have graduated from the programme.

1 West African Civil Society Directory, published by WACSI, 2008. Available at www.wacsi.org accessed 9 April, 2009.

5

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This report serves as my end of internship report (Next Generation Internship Programme)

with the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) from September 2008 – April 2009.

This ‘End of Internship Report’ highlights my journey through the 6 months internship

programme; the opportunities and probable recommendations to improve the internship

process.

Overall, my internship experience proved to be a rewarding and fascinating opportunity.

Learning about civil society organisations, governmental and regional structures,

developing and practicing my academic knowledge, learning new professional skills and

networking with civilian actors and experts has been a great benefit to my future

endeavors. Sincerely, the Next Generation Internship programme has helped me to design

my career objectives. I acquired a better understanding of organisational dynamics, the

concept of civil society, sub-regional trends, and research skills by participating in WACSI’s

internship program.

My heartfelt appreciation goes to the Executive Director of WACSI (Ms. Thelma Ekiyor) for

her guidance and counsel all the way. I am grateful to her for opening her doors wide for

me to learn, and for her commitment towards the mentorship process. I sincerely value her

dedication and efforts in imparting my life and career with inspiring knowledge.

I also thank the entire management and staff of WACSI, and my co-intern (Gima Forje, Lady

Willie-Harry and Bassey Alaga) for making the period a memorable one

Omolara T. BALOGUN

April, 2009.

B.A (Ife), M.A (Ibadan)

6

BACKGROUND

In September 2007, WACSI designed an initiative to identify and build-up new leaders that

could proffer practicable solutions to the contemporary challenges confronting West

African civil society. The “Next Generations Internship Programme” has become a veritable

tool for the institute to discover these prospective leaders that will enlarge the group of

civilian actors in West Africa.

The “Next Generations Internship Programme” is a 6-12 months internship programme that

gives opportunity to young West Africans at the early stage of their career. The Internship

programme significantly offers to build the capacity of young West African professionals

through Training and Capacity building, Research and Documentation and Policy Advocacy.

In addition, the training regimen includes strengthening the intern’s leadership skills,

training and facilitation skills, proposal and report writing, programmes design and

implementation. The intern is also taken through various research and documentation

techniques; exposed to topical issues such as Peace and Security, Human Rights and Rule of

Law; Democracy and Good governance; Gender issues and progression on Africa’s current

development initiatives – the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the

Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), sub-regional trends (ECOWAS) and international

development - Responsibility to Protect (R2P) among others.

MY EXPERIENCE AT WACSI’s RESEACRH AND DOCUMENTION

UNIT

The first Call for Application of the “Next Generations Internship Programme” was

disseminated in September 2007 and four (4) diverse West African nationals have

participated thus far – 2 Ghanaians, Cameroonian, Nigerian and a Zimbabwean. I was

offered the opportunity to participate in the Internship Programme on September 13, 2008

for a period of 6months in the institute’s Research and Documentation Unit (RnD). The RnD

unit is a very important section of the institute and it engages primarily in the mapping of

CSOs activities across West Africa, their dimensions and impact. Most significantly, the unit

serves as a repository of knowledge, peer learning, intellectual reflection and produces

indigenous publications. In addition, the unit conducts research on various topical issues

that center on the work of civil society and its actors.

Currently, the RnD unit has to its credit a number of publications that promote civil society

reflections, either in the form of a quarterly online publication titled “WacSeries” which

aims to emphasise the contributions of CSOs to democracy, governance and socioeconomic

development in West Africa; or as WACSI’s Open Edition “Op ED” series, which serves as a

7

periodic analytical write-up of civil society actors, experts, and researchers to reflect, and

make recommendations on a range of topical themes and relevant issues. Amongst others,

the following reports have been published and disseminated to civil society actors,

government institutions and other stakeholders within the sub-region.

