WEST AFRICA CIVIL SOCIETY INSTITUTE

END OF INTERNSHIP

REPORT
By

Omolara T. BALOGUN

Sept. 2008 Apr. 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Acronyms........................................................................................................................................... 3 Executive Summary..................................................................................................................................... 4 Acknowledgment.......................................................................................................................................... 5 Background..................................................................................................................................................... 6 Internship Overview ................................................................................................................................. 6 Internship Exchange...................................................................................................................... 9 Capacity building............................................................................................................................. 9 Recommendations....................................................................................................................................... 10 Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................... 12

ABBREVIATIONS
APRM AU BPfA CEDAW CS CSO ECOMOG ECOWAS GTZ KAIPTC MGD NEPAD NGO OSIWA R2P RnD UN UNSC WACSI WIPSEN-A ZIF Africa Peer Review Mechanism African Union Beijing Platform for Action Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women Civil Society Civil Society Organisation ECOWAS Monitoring Group Economic Community of West African States German technical Cooperation Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre Millennium Development Goals New Partnership for Africas Development Non-Governmental Organisation Open Society Initiative for West Africa Responsibility to Protect Research and Documentation United Nations United Nations Security Council West African Civil Society Institute Women Peace Security Network-Africa Centre for International Peace Operations

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Civil Society Organisations in West Africa have been growing exponentially in recent decades. There are over 2200 CSOs i.e. Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Community Based Organisations (CBOs), Faith-Based Organisations, Women and Youth Organisations operating within the sub-region1. These organisations are engaged in all levels of development within the sub-region, however their activities, challenges and achievements are not appropriately highlighted and documented. A majority of these CSOs have organisational and technical capacity challenges including; human/intellectual competence; and institutional capacity to effectively implement their mandate and make a meaningful impact to the development of West Africa. In a bid to redress the challenges confronting CSOs in the sub-region and make them serve as strategic partners in the promotion of democracy, good governance and national development in West Africa, the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) established an institute with the primary responsibility of strengthening CSOs institutional and technical capacity. Thus, West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) was established and commenced full operations in July 2007 with commitment to bridge institutional and operational gaps within civil society and facilitate strategic partnerships between civil society and government. The Institute also serves as a regional resource centre focused on training, research, experience sharing and policy dialogue for CSOs in West Africa. In addition, the institute was created to respond to the lack of technically astute civil society actors through the implementation of an internship programme. Therefore, the Institute committed itself to expanding the human resource competencies of the new set of responsible civil society actors and future leaders. This process has led to the implementation of the institutes Next Generation Internship programme. Thus far, 4 interns have graduated from the programme.

West African Civil Society Directory, published by WACSI, 2008. Available at www.wacsi.org accessed 9 April, 2009.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This report serves as my end of internship report (Next Generation Internship Programme) with the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) from September 2008 April 2009. This End of Internship Report highlights my journey through the 6 months internship programme; the opportunities and probable recommendations to improve the internship process. Overall, my internship experience proved to be a rewarding and fascinating opportunity. Learning about civil society organisations, governmental and regional structures, developing and practicing my academic knowledge, learning new professional skills and networking with civilian actors and experts has been a great benefit to my future endeavors. Sincerely, the Next Generation Internship programme has helped me to design my career objectives. I acquired a better understanding of organisational dynamics, the concept of civil society, sub-regional trends, and research skills by participating in WACSIs internship program. My heartfelt appreciation goes to the Executive Director of WACSI (Ms. Thelma Ekiyor) for her guidance and counsel all the way. I am grateful to her for opening her doors wide for me to learn, and for her commitment towards the mentorship process. I sincerely value her dedication and efforts in imparting my life and career with inspiring knowledge. I also thank the entire management and staff of WACSI, and my co-intern (Gima Forje, Lady Willie-Harry and Bassey Alaga) for making the period a memorable one

Omolara T. BALOGUN April, 2009. B.A (Ife), M.A (Ibadan)

