The Executive Director of the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI), Nana Afadzinu, has urged Nigerian civil society organizations to turn inward and lessen their dependency on foreign funding.
She made the announcement while speaking on Thursday in Abuja at a press conference organized by WASCI in advance of its scheduled November 16 launch.
According to her, a WASCI study to determine the COVID-19’s effect on CSOs in Nigeria revealed that the pandemic had a significant negative impact on CSOs as their financial stability was diminished.
According to the study, of the 80 CSOs that participated in the survey, 38.4% had funding reductions from major donors, and 58.1% were unable to raise any domestic resources during the pandemic to supplement donor funding.
The fact that 55.8% of the CSOs said they were unable to mobilize domestic resources showed how precarious the financial sustainability of many CSOs in the nation is.
In the face of declining international support, CSOs are urged to turn inward and lessen their reliance on external sources of funding in order to increase the support base open to and accessible to CSOs in the nation and include every Nigerian.
What you should know
Like many other West African nations, Nigeria’s civic space is contracting, which is making it harder for civil society to function effectively.
In partnership with Spaces for Change, WACSI is putting the Civic Space Resource Hub into action with funding from the Ford Foundation to give the civil society actors in these nations the tools they need to strengthen their resilience and take on the challenges facing civic space.
Three countries in West Africa, including Nigeria, are the focus of this program. Given the large number of civil society organizations in Nigeria—approximately 46,000 non-governmental organizations (and counting)—across the country’s six geo-political zones, civil society actors there are important players in WACSI’s sphere of influence.
The WACSI node will serve as a liaison office, linking partners in the civil society with WACSI’s various service offerings. These include coaching, mentoring, and training to increase institutional capacity in non-profit organizations’ management, operations, and institutional governance.
Since its founding in 2005, WACSI has provided 8,899 participants from 5,452 civil society organizations across the globe with equipment.
Due to WACSI’s physical presence in Nigeria, local CSOs there can now easily access their services and training to increase their capacity, enable the mobilization of local resources, and develop sustainability.