Civil Society and Election Observation in West Africa: the WACSOF Experience

Regional Seminar: ‘Reflecting on Civil Society Evolution in Ghana over the last 50 years’

Sierra Leone: Civil Society and the 2007 Elections

Economic Partnership Agreements: Reflection Document for Civil Society Organisations

ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework (ECPF): A new approach to an old challenge

Global Consultative Roundtables on the R2P: West African Perspective

“The Status of Women’s Leadership in West Africa”- publication in progress

Conflict Prevention Resource Pack for West African Civil Actors–publication in

progress (In partnership with KAIPTC and GTZ)

Whilst working as a research intern in WACSI’s RnD unit, I was able to improve my ability

to conduct research through a structured training scheme and consistent writing. This

granted me the opportunity to obtain new techniques and knowledge in;

Research design;

Research data collection and analysis (quantitative and qualitative);

Field and desktop research;

Concept paper formulation and policy brief;

Development of training manuals and strategic plan of action;

Programmes/policy report and proposal writing;

Programmes organisation, facilitation and management.

Majorly, the institute granted me the priviledge to coordinate a regional research on “The

Status of Women’s Leadership in West Africa”. The research was undertaken by 4 (four)

regional researchers, who gathered and analysed data (quantitative and qualitative) for

each focus countries of the research – Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire. Besides

tasks attached to the general management of the research process, I conducted an

institutional overview on the research topic; developed and disseminated over 200

research questionnaires to partners, women, women’s organisation, women in government

institutions, civilian actors, and other relevant stakeholders across the region, and finally

8

analysed the questionnaires responses into a designed matrix for simplicity. Whist leading

the research process, I was exposed to diverse national, regional and international

developments and existing challenges on gender issues on a global scale. I became

proverbial with range of international frameworks/ instruments available to mainstream

gender into all sectors of development – socio-cultural, economic, political and peace

building processes and those created for the advancement of women in the society

particularly in political representation and participation; involvement in post-conflict

peacebuilding and peace processes, security sector reforms, peace support operations

amongst others.

THE STATUS OF WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP IN WEST AFRICA: Publication in Progress

The research on the “Status of Women’s Leadership in West Africa” was inaugurated by

WACSI in October 2008 with the overall objective to examine and document the evolution

of women’s leadership in the sub-region. The study explored the evolution of women’s

leadership in the traditional and comptemporary times and women’s contributions to the

promotion of good governance and sustainability of democracy in the sub-region. The

study accessed the impact made or that are being made by women in the African male-

dominated society in which they found themselves. It also examined the ratios of female to

male in decision-making positions and policy processes (formulation and implementation);

the manners in which women in comptemporary leadership positions are perceived by

their society and reasons for such perception. Further, the study critically examined how

women’s networks, coalitions, movements, collaborations and support groups have

impacted and inspired women’s leadership across the sub-region.

Though the research took a cursory look at the status of women’s leadership both in the

past and present across the region, major data were sourced from the strategically selected

countries - Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire. Cote d’Ivoire was included due to her

ongoing transition process after a period of protracted civil war; Ghana and Senegal were

chosen due to their relative political stability and the going democratisation process; and

Nigeria was chosen among the sampled countries simply because of her immense

population (most populous nation in Africa), geo-political significance and the strategic

roles it plays in the sub-region. Overall, the peculiarities of the selected countries created

platform for comparism, with respect to existing opportunities and hindrances to aid or

limit women’s influence/advancement in leadership, governance and decision-making

processes.

9

I conducted the research data gathering process, which involved the development and

administration of questionnaires to different categories of women and general civil society

actors (including men). The questionnaires responses were then analysed to identify key

findings and map the way forward on the women’s leadership status for the four countries

under focus in particular and West Africa in general. Other resourceful information were

gathered through other sources such as focus group discussions, interviewing of key actors,

and one-on-one discussion.