BACKGROUND
In September 2007, WACSI designed an initiative to identify and build-up new leaders that could proffer practicable solutions to the contemporary challenges confronting West African civil society. The Next Generations Internship Programme has become a veritable tool for the institute to discover these prospective leaders that will enlarge the group of civilian actors in West Africa. The Next Generations Internship Programme is a 6-12 months internship programme that gives opportunity to young West Africans at the early stage of their career. The Internship programme significantly offers to build the capacity of young West African professionals through Training and Capacity building, Research and Documentation and Policy Advocacy. In addition, the training regimen includes strengthening the interns leadership skills, training and facilitation skills, proposal and report writing, programmes design and implementation. The intern is also taken through various research and documentation techniques; exposed to topical issues such as Peace and Security, Human Rights and Rule of Law; Democracy and Good governance; Gender issues and progression on Africas current development initiatives the New Partnership for Africas Development (NEPAD), the Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), sub-regional trends (ECOWAS) and international development - Responsibility to Protect (R2P) among others.

MY EXPERIENCE AT WACSIs RESEACRH AND DOCUMENTION UNIT

The first Call for Application of the Next Generations Internship Programme was disseminated in September 2007 and four (4) diverse West African nationals have participated thus far 2 Ghanaians, Cameroonian, Nigerian and a Zimbabwean. I was offered the opportunity to participate in the Internship Programme on September 13, 2008 for a period of 6months in the institutes Research and Documentation Unit (RnD). The RnD unit is a very important section of the institute and it engages primarily in the mapping of CSOs activities across West Africa, their dimensions and impact. Most significantly, the unit serves as a repository of knowledge, peer learning, intellectual reflection and produces indigenous publications. In addition, the unit conducts research on various topical issues that center on the work of civil society and its actors. Currently, the RnD unit has to its credit a number of publications that promote civil society reflections, either in the form of a quarterly online publication titled WacSeries which aims to emphasise the contributions of CSOs to democracy, governance and socioeconomic development in West Africa; or as WACSIs Open Edition Op ED series, which serves as a
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periodic analytical write-up of civil society actors, experts, and researchers to reflect, and make recommendations on a range of topical themes and relevant issues. Amongst others, the following reports have been published and disseminated to civil society actors, government institutions and other stakeholders within the sub-region. Civil Society and Election Observation in West Africa: the WACSOF Experience Regional Seminar: Reflecting on Civil Society Evolution in Ghana over the last 50 years Sierra Leone: Civil Society and the 2007 Elections Economic Partnership Agreements: Reflection Document for Civil Society Organisations ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework (ECPF): A new approach to an old challenge Global Consultative Roundtables on the R2P: West African Perspective The Status of Womens Leadership in West Africa- publication in progress Conflict Prevention Resource Pack for West African Civil Actorspublication in progress (In partnership with KAIPTC and GTZ) Whilst working as a research intern in WACSIs RnD unit, I was able to improve my ability to conduct research through a structured training scheme and consistent writing. This granted me the opportunity to obtain new techniques and knowledge in; Research design; Research data collection and analysis (quantitative and qualitative); Field and desktop research; Concept paper formulation and policy brief; Development of training manuals and strategic plan of action; Programmes/policy report and proposal writing; Programmes organisation, facilitation and management. Majorly, the institute granted me the priviledge to coordinate a regional research on The Status of Womens Leadership in West Africa. The research was undertaken by 4 (four) regional researchers, who gathered and analysed data (quantitative and qualitative) for each focus countries of the research Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Cote dIvoire. Besides tasks attached to the general management of the research process, I conducted an institutional overview on the research topic; developed and disseminated over 200 research questionnaires to partners, women, womens organisation, women in government institutions, civilian actors, and other relevant stakeholders across the region, and finally
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analysed the questionnaires responses into a designed matrix for simplicity. Whist leading the research process, I was exposed to diverse national, regional and international developments and existing challenges on gender issues on a global scale. I became proverbial with range of international frameworks/ instruments available to mainstream gender into all sectors of development socio-cultural, economic, political and peace building processes and those created for the advancement of women in the society particularly in political representation and participation; involvement in post-conflict peacebuilding and peace processes, security sector reforms, peace support operations amongst others.

