AfricTivistes Civic Engagement Tour (#ACET West Africa) is a series of capacity-building workshops for young people living in West Africa interested in issues of civic engagement, civic leadership and social transformation. It targets any individual, aged between 18 and 35 years old, with motivation to use digital technology to promote and strengthen citizen participation in building society and promoting active citizenship.

The youth trained are encouraged to share their civic actions with a group of actors from their community. As a result, they will develop a network of proactive partners and sustain their actions within their own community. AfricTivistes and its various partners and collaborators in West Africa will support project holders or leaders to better frame their activities. At the end of the sessions, each trained trainer will receive a set of tools necessary for the implementation of citizenship promotion, social transformation, local narrative on social media and strategic planning of citizen action in the short and long term. 

The pilot phase of the ACET programme took place in Senegal in the regions of Dakar, Saint Louis, Ziguinchor and Fatick. It resulted in the training of nearly 200 young people who are currently either working closely with their communities or carrying out activities with a high social impact. In January 2021, 15 people were trained.

The hashtag (#SunuCitoyennete) will be available to follow all project activities and share the different initiatives of the successful participants.

Each session will receive a maximum number of 12 – 15 participants per country due to Covid-19 and to comply with barrier gestures.

Objective

The project aims to create a new generation of citizens engaged in societal and civic issues through digital media in order to bring more actors onboard and increase the impact of their actions.

The Project

The advent of digital in Africa has also become a real asset for Africans. This tool allows African youth to exercise control and civic engagement through digital communication channels. They use blogs and social media to make their voices heard and get their message across. Others create media or collaborative projects to build a community around a specific issue.

Therefore, it is crucial to create synergies of actions to enable all those initiatives to be more effective for the benefit of the causes they defend in order to promote social change in our community. As a result, young people must be provided with tools that will help them to better promote their causes to the masses, but also to reach their target faster. 

It is within this framework that AfricTivistes is organising 3 civic engagement workshops for young people aged 18-35 in 3 countries (Guinea-Bissau, The Gambia and Mauritania) first, and then in other West African countries. The civic engagement workshops for young women and men aims to give participants the capacity to promote and strengthen civic engagement and also to help them build more responsible and sustainable communities.

Roll-out

The programme will cover 3 West African countries in the first quarter of 2021. The first session will take place in Mauritania from 04 to 10 January 2021. The second will be held in The Gambia from 05 to 08 April 2021.

• Mauritania – January 2021
• The Gambia – April 2021
• Guinea-Bissau – May 2021

The programme will last four-day workshops in each country. The first two days will be dedicated to the training of participants on the following themes:

• Introduction to Civic Leadership
• Recognising and taking ownership of a civic challenge
• Introduction to Design Thinking: from idea to action
• Awareness and Influence via digital technology

The last two days will be dedicated to the training of trainers with the goal of ensuring a transfer of knowledge so that the participants can be relays to a wider audience. The participants will then be able to independently roll out ACET sessions within their communities in the short and long term. They will thus instill the notions and values of civic leadership and teach others how to use digital tools to raise awareness and influence the masses on citizenship issues. The ACET toolkit will be presented and participants will learn how to become an ACET session facilitator.

Experienced individuals or specialists in their field will facilitate the different activities of the workshops.

Application – The Gambia

The call for applications is open from March 23^rd, 2021 to April 1^st, 2021 at 1pm GMT.

The application is open to anyone who meets the following selection criteria.

The selection criteria

• Be a member of a network, an association, an organisation or a social movement.
• Have interactive leadership skills
• Have an idea for a social project or be already implementing a project
• Be active on the internet and on social media
• Be available for the length of the training (4 days)
• Show motivation to work on digital projects with a high social impact

How to apply

To submit your application, you must click on this LINK, fill in the online application form and provide the requested information. No participation or application fees are required from applicants.

Selection process

All applications go through a selection process. Successful applicants will be informed by email on April 2^nd, 2021. Selected applicants must reconfirm their participation in order to receive the agenda and further information for their participation in the programme.

If you have any further questions, you can send an email to acet@africtivistes.org .