In brief, the research revealed that women’s roles and participation in leadership and

developmental process has to a large extent been defined and restricted along biological

and cultural lines in West Africa. There are marked disparities in women’s access to some

leadership positions such as president, ministers, family heads etc. Women lack access to

credit, land and equal and quality education thus making their progress in the society

relatively slow and difficult. The study further revealed that, even though men continue to

dominate the leadership arena, in the sampled countries - there is an increasing interest to

support the upward mobility of women who are perceived to be credible. At the same time

some individual men, especially family members, provides support systems and incentives

for women to activate their interest in leadership roles. Some other barricade to women’s

empowerment as revealed by the study includes the erroneous belief that women are to be

solely responsible for domestic work and chores. The acrimony and financial requirements

of democratisation system also leave many women frustrated particularly during election

campaign processes; coupled with dearth of knowledge in leadership among women; lack

of requisite skills to pursue and maintain leadership positions in governance whenever few

are fortunate to attain it. Additionally, the study shows that majority of women have

insufficient knowledge, experience and capacity to engage male dominance in leadership

positions, political spaces, and religious arenas. It also revealed clear evidence on the roles

of civil society groups committed to building the capacity and confidence of women, thus,

equipping them with necessary skills and trainings to better engage policy makers and play

more active roles in decision-making and governance processes of their society and

countries.

A prominent challenge noted during data analysis dwelt majorly on the woeful

representation of women in various levels of governance and the adverse implication it has

on general societal development. The findings postulated that, unless specific affirmative

action measures such as quotas are implemented as a deliberate policy of national

governments, women’s participation in governance processes which is a key component of

democratic practice might not be secured. Regardless of the international frameworks in

place to mainstream gender into all sector of the society, which most countries in West

Africa are signatories, unfortunately, these countries lack the commitment to domesticate

or implement these frameworks in their national policies. For instance;

10

The Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) identified 30 percent benchmark for gender

representation in governance and also promotes women effective participation in

decision-making. This dream is yet to become reality in most national parliaments;

the research revealed that 13 out of the 17 countries2 in West Africa geographical

zone has less than 15 percent women representation in national parliaments.

Nigeria, the most populous nation in West Africa and indeed the whole Africa has

the lowest women representation in parliament following the 2007 general election

with 25 women out of 358 parliamentarians in the lower house and 9 women out of

109 parliamentarians in the upper house3.

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discriminations Against Women

(CEDAW) is another notable legal instrument which prohibits all forms of

prejudices, injustice, inequality, and disparity against women. CEDAW was adopted

in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, as an international bill of rights for women

and was consequently adopted and approved by the West African countries in 1980 and

1986 respectively. Amongst other objective, the Convention provides the basis for

realizing equality between women and men through ensuring women's equal access to,

and equal opportunities in, political and public life - including the right to vote and to

stand for election -- as well as education, health and employment4.

African Union Charter on Human and Peoples Right (ACHPR) was unanimously adopted

by the heads of States and government of Organisation of African Unity (now African

Union) in October 1981. West African countries were signatories to this protocol except

Cape Verde. Only 8 out of 52 African countries who signed the African Union

convention on Protocol to the African Charter on Human and people on the right of

women in Africa have ratified the protocol.5 The protocol frowns at all forms of

discriminations against women. It further noted women’s rights and essential roles

in development, peace processes, preservation of African values based on equality,

freedom, dignity, justice, solidarity and democracy be respected by all.

UNSC Resolution 1325 as an instrument was adopted in October 2000 on Women

and Peace and Security with the objectives to protect women’s rights during armed

conflicts, prevent impunity for gender based crimes, mainstream gender aspects in

peacekeeping operations and increase women’s participation in the various phases

2 Geographical West Africa countries include: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Cote D’Ivoire, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo 3For more, See- Inter-parliament Union (IPU) 4 For more information on CEDAW see-http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw.htm accessed 27 April, 2009

5 The following countries have ratified the AU-ACHPR: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal,

and Togo. Available at http://www.achpr.org/english/ratification_women%20protocol.pdf accessed 28 April, 2009

11

before, during and after armed conflicts. UNSCR 1325 puts forward concrete

recommendations to the UN member states, entities of the UN System, civil society

and other actors involved in international peacekeeping and development

cooperation. This resolution is considered to be a milestone in the Security Council’s

work with women, peace and security. However, the impact of the resolution

depends entirely on the political will of various actors to bring into operation,

implement and monitor the recommendations and objectives set out in the

resolution. Though, significant efforts have been made for UNGA to reaffirm their

commitment and strengthen efforts to fully implement UNSCR 1325 but there are

still many gaps and challenges with respect to the implementation in several

countries including ECOWAS countries6.

