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Call for applications for Mauritania – ACET West Africa Civic Engagement Tour

24 octobre 2025

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The AfricTivistes Civic Engagement Tour (#ACET West Africa) is a programme of capacity-building workshops for young people aged 18 to 35 who live in West Africa and are interested in civic engagement and social transformation. It is open to anyone in this age group who is motivated to use digital tools to promote active citizenship.

Participants will be invited to share their civic engagement activities with others from their communities. This will help them build a network of active changemakers and sustain their work locally. AfricTivistes and its partners and collaborators across West Africa will support project leaders to better shape their activities and commitments. At the end of the sessions, each participant will receive a set of tools for promoting active citizenship and social transformation, shaping local narratives on social media, and planning civic action over the short and long term. The hashtag #Sunucitoyennete will be used to follow all project activities and share the initiatives of selected applicants.

Each session will be limited to 12–15 participants to comply with COVID-19 safety measures.

Objectives

The project aims to develop a new generation of citizens who engage with social and civic issues through digital tools, mobilise more people and strengthen the impact of their work.

The project

The rise of digital technology in Africa has created significant opportunities for Africans. It enables young people to exercise oversight and engage in civic action through digital communication channels. They use blogs and social media to make their voices heard and share their messages. Others create media or collaborative projects to build communities around specific issues.

There is therefore a need to build synergies between these initiatives so they can more effectively advance the causes they support and promote social change in our communities. They need tools to help them promote their causes to their audiences and reach the people they want to engage more quickly.

In this context, AfricTivistes will first organise three civic engagement workshops for young people aged 18 to 35 in three countries — Guinea-Bissau, The Gambia and Mauritania — before expanding to other West African countries. The aim of this tour of civic engagement workshops for women and young activists is to equip participants to promote and strengthen civic engagement, and to help them build more accountable and sustainable communities.

How the programme will run

The programme will consist of three sessions in three West African countries, running from January to March 2021. The first session will take place in Mauritania from 4 to 10 January 2021.

  • Mauritania — January 2021
  • The Gambia — February 2021
  • Guinea-Bissau — March 2021

The programme will take the form of four-day workshops in each location. The first two days will be devoted to training participants on the following topics:

  • Introduction to Civic Leadership
  • Identifying and taking ownership of a civic challenge
  • Introduction to Design Thinking: from idea to action
  • Raising awareness and influencing through digital tools

The final two days will be devoted to training the trainers. The aim is to ensure effective knowledge transfer, so participants can act as capable facilitators and deliver ACET sessions independently in their localities and communities, both in the short and long term. The ACET toolkit will be introduced, and participants will learn how to facilitate sessions.

All activities will be led by experienced facilitators or specialists.

Applications for the Mauritania session

Applications are open from 17 to 30 December, closing at 13:00 GMT.

Anyone who meets the following selection criteria may apply.

Selection criteria

  • Be a member of a network, association, organisation or social movement;
  • Have interactive leadership activities in place;
  • Have an idea for a social project or an existing project under way;
  • Be active online and on social media;
  • Be available for all four days; and
  • Be motivated to work on digital projects with significant social impact.

How to apply

To submit your project, click this LINK, complete the online application form and provide the requested information. There is no application or participation fee.

Selection

All applications will go through a selection process from 30 December to 2 January 2021.

Successful applicants will be notified by email. They will need to confirm their participation to receive the agenda and further information about the programme.

For further information, email acet@africtivistes.org.

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