By James Amoh Junior
Accra, Nov. 25, GNA – The West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) has launched a research report on the role of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to the Economic, Social and Political Development of West Africa.
The study, with support from the Ford Foundation, delves into the invaluable contributions of CSOs across 15 countries in West Africa, including Cameroon, Mauritania, and Chad.
It represents a thorough exploration of CSOs’ impact on the region’s economic, social, and political development while revealing the challenges that impede their contributions to the region’s development.
Despite the impact CSOs have made over the years in society albeit their challenges, the scale of the impact is not sufficiently documented.
Nana Asantewa Afadzinu, Executive Director, WACSI, speaking at the virtual launch of the report, said a lot of what CSOs did was evidenced anecdotally and that documenting the contributions of CSOs in the sub-region was long overdue.
She said CSO’s contributions in countries could not be underestimated as they did not only contribute to political and social development, but also economic growth.
“Civil society as we’ve known it is changing. So, it is good to document what it is that we have done as the years have gone by,” the Executive Director said.
Mr Dabesaki Mac-Ikemenjima, Senior Programme Officer, Ford Foundation for West Africa, stated that the report was being launched in the context of a wider conversation about reimagining Civil Society and the role they played while addressing some of the challenges they faced.
He said CSOs played significant roles in society through their ideas which were not necessarily just applicable to the work they did but catalysing new ideas necessary for solving societal problems particularly in the growth of social enterprises, the field of impact investing.
“Ideas that civil society organizations come up with really catalyse change across the board. With impact investing, we know that there’s more and more conversations about how you take an inclusive approach to investing that elevates certain constituencies. With gender, for example, how do you elevate the questions around gender as a way of thinking about deploying capital,” he said.
Dr Solomon Kofi Amoah, Development Expert and Lecturer, University of Ghana, giving an overview of the report, said it offered a comprehensive appraisal of how CSOs in West Africa were contributing to development in their respective areas of work.
He said the report gauged the priority areas of different CSOs that were contributing to development.
Dr Amoah, also the Lead Researcher of the report, noted that the indicators for the study were developed in line with the focus of the sustainable development goals, which required efforts that contributed to hunger eradication, good health and well-being, quality accessible education, gender equality and clean water and sanitation.
On reimagining the role of CSOs, the study said, among others, CSOs needed to play their roles in promoting social accountability, redefining, and enhancing partnerships and collaborations, and brokering private-public partnerships.
The Lead Researcher called on CSOs to take active roles in national politics and support the active engagement of constituents in dialogues on policy processes.
“CSOs are invaluable in development, considering their enormous roles at the community, national, and regional levels,” he said.
Nonetheless, he stated that their activities were affected by funding, lack of coordination and collaborations, and an unfavourable environment to effectively discharge development.
Dr Amoah said, “Clearly, there is a need to reimagine civil society’s role in our region’s development. The varied views on the reimagining roles of civil society should become a starting point for debates on the kind of civil society Africa wants.”
GNA