THE STATUS OF WOMENS LEADERSHIP IN WEST AFRICA:

Publication in Progress The research on the Status of Womens Leadership in West Africa was inaugurated by WACSI in October 2008 with the overall objective to examine and document the evolution of womens leadership in the sub-region. The study explored the evolution of womens leadership in the traditional and comptemporary times and womens contributions to the promotion of good governance and sustainability of democracy in the sub-region. The study accessed the impact made or that are being made by women in the African maledominated society in which they found themselves. It also examined the ratios of female to male in decision-making positions and policy processes (formulation and implementation); the manners in which women in comptemporary leadership positions are perceived by their society and reasons for such perception. Further, the study critically examined how womens networks, coalitions, movements, collaborations and support groups have impacted and inspired womens leadership across the sub-region. Though the research took a cursory look at the status of womens leadership both in the past and present across the region, major data were sourced from the strategically selected countries - Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Cote dIvoire. Cote dIvoire was included due to her ongoing transition process after a period of protracted civil war; Ghana and Senegal were chosen due to their relative political stability and the going democratisation process; and Nigeria was chosen among the sampled countries simply because of her immense population (most populous nation in Africa), geo-political significance and the strategic roles it plays in the sub-region. Overall, the peculiarities of the selected countries created platform for comparism, with respect to existing opportunities and hindrances to aid or limit womens influence/advancement in leadership, governance and decision-making processes.

I conducted the research data gathering process, which involved the development and administration of questionnaires to different categories of women and general civil society actors (including men). The questionnaires responses were then analysed to identify key findings and map the way forward on the womens leadership status for the four countries under focus in particular and West Africa in general. Other resourceful information were gathered through other sources such as focus group discussions, interviewing of key actors, and one-on-one discussion. In brief, the research revealed that womens roles and participation in leadership and developmental process has to a large extent been defined and restricted along biological and cultural lines in West Africa. There are marked disparities in womens access to some leadership positions such as president, ministers, family heads etc. Women lack access to credit, land and equal and quality education thus making their progress in the society relatively slow and difficult. The study further revealed that, even though men continue to dominate the leadership arena, in the sampled countries - there is an increasing interest to support the upward mobility of women who are perceived to be credible. At the same time some individual men, especially family members, provides support systems and incentives for women to activate their interest in leadership roles. Some other barricade to womens empowerment as revealed by the study includes the erroneous belief that women are to be solely responsible for domestic work and chores. The acrimony and financial requirements of democratisation system also leave many women frustrated particularly during election campaign processes; coupled with dearth of knowledge in leadership among women; lack of requisite skills to pursue and maintain leadership positions in governance whenever few are fortunate to attain it. Additionally, the study shows that majority of women have insufficient knowledge, experience and capacity to engage male dominance in leadership positions, political spaces, and religious arenas. It also revealed clear evidence on the roles of civil society groups committed to building the capacity and confidence of women, thus, equipping them with necessary skills and trainings to better engage policy makers and play more active roles in decision-making and governance processes of their society and countries. A prominent challenge noted during data analysis dwelt majorly on the woeful representation of women in various levels of governance and the adverse implication it has on general societal development. The findings postulated that, unless specific affirmative action measures such as quotas are implemented as a deliberate policy of national governments, womens participation in governance processes which is a key component of democratic practice might not be secured. Regardless of the international frameworks in place to mainstream gender into all sector of the society, which most countries in West Africa are signatories, unfortunately, these countries lack the commitment to domesticate or implement these frameworks in their national policies. For instance;
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The Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) identified 30 percent benchmark for gender representation in governance and also promotes women effective participation in decision-making. This dream is yet to become reality in most national parliaments; the research revealed that 13 out of the 17 countries2 in West Africa geographical zone has less than 15 percent women representation in national parliaments. Nigeria, the most populous nation in West Africa and indeed the whole Africa has the lowest women representation in parliament following the 2007 general election with 25 women out of 358 parliamentarians in the lower house and 9 women out of 109 parliamentarians in the upper house3. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discriminations Against Women (CEDAW) is another notable legal instrument which prohibits all forms of prejudices, injustice, inequality, and disparity against women. CEDAW was adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, as an international bill of rights for women and was consequently adopted and approved by the West African countries in 1980 and 1986 respectively. Amongst other objective, the Convention provides the basis for realizing equality between women and men through ensuring women's equal access to, and equal opportunities in, political and public life - including the right to vote and to stand for election -- as well as education, health and employment4. African Union Charter on Human and Peoples Right (ACHPR) was unanimously adopted by the heads of States and government of Organisation of African Unity (now African Union) in October 1981. West African countries were signatories to this protocol except Cape Verde. Only 8 out of 52 African countries who signed the African Union convention on Protocol to the African Charter on Human and people on the right of women in Africa have ratified the protocol.5 The protocol frowns at all forms of discriminations against women. It further noted womens rights and essential roles in development, peace processes, preservation of African values based on equality, freedom, dignity, justice, solidarity and democracy be respected by all. UNSC Resolution 1325 as an instrument was adopted in October 2000 on Women and Peace and Security with the objectives to protect womens rights during armed conflicts, prevent impunity for gender based crimes, mainstream gender aspects in peacekeeping operations and increase womens participation in the various phases