The study submitted that the whole conduct of politics often serves as deterrent for

women’s participation and inclusion. This in particular remains a prominent hindrance to

women’s interest to participate in democratisation processes. In many cases women have

found the patriarchal and masculinist frameworks, undiplomatic approaches of political

parties, and other political processes as oppressive and unattractive, thus masking

women’s interests, alternative views and perspectives. This has become the norm in West

African countries going through democratisation processes and even worse-off in post-war

societies of Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau. The democratisation process of Liberia on the

other is an exception when compared to other post-war societies. The Liberian women

jointly supported the election of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in 2005 as the first

democratically elected Female President in African, through their networking, coalitions

building and collaboration.

The research further revealed that, most political parties lack sense of seriousness to

support a transformatory process that can effectively broaden the space for women’s

leadership and participation in governance processes. It also stressed the need for special

measures to be put in place by national governments and political parties, such as

reservations, settings of legislated and political party’s quotas, and affirmative-action

which aimed at creating a balance in view of the inequalities that women face in ascending

to political post. Overall, the result proved that it is important to strengthen the capacity of

women in political parties and governance spaces, thus, empowering them to argue for

changes in party politics, and facilitate their chances for holding strategic positions within

party structures.

6 ECOWAS countries includes: Benin, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Gambia, Cape Verde, Togo, Nigeria, Cote

d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Mauritania, and Ghana.

12

Whilst administering the research questionnaires, clear evidences from respondents points

to the need for national governments to take active interest in women’s participation in

politics and assumption to leadership positions. Additionally, several appeal were made to

national governments to embark on full implementation of relevant national policies and

show its commitment to all agreements and laws made at all level to promote women’s

representation, articulation of gender issues in politics, involvement and active

participation in decision-making processes. Governments were adviced to domesticate all

international instruments available for the advancement of women’s course: CEDAW, UNSC

1325 and 1825, BPfA, MDGs, AU Charter on the rights of people and women human rights,

and other relevant protocols of ECOWAS relating to women representation in

developmental issues.

Besides this major project, I undertook other responsibilities directly related to RnD unit.

These include:

management of research projects

constant desktop research on various topical international and sub-regional issues

development and administration of research questionnaires

synthesising and analysing of research findings

rapoutering for programmes, forums and dissemination of reports to partners and stakeholders

development of women’s CSOs database in West Africa

In addition to my RnD tasks, I was opportune to partake in several training programmes

particularly in the area of implementation, management and logistic provision. Some of the

training programmes in which I participated includes:

a pre-testing training workshop on Conflict Prevention for Civilian actors in West Africa

a workshop on policy advocacy and engagement training

a training workshop on Corporate Governance and Leadership for Women’s Organisations

First Annual West African Women’s Policy Forum

INTERNSHIP PLACEMENT

To further broaden the horizon of the interns and enhance their competencies, WACSI’s

Next Generation Internship Programme includes a 2 months placement component at a

partner organisation. The placement/attachment programme gave me valuable

13

opportunity to acquire ample work experience with another civil society organisation. The

attachment which usually takes place in the last two months of the internship offered me

great experience. My attachment was the Women Peace and Security Network-Africa

(WIPSEN-A) located in Ghana. WIPSEN-A is a woman led organisation with the goal to

enable, enhance and sustain women’s right to participation and leadership in fostering

human security, sustainable peace and development. The organisation provides platform

for women across Africa societies to exchange, share, and harmonise strategies for

women’s leadership and build coalitions to promote peace and security. WIPSEN has

among other objectives, the commitment to promote the twin approach of mainstreaming

gender in peace and security mechanism and mainstreaming peace and security in all

gender mechanisms.

