Mauritania: The AfricTivistes community trains young people in leadership and civic engagement
“Youth civic engagement: the foundation of development.” This is the theme of the workshop organised by the AfricTivistes community in Mauritania, led by the association known as InnoVrim. This project, funded by the US Embassy in Nouakchott, provided training for twenty (20) young people selected following a call for applications. They thus gained a solid understanding of self-management, civic leadership, civic engagement, online advocacy, and more.
The AfricTivistes Civic Engagement Mauritania (ACEM) project team visited Rosso from 9 to 12 September 2022. A training workshop was organised on leadership and civic engagement in the town, which is situated approximately 200 km from the capital, Nouakchott. Over the course of four days, the young people took part in intensive sessions on the project’s key themes.
These sessions were delivered entirely by trainers who had been trained by AfricTivistes in January 2021. As members of the Innovrim association, they successfully replicated AfricTivistes’ educational programme on this issue so that, in turn, as many young Mauritanians as possible could benefit from it. To this end, various modules were taught on: an introduction to EDGE leadership: stepping out of one’s comfort zone; recognising and embracing civic challenges; self-management; design thinking; influence and digital campaigning; risk management; and so on.
At the launch workshop for AfricTivistes Civique Engagement on Friday 9 September 2022, local and state officials from Rosso attended. They all praised the initiative, urging the young participants to seize this opportunity to gain the knowledge that will ultimately enable them to drive the country’s economic and social development.
Speaking at the event, Awa Seydou Traoré, programme coordinator for AfricTivistes Civique Engagement Mauritanie, explained that this project forms part of the US Embassy’s Small Grant Programme in Mauritania. She said that, having provided training to twenty (20) young people in Rosso, another twenty will follow in Selibaby, another town further inland.
As for the representative of AfricTivistes, Seydina Bilal Diallo, he maintained from the outset that this initiative demonstrates once again, despite all the prejudices about African youth, that the torch is still burning in Mauritania, where young people are more committed than ever to bringing about change and making a difference in their communities. “These sessions will undoubtedly help to build a strong sense of civic responsibility and sow the seeds of future change. They will help to create a new momentum across all localities to promote and defend democratic values, human rights and good governance,” he explained in his speech. He expressed the hope that concrete and appropriate solutions would be devised to tackle the major problems facing these localities and, on a larger scale, to address the challenges of Mauritania’s democratic progress, which can only be achieved through a strong sense of civic responsibility. According to Seydina Bilal Diallo, the young people taking part in the training will emerge from these sessions equipped with the skills to promote and strengthen citizens’ civic engagement. “On behalf of AfricTivistes and its President, whom I have come to represent, I would like to thank you and congratulate you once again on these sessions for the young people of Rosso. We encourage you to build on this momentum and stay the course. You deserve to be supported in this endeavour,” he concluded on this point.
It should be noted that, following the highly successful training session on Monday 12 September 2022, certificates were awarded to all participants who followed the training programme with great interest.
