WACSI Trains Staff of Civil Society Organisations across West Africa on Resource Mobilisation, Proposal Writing, and, Grants Management

Accra, Ghana –The West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) organised two successive trainings in Resource Mobilisation, Proposal Writing, and Grants Management. Both trainings took place from Monday 16 to Wednesday 18 and from Thursday 19 to Friday 20 July, 2012 respectively.

The trainings were organised to strengthen the proposal writing skills of participants and provide them with quality knowledge on how to effectively and responsibly manage funds received by their respective organisations.

Participants who took part in these trainings came from CSOs in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Organizations whose staff benefitted from these trainings included Management Sciences for Health - Nigeria, Plan - Burkina Faso, Compassion International - Burkina Faso, Christian Relief and Development Organization (CREDO) - Burkina Faso, Kalabash - Ghana, Orphan Aid Africa – Ghana, Jack Sally Foundation - Ghana, Ovie-Brume Foundation - Nigeria, Cecilia Foundation – Nigeria, Coastal TV – Ghana, Oxfam – Ghana, Spiritans – Ghana and 50 -50 Sierra Leone.

Both trainings enabled participants to analyze and understand the proposal writing and grants management processes. Training sessions were highly interactive and created a conducive platform for participants to share their experiences and identify and understand best practice scenarios.

Participants learned innovative ways of writing winning proposals, techniques of meeting and winning the trust of donors, guided and successful ways of implementing projects and reporting on their outcome and impact of activities without problems.

The facilitators Mr. Daniel Andoh and Mr. Gilbert Atta-Boakye both managing partners of Cicada, a consultancy firm, created room for exercises which enabled participants to demonstrate their level of understanding of all issues discussed.

WACSI was created in 2005 by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) to strengthen the capacities of civil society in West Africa. To date, WACSI has groomed 1,355 civil society actors from CSOs in all West African countries including Cameroon. The Institute also strengthens capacities by conducting and disseminating research on topical issues that explore development challenges that civil society strives to address. More information can be found on www.wacsi.org