Maureen Okpe
West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) has disclosed that, the institute is set to launch the opening of the liaison office in Abuja, Nigeria.
According to the institute, although WACSI has been working across the 15 West African countries including Nigeria, the launch in the country will address proximity challenges, Civil Society Organisation (CSO) face in their quest to benefit from the Institute’s services.
Executive Director of WACSI, Nana Afadzinu said the node will act as a liaison bureau connecting civil society organisations (CSOs) and their partners to the Institute’s rich trainings, mentoring and coaching offerings.
Afadzinu noted that, this reinforces WACSI’s mission to strengthen the capacity of CSOs in the country, in the areas of institutional governance, management, and operations to make them resilient in pursuit of their collective mandates.
Afadzinu explained that to be more responsive to the demands of the large number of CSOs in Nigeria, the Institute considered it laudable to make its services easily accessible and affordable to CSOs in the country.
“One way to do this,is to address the proximity challenge and especially make the Institute’s services readily available to organisations and civic actors that may not have the means to engage effectively online.
“Civil society actors in Nigeria have over the years been at the forefront of requesting support and using WACSI’s services and resources every year.
“Our programmes have so far benefitted over 1392 participants from 1004 organisations in the country.The node will also help WACSI to address the technological gaps among CSOs in the country through support from TechSoup global.
“To re-anchor this objective, the Institute will also hold a technology exhibition show alongside the launch.
“This would showcase the technology service offerings available for nonprofit organisations in the country including hardware, software, technical trainings as well as cybersecurity issues to advocate for better policies,” she said.