NEXT GENERATION INTERNSHIP REPORT June 2008 December 2008 Lady Willie-Harry

Acknowledgement This report documents the training I received as an intern in WACSI on the Next Generation Internship Programme. I will like to show my sincere appreciation to WACSI for creating this avenue to develop and prepare future civil society leaders in West Africa. I thank WACSI for the opportunity and specifically the executive director and programme officer of the Institute, Ms. Thelma Ekiyor and Mr. Charles VanDyck and the entire WACSI Team for their assistance and guidance.

Table of Content Acknowledgment List of Acronyms Executive Summary Background Experience Exceeds Expectation New Skills and Information Acquired Leadership Training Research The LGI-OSI Experience Recommendations Conclusion 2 4 5 6 7 9 10 10 11 12 13

List of Acronyms CSO ECOWAS GTZ KAIPTC LGI NGO OSI OSIWA R2P WACSI Civil Society Organisation Economic Community of West African States German Technical Cooperation Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative Non-Governmental Organisation Open Society Institute Open Society Initiative of West Africa Responsibility to Protect West Africa Civil Society Institute

Executive Summary Developing a succession plan is a strategic way of ensuring sustainability and continuity in any progressive organisation. As West Africa seeks to be the most stable socio-economic region in Africa, it needs avenues to develop and groom the next generation of leaders. These leaders should necessarily not be within the political sector but must be found in all fields of endeavour to sustain the developmental plan for the region. Therefore, in an attempt to help actualise this vision in West Africa, the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI), established by Open Society Initiative of West Africa (OSIWA), created the Next Generation Internship Programme. This programme seeks to train young actors and prepare them for the future roles as visionary leaders in the region. This is a report of six months of valuable experiences on the internship programme. It gives an overview beginning from the application for the programme to the initiation of the programme. It also highlights the various activities I was involved in and the outcomes of these activities. I was involved in designing and implementing activities directly related with the training and capacity building unit. However, this was not my only role, when opportunities of assisting with other units surfaced; I was called upon to assist accordingly. Finally, the report makes recommendations to civil society on the relevance of such internship programmes in order to increase the sustainability of their work.

Background West Africa Civil Society Institute is an organisation dedicated to achieving its mandate which includes strengthening the institutional capacity of civil society organisations (CSOs) in the West African so they can better achieve their mandates. These mandates find expression in the fields of peace and security, democracy, development, gender equality and among others. However, CSOs lack internal succession strategies. There seems to be an inter-generational gap that exists within civil society.

This gap is as a result of the misconception that the civil society sector is unstructured and unattractive in terms of financial rewards and career progression; therefore most young people are targeting booming sectors like the financial services sector. In addition, the older generations of civil society actors have not designed appropriate succession plans for the next generation to continue their work. Therefore, WACSI in line with its mandate of building the capacity of civil society actors introduced the Next Generation Internship programme.

This internship offers a 6 12 months period of training and work experience to young West Africans. As a beneficiary of this programme, this is a report on my experience as an intern in WACSI.

Experience Exceeds Expectations In June 2008, I enrolled in the Next Generation Internship Programme. Even though I came from a completely different academic background, I had great expectations of how such a programme could sharpen my professional skills. These expectations included the development of the under listed skills: Analytical writing; Research; Leadership and management; and Knowledge of global policy issues.

I was directly assigned to the Training and Capacity Building Unit. My role included helping to ensure that all the aspects of the Institutes training courses were implemented successfully. This began from the course design to the implementation of the training programme. WACSI organised various initiatives during the six month period which I was directly involved in. These initiatives were: NGO Management Training Course This course emanated from the recommendations of a regional training needs assessment for carried out by WACSI. Thus, the Institute organised an NGO Management Training Course for civil society actors in July 2008. This training attracted forty (40) actors from across the region. The overall objective of the course was to proffer the actors with basic management skills. I was responsible for ensuring that the participants were comfortable during the training period. Also, I was the rapporteur for the training workshop and thus wrote a report capturing all the activities during the training period.

Civil Society Coalition on Responsibility to Protect (R2P) The responsibility to protect is a relatively new international norm that has been gaining a steady awareness level in the world. WACSI became the Interim West African Secretariat for the norm and I became the contact person for civil society. This role included the crafting a periodic report on the advancement and the importance of the norm in West Africa and Africa as a whole. It involved a weekly research on the norm and the dissemination of information to all WACSIs partners and contacts. This role had a profound effect on me as it expanded my knowledge on global peace and security issues. It enlightened me about the various roles and processes of addressing peace and security concerns in the world. Another great impact the research had on me was the broadening of my horizon on the effects of conflict on women and children. It engendered me to read on relevant issues on conflict prevention, women, peace and human security. This process was very beneficial because it exposed me to the processes involved in policy advocacy as well as the various stages before a consensus is reached on public policies. Region Specific Conflict Prevention Resource Pack for Civilian Actors Another project which I was involved in was the development of a Conflict Prevention Resource Pack for Civilian Actors. This project was one-year collaboration between the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) and WACSI. The overall objective of this resource pack is to strengthen individual and institutional capacities in West Africa by: Raising awareness on conflict prevention, peacebuilding, governance and development issues; Explaining the linkages of multiple institutions and initiatives related with prevention, security sector, governance and development; Fostering both horizontal and vertical networking and collaboration.