I worked directly with the programmes department specific tasks assigned. The

diversification of WIPSEN-A’s programmes department granted me huge benefit to interact

with other units in the organisation – Administrative, finance, and research unit. The

flexibility of the organisation helped in enhancing my previously acquired knowledge in

NGO management and programmes implementations. In addition, it created a platform to

exhibit all accrued knowledge in trainings skills, facilitations and research. Some of my

tasks includes; development of concept papers; development of training modules; budget

writing for programmes; organisation and management of training programmes; project

management and liaison with partner organisations; logistics provision for programmes

implementation, amongst other tasks.

I coordinated the organisation and implementation of training workshop – Training of

Trainers (ToT) on Gender and Multidimensional Peace Support Operation in West

Africa under the directive of the Programme Director. The project exposed me to the

complexities of United Nations’ Peace Support Missions across the globe, with special focus

on UN missions in West Africa region. The project dwelt largely on the urgent need to

mainstream gender into peacekeeping institutions and mechanisms, and critically

considered the changing trend in evolution of Peace Support Operations (PSO). It

highlighted the comptemporary demand for a shift from traditional peacekeeping to a more

comprehensive, multifaceted and integrated pattern of PSO engagement, as exemplified in

multidimensional PSOs.7 The workshop expressed the need for gender perspective in

multidimensional PSOs to be highly critical, bearing in mind diverse skills and expertise

required for a successful PSO. The required skills are of two categories: 1) military and 2)

civilian skills. While the civilian skills include, but not limited to human and civil rights,

humanitarian and relief aid delivery, medical and reproductive health, public information

7Multidimensional PSO connotes diversity within the context of the peace support operations and implies the taking into consideration of

conventional military and non-military issues including military and civilian issues, human rights and justice, gender-based violence, rule of law,

humanitarian relief efforts, law enforcement, peacebuilding mechanism, gender, youth issues, post war reconstruction, elections, etc.

14

management and communications, legal, psychosocial support, law enforcement,

nutritionists, gender, mediation and negotiation, the military skills strictly provides armed

forces supports.

The training which was implemented in partnership with the ECOWAS Gender and

Development Centre (EGDC)8, Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre

(KAIPTC), and the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) created space to interact and

dialogue with experts and practitioners alike in strategic area of Peace and Conflict,

Security, and Peace Support Missions across the continent. Ideas, knowledge and

experiences were exchanged on topical peace and security related issues in several parts of

the region, continent and in the international system. Finally, the project offered me

profound insight on the Peacekeeping forces of ECOWAS i.e. ECOWAS Monitoring Group

(ECOMOG), particularly its involvement in restoring peace to war ravaged countries of

Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau.

REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

WACSI internship also creates opportunities for interns to attend professional training

programme/courses within and outside the sub-region. The training courses are to help in

enhancing the intern’s intellectual capacity; career development; CSOs’ perception (needs,

interests and challenges) amongst other benefits. Furthermore, the trainings provided

opportunities for international exposure, exchange of ideas between Europe and Africa,

and international networking. Specifically, I attended a two weeks Core Course in Peace

Support Operations organised by the Zentrum für Internationale Friedenseinsätze

(Centre for International Peace Operations – ZIF) in Berlin-Germany from March 22 – April

3, 2009.

The course aimed at increasing the professional readiness of civilian personnel to

participate in peacekeeping/peace support missions across the world and to enhance

personnel capacity to respond effectively to complex challenges of mission realities and

post-conflict reconstruction processes in war-torn societies. The course contained 15

modules with basic knowledge and skills required by international PSO civilian personnel.