Geographical West Africa countries include: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Cote DIvoire, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo 3For more, See- Inter-parliament Union (IPU) 4 For more information on CEDAW see-http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw.htm accessed 27 April, 2009
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The following countries have ratified the AU-ACHPR: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo. Available at http://www.achpr.org/english/ratification_women%20protocol.pdf accessed 28 April, 2009

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before, during and after armed conflicts. UNSCR 1325 puts forward concrete recommendations to the UN member states, entities of the UN System, civil society and other actors involved in international peacekeeping and development cooperation. This resolution is considered to be a milestone in the Security Councils work with women, peace and security. However, the impact of the resolution depends entirely on the political will of various actors to bring into operation, implement and monitor the recommendations and objectives set out in the resolution. Though, significant efforts have been made for UNGA to reaffirm their commitment and strengthen efforts to fully implement UNSCR 1325 but there are still many gaps and challenges with respect to the implementation in several countries including ECOWAS countries6. The study submitted that the whole conduct of politics often serves as deterrent for womens participation and inclusion. This in particular remains a prominent hindrance to womens interest to participate in democratisation processes. In many cases women have found the patriarchal and masculinist frameworks, undiplomatic approaches of political parties, and other political processes as oppressive and unattractive, thus masking womens interests, alternative views and perspectives. This has become the norm in West African countries going through democratisation processes and even worse-off in post-war societies of Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau. The democratisation process of Liberia on the other is an exception when compared to other post-war societies. The Liberian women jointly supported the election of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in 2005 as the first democratically elected Female President in African, through their networking, coalitions building and collaboration. The research further revealed that, most political parties lack sense of seriousness to support a transformatory process that can effectively broaden the space for womens leadership and participation in governance processes. It also stressed the need for special measures to be put in place by national governments and political parties, such as reservations, settings of legislated and political partys quotas, and affirmative-action which aimed at creating a balance in view of the inequalities that women face in ascending to political post. Overall, the result proved that it is important to strengthen the capacity of women in political parties and governance spaces, thus, empowering them to argue for changes in party politics, and facilitate their chances for holding strategic positions within party structures.

ECOWAS countries includes: Benin, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Gambia, Cape Verde, Togo, Nigeria, Cote dIvoire, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Mauritania, and Ghana.

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Whilst administering the research questionnaires, clear evidences from respondents points to the need for national governments to take active interest in womens participation in politics and assumption to leadership positions. Additionally, several appeal were made to national governments to embark on full implementation of relevant national policies and show its commitment to all agreements and laws made at all level to promote womens representation, articulation of gender issues in politics, involvement and active participation in decision-making processes. Governments were adviced to domesticate all international instruments available for the advancement of womens course: CEDAW, UNSC 1325 and 1825, BPfA, MDGs, AU Charter on the rights of people and women human rights, and other relevant protocols of ECOWAS relating to women representation in developmental issues. Besides this major project, I undertook other responsibilities directly related to RnD unit. These include: management of research projects constant desktop research on various topical international and sub-regional issues development and administration of research questionnaires synthesising and analysing of research findings rapoutering for programmes, forums and dissemination of reports to partners and stakeholders development of womens CSOs database in West Africa In addition to my RnD tasks, I was opportune to partake in several training programmes particularly in the area of implementation, management and logistic provision. Some of the training programmes in which I participated includes: a pre-testing training workshop on Conflict Prevention for Civilian actors in West Africa a workshop on policy advocacy and engagement training a training workshop on Corporate Governance and Leadership for Womens Organisations First Annual West African Womens Policy Forum

INTERNSHIP PLACEMENT
To further broaden the horizon of the interns and enhance their competencies, WACSIs Next Generation