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A

RAPPORTEUR REPORT

ON

POLICY ENGAGEMENT & ADVOCACY TRAINING

WORKSHOP FOR CIVIL SOCIETY ACTORS INNIGERIA

ORGANISED BY

WEST AFRICA CIVIL SOCIETY INSTITUTION(WACSI), OPEN SOCIETY INITIATIVE FOR WEST

AFRICA (OSIWA) AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT &

PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM INITIATIVE (LGI)

February 22-26, 2010

ABUJA, NIGERIA

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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................. 3

DAY ONE ........................................................................................................................................................ 4

OPENING CEREMONY ............................................................................................................................... 5

SESSION ONE ............................................................................................................................................ 7

SESSION TWO ........................................................................................................................................... 9

DAY TWO ..................................................................................................................................................... 11

SESSION ONE .......................................................................................................................................... 12

SESSION TWO ......................................................................................................................................... 13

DAY THREE .................................................................................................................................................. 16

SESSION ONE ........................................................................................................................................... 17

SESSION TWO .......................................................................................................................................... 18

DAY FOUR .................................................................................................................................................... 19

SESSION ONE ........................................................................................................................................... 20

SESSION TWO ......................................................................................................................................... 21

SESSION THREE ....................................................................................................................................... 23

HOW TO CONSTRUCT A PERSUASIVE MESSAGE ................................................................................... 23

DAY FIVE ...................................................................................................................................................... 25

SESSION ONE ........................................................................................................................................... 26

CLOSING CEREMONY.............................................................................................................................. 28

FURTHER COMMUNICATION .................................................................................................................. 29

APPENDIX: PROFILE OF WORKSHOP ORGANISERS ................................................................................. 31

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INTRODUCTION

With focus on strengthening Policy Advocacy Initiatives in West Africa, the West Africa Civil

Society Institute (WASCI) organized a Policy Engagement & Advocacy Training workshop that

will build capacity and enhancing policy advocacy practices amongst civil society actors in the

sub-region.

This was done in collaboration with the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and the

Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative (LGI-OSI).

Shortlisted Participants for the Training workshop went through a vigorous selection process

aimed at choosing the right group of persons with basic understanding of policy advocacy and

the role of civil society in advancing the policy formulation process within the society and West

Africa in particular.

Managed by WACSI, the workshops were organized to further share best practices and

approaches for influencing policy throughout its various stages of formulation, implementation

and/or review in West Africa.

These training workshops were the final phase of the Train-the-Trainers (ToT) certification

process in Policy Advocacy which kicked off December 2009.

The Abuja leg of the Training workshop was the first in the final Phase of the ToT workshop

series with the scheduled participation of about one hundred (100) civil society practitioners

spread across West Africa.

A total of thirty (30) participants drawn from NGOs, CBOs, FBOs, Womens groups and Youth

Networks were present at the five (5) day event held February 22-26, 2010. The venue of the

workshop was Dennis Hotel, Wuse 2, Abuja.

This rapporteur report details the daily proceedings as it ensued over the course of the

workshop at the Ihialia Hall section of the event.

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DAY ONE

February 22, 2010

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OPENING CEREMONY

The first day of the workshop opened with the Lara Balogun (WACSI) welcoming everybody

with brief remarks. She also introduced other persons seated on the high table who were the

following;

I. Mr. Oladayo Olaide (OSIWA)II. Ms. Lisa Quinn (LGI/OSI)

III. Mr. Eoin Young (LGI/OSI)In his opening remarks, Mr. Oladayo Olaide, acting director of OSIWA (Open Society Initiative

for West Africa, Nigeria) welcomed and congratulated the participants on being selected for the

training workshop. Mr. Olajide emphasized the fact that the workshop model was quite

interactive, tasking as it sought to ensure participants used knowledge gained thereafter in

their work. This, he noted was responsible for the structure and style of the workshop. This will

maximise the impact and consolidate on the gains of the Training workshop.

Mr. Eoin Young of the Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative/ Open society

Initiative-(LGI/OSI) then took the floor and gave a detailed analysis of the various activities of

his organization and its journey over the years working in Eastern Europe to promoted

democratic and effective governance and public administration by advancing policy analysis as

a tool decision making in public affairs

Ms. Lisa Quinn also of (LGI/OSI) further elaborated on the activities of the organization and thetremendous progress made so far via the Train-the-Trainer (ToT) programme. She also briefly

spoke of the ten (10) selected trainers drawn from the West African Sub-region.

Four of these ten trainers facilitated the Abuja Training Workshop. They are

Mr. Alhassan Mohammed Mr. Paul Bemshima Nyulaku Mr. Kaine Nwashili Ms. Margaret Brew-Ward

Participants were split into two groups with our designated group assigned to Ihiala Hall. Our

Two trainers were Mr. Paul Bemshima and Ms. Margaret Brew-Ward.

The training commenced with the first activity conducted by Ms. Margaret (trainer). She

encouraged all participants to get to interact with different people across the room as a group

familiarization exercise. Afterwards, participants shared experiences and knowledge about

persons they met and new insight they had gained from the exercise. The activity was followed

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by the establishment of ground rules that will guide us throughout the training workshop. The

rules were democratically made and conceded with sanctions against anyone who flaws anyone

of them.

The participants were then divided into 3 teams to itemize their expectations from the training

workshop and afterwards, share such with the general group. These expectations are capturedbelow:

WORKSHOP EXPECTATIONS OF PARTICIPANTS AT THE WACSI POLICY ADVOCACY

TRAINING WORKSHOP

GROUP 1

Underlying basis for policy engagement Best Practices: Are there examples of policy makers who have made

it and how participants can benefit from their experiences

Due to the peculiar terrain in Nigeria, how can policy makers beengaged

GROUP 2

Basic understanding of policy engagement How to write a policy paper How to build the capacity of policy makers How to make a 5-day training not boring

Group 3

How do participants conduct similar trainings for others Enhanced skills in communication to encourage participation Policy making as it relates to conflict management

Based on these participants expectations, the following points were agreed with respect to

goal, outlines and methodology of the wo