Major components of the training emphasised on, desirable attitudes of mission personnel;

significance of active awareness and involvement in host society; critical approach to

complex issues of civilian crisis; risk prevention and management; and security

8 The EGDC was established in January 2003 at the 26th Session of the Heads of State and Government held in Dakar, Senegal where its headquarters is based. It is also a product of the ECOWAS Gender Policy. The Centre also works in conjunction with member states as well as sub-regional and international bodies to advance gender equity and women empowerment, as part of efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). For more see http://allafrica.com/stories/200710030627.html accessed 28 April, 2009

15

surveillance/consciousness while on mission. The course exposed me extensively to the

works of UN in Peace support missions across the globe; how UN plays the role of an

international organisation, particularly fulfilling its utmost mandate – to maintain

international peace and security. Ingenious skills and knowledge on human security;

international humanitarian aids and assistance; behaviour in complex risk situation; conflict

transformation and resolution; mission realities; mine awareness; practical negotiation and

mediation skills; rule of law, human rights and minority protection and the need to promote

the policy of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) formed core of the training. Overall, the

experience has successfully enhanced my worldview, reshaped my career pursuit and

expanded my scope of reasoning in Peace and security related issues. I had great

opportunity to make a presentation about WACSI’s mandate and significantly, how it has

been able to rejuvenate the capacity of West Africa civil society and its actors to better

engage governments, policymakers and other relevant stakeholders in nation building. The

platform of the gathering was also employed to convey to multi-cultural set of people about

the ongoing democratisation process in West Africa, with reference to Nigeria (as a citizen),

Ghana (as a host) and Liberia (as one of the countries emerging from war).

The course did not only launch me to the international scene for the first time, but

successfully created a notable impression on my worldviews; sharpened-up my academic

background and competencies; and strategically imparted my career plan.

RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE INTERNSHIP PROGRAMME

Introduction of Sub-Regional Youth and Leadership Training

There are perpetual challenges confronting the comptemporary West Africa youths – Lack

of access to quality education, lack of mentoring opportunities, abject poverty on a national

and regional scale most of which has led these youth into many immoral practises such as

robbery, corruption, assassination, recruitment or volunteer as political thugs etc. Though,

WACSI Next Generation Internship Programme seeks to build the capacity of young

professionals, it should be noted that only few youth have the opportunity to participate in

this life-moulding programme due to some challenges - limited number of internship

spaces available within the institute; budgetary constraints and time required to go

through a mentorship process. The volume of applications received by the institute for

internship placement demonstrates to a large extent how strong young West Africans

craves for knowledge, skills and mentorship opportunities. Therefore, I recommend that

the institute expand its training programmes to incorporate an annual ‘Youth Leadership

Training’ workshop. The proposed workshop will further advance the objective behind the

16

Next Generation Internship programme, and consequently build the capacity of civil society

actors, and also strengthens the institute’s contributions and commitment towards a more

accountable civil society. Through this process, youths with exceptional leadership

potentials and academic excellence across the region can be easily identified, brought

together and encouraged to participate constructively in the democratisation and

governance process of their countries. This training workshop can accommodate and

impart over 30 outstanding youth across the region aside the six month internship

programme.

Re-packaging the Internship orientation programme

The internship orientation programme needs to be repackaged to include all necessary

information, trainings and skills required for a new intern to settle into the institute

culture/system without being loss or feeling un-cared for. This is of great importance

considering the fact that, most of the interns are changing environment on international

scale for the first time. Additionally, there are the possibilities that the new intern has not

worked in an official environment before, in such case; he/she requires intensive trainings

on organisational assimilations into the new work environment. The proposed orientation

programmes should include the following: a) exhaustive introduction of all members of

staff and management of the institute, b) comprehensive information about the institutes’-

vision, mission, objectives and mandates consisting of past and present success stories and

future endeavours/commitments), c) provision for adequate platform to familiarise with all

units in the institute e.g. visiting and assisting each unit for at least a day – Administrative,

Finance, Programmes and Research units, d) provision and teachings of the institutes’

codes of conduct coupled with the Internship Policy, e) provision of all institutes’

publications for the interns’ peruse, understanding and familiarisation with the institutes’

previous scope of works, f) organisation of a welcome forum/party by the Welfare

committee to promote active participation in team work.

