WACSI, FGHR Release Social Activism Report

The West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) has called for mutual trust among traditional social justice organisations, social movements, and social activists with a view to expanding the civic space in the region.

WACSI made this call in a research report titled Collaborating for Effective Social Activism in West Africa, which it produced in conjunction with the Fund for Global Human Rights (FGHR).

The research, it is understood, was conducted in the wake of reports that civil society organisations (CSOs) in many countries are under constant pressure and operating in a closing civic space.

‘It has spurred new forms of collaborations between social activists and social movements that are different from traditional social justice organisations in responding to closing civic space and the brazen attacks on citizen’s freedoms’, WACSI noted in a press release sent to Development Diaries.

It was learnt that data for the report were gathered through focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews with traditional social justice organisations, social movements and social activists in Ghana between September and November 2019.

With regard to research findings, the report identified challenges such as lack of perceived accountability, ideological differences and incompatibility of goals, leadership styles and mistrust, movement capture and power dynamics, and bureaucratic standards of traditional social justice organisations.

The paper, based on the aforementioned findings, offered recommendations for deepening collaboration among traditional social justice organisations, social movements, and social activists.

It also urged stakeholders to devise innovative strategies and tactics where all stakeholders should promote sustainable partnerships and document their experiences and challenges.

Additionally, it called for enhanced communication to build a cross-country alliance and solidarity.

‘Moreover, as collaboration hinges greatly on trust, traditional social justice organisations, social movements and social activists should mutually develop frameworks and structures that enhance, rather than diminish, trust to deepen the nature of collaboration to promote social justice in the face of the shrinking civic space’, the report added.

The mission of WACSI, which was set up by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) in 2005, is to strengthen civil society in West Africa to be responsive, collaborative, representative, resilient, and influential through knowledge sharing, learning, connecting and influencing; while, on the other hand, FGHR is a public foundation that provides financial and strategic support to catalyse the work of trailblazing activists.

Source: WACSI

Photo source: WACSI

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