WACSI; the lead implementing organisation in consultation with KAIPTC and GTZ, supervised the execution of the activities within the project. The initial project design divided the activities into five phases: Phase one: Formation of Advisory committee; Phase two: Review of existing training contents and methodologies; Phase three: Development of the various modules for the resource pack; Phase four: Training of Trainers workshop using the resource pack; and Phase five: Publishing and delivery of the module through short and long-term courses.

I became directly involved during the editing and harmonisation process of the resource pack. This involved extensive attention to detail and review to ensure that the information in the pack was coherent, uniform and accurate. Currently, the resource pack is at its final stage of publishing. New Skills and Information Acquired The amount of skills acquired during my training period cannot easily be quantified. They include; Report writing and editing; Research and documentation; Facilitation and training; Development of learning resources; and Project Management.

Leadership Training All the activities that I undertook were geared towards strengthening my leadership skills. Considering the need for a constituent of competent women leaders in a changing world, the internship opportunity provided me the platform to become an influential leader in the near future. The leadership training process was arduous and practical. I was given the opportunity and the responsibility to lead projects and organise meetings.

This process involved working with various people and learning the importance of team work. One of such tasks was when I was given the responsibility to be the lead project officer for a conflict prevention training of trainers workshop. This project was extremely challenging but with the help of my colleagues, the programme was a major success.

In addition, the passionate and dedicated leadership of the WACSI management was a daily leadership example. The management team always ensured that they supervised and encouraged every intern to produce the best. During the internship, I discovered that leadership cannot be an event but an ongoing process of continuous improvement, which has to be built on all levels and within the fabric of a person. It also requires consistent self development.

Research

The acquisition of research skills was largely by desktop analysis and the documentation of civil society experiences. The process enabled me to gain relevant knowledge and skills in relation to civil society and policy formulation and development. I was also introduced to module and toolkit development processes. This involved extensive research on topics needed for developing the content of the learning materials. The process of developing manuals and modules had a momentous impact on me because initially I thought it was a difficult task however, as I started the process, I realised it was a task
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that was enjoyable and practical. The training tools I helped develop cut across various themes such as peace and security issues, leadership development and conflict prevention.

These research opportunities have widened my understanding of the policy challenges in the sub region as well as processes involved in the solving these challenges. It also assisted me to understand the institutional and technical needs of civil society actors and the skills needed for strengthening this sector.

The LGI-OSI Experience

The most memorable internship experience was a training course I attended in Europe. This trip greatly enhanced my understanding of policy issues, minority rights and diversity management in the global context.

The four weeks training in Budapest gave me an opportunity to meet people from various parts of the world as well as an opportunity to present Africa to those who had never been to Africa but have certain misconceptions about the continent. Further, I served as an intern in LGI-OSI for two weeks. This gave me an opportunity to attend a public lecture by George Soros on the financial crises that has hit the worlds financial capitals.

LGI has a great stock of resources which I took advantage of in the period I was there. I read books on Public Policy and one book which was of great interest to me was Diversity in Action. In addition to the widening of my knowledge base, I received a firsthand experience of working in such a diverse environment. This diversity is not based only on ethnicity and nationality but in the work everyone does to achieve the goal of the organisation. Every individual plays their role in a professional way and makes sacrifices to achieve the aims of the organisation.

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Also, during my stay, I took the opportunity to visit Central European University. I visited some departments including the Department of Public Policy and International Relations and European Studies. Therefore, the internship gave me the opportunity to streamline and choose my academic focus. I attended the universitys open day and subsequently applied to enroll for the 2009/2010 academic year.

Recommendations: Training the Next Generation of Civilian Actors 1. As the number of CSOs continue to increase, it is important that such internship programmes be instituted in order to build the capacities of the future leaders in the region. Thus, it is imperative for CSOs to increase the intake of young actors seeking short-term internships during school holiday periods. This could be designed in such a way that it will not have a huge financial toll on the organisation. 2. CSOs should increase the publicity of their work by engaging in public education campaigns in tertiary institutions. This process will increase the interest of young people in the civil society sector. 3. CSOs should make concerted efforts to attract the future generation by making the sector more attractive and professional. 4. CSOs have to form networks and partnerships in order to facilitate the exchange of interns. This will give interns opportunities to experience different policy environments and solve contextual challenges.

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Conclusion My internship experience at WACSI has been a great learning opportunity. One of my favourite Chinese proverbs states that A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study, my conversation with WACSI was indeed a priceless educational endeavour. It provided me with an avenue to learn influential leadership and team work. Also, it provided me the platform to learn about peace, security, gender issues, conflict prevention and the state of the civil society sector in the region. The programme has prepared and directed me towards great achievements in the future. Moreover, I was humbled by the opportunity to work in an organisation like WACSI. I had an extremely exciting and instructive experience. The internship was truly rewarding and provided me with new perspectives. I also have to reiterate that the staff of WACSI contributed greatly to making my experience very educative and pleasant by selflessly providing assistance whenever needed.

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