Introduction of an additional mode of learning

Having completed my internship programme, I realised ‘six months’ is highly insufficient,

to complete the internship syllabus designed for the programme. Thus, there is need for an

alternative mode of learning in order to speed up the learning-teaching process. This

alternative means will hasten provide special space for the interns/mentors to cover most

all topics highlighted in the programme - leadership training and skills, proposal writing,

knowledge on sub-regional trends like ECOWAS, APRM, NEPAD amongst others. I hereby

propose that, the institute devise a class mode of teaching/learning (i.e. teacher-student

approach), where the interns will have opportunity to interact with one another outside

office duties but rather listen, ask questions on bothering issues, and get immediate

corrections. I consider this proposed approach important due to the fact that, many

prospective interns have no prior academic/professional or practical knowledge of the civil

17

society sector. The learning process will be further enhanced, if the management agrees to

design and adopt it into the internship programme. This should include; periodic in-house

mini conferences and flipcharts teaching where interns receive lectures on various topical

issues. The approach will not only speed the process of learning, but will serve as catalyst

for intern’s interests on contemporary issues globally; will be more beneficial to interns

without academic background in Social Science, Arts or Humanities; will help to facilitate

the induction of novice interns into official work/training skills and finally helps to hasten

interns acquaintance with CSOs terminologies and concepts.

Improving the Internship Placement process

Certainly, the two month internship placement remains significant and crucial to the

overall programme. It provides opportunity for interns to demonstrate knowledge and

skills acquired in the previous months; create room to acquire additional working

experience in another organisation etc. However, the placement could be more strategic

and beneficial to the institute and the intern, if the institute could be more strategic in its

placements. I consider it eminent that interns should be attached to organisation that could

accommodate intern’s academic background or chosen field of interest. This will create a

clearer path for intern’s professional development and academic pursuit, and also permit

interns to sharpen their focus in desired areas. This could be better achieved, if prospective

interns are required to declare their strategic area of interest/development prior to the

commencement of the programme, thus, creating time for the institute to locate among

partner organisations one that will be strategic for the interns placement.

Introduction of language training

Language is a very important factor in cultural diversity and a viable tool in communication

and management. Knowledge in language diversity is a valuable asset to an international

social/development worker in a multi-lingual society like West Africa. Based on key roles

that language plays in a cross-cultural setting, I therefore recommend the institute to

incorporate into the internship programme a ‘language training’ section for interns,

particularly those without or with limited knowledge of a second international language.

This will be an added advantage to the institute and prospective interns. There is need for a

periodic international language class/training, as a form of capacity building aimed at

breaching and enhancing communication gap that often exist in a multilingual society,

specifically between the Anglophones and francophone West Africans.

Besides, it is somewhat difficult for young people to have priviledge to learn a second

international language except for those with academic qualification in a language literature.

This opportunity will encourage interns to learn a second global language: French or

English depending on their first language; facilitate good communication with partners,

participants and further strengthen interrelationship among the staff with diverse

18

international languages. Additionally, the language training will better prepare and equip

interns with major requirement to engage the turbulent civil society in West Africa. Finally,

it will serve as mean to facilitate regional integration among young professional at the early

stage of their career.

CONCLUSION

My internship period has been both challenging and a rewarding training experience. I

acquired pertinent knowledge in the areas of research and documentation which has

greatly improved my overall competencies in writing and analysis. I learnt extensively

about civil society, the relevance of civil society to state building, promotion of democratic

values, human rights, rule of law and sustainable developmental processes in the sub-

region. I became familiar with the needs, challenges and opportunities of civil society and

the processes of strengthening CSOs capacity to better engage the ongoing transformation

process in the region.

I had professional platform to exhibit and expand my accumulated academic achievements.

Creating a career around my academic background had always been my main objective,

and this has materialised to a large extent during the course of the internship. Thus, I was

able to strategically tailor my career path in peace, security, development and gender

studies. I had wonderful time learning and working on topical issues and keeping abreast

with new developments across the globe with reference to West Africa. In addition, I

acquired resounding knowledge on gender-mainstreaming mechanisms in all sectors; the

regional institutions - ECOWAS and its mandate. The Conflict Prevention training workshop

for civilian actors in West Africa remains the most memorable training that inspired my

continues yarn for professional development in Peace, Security and Conflict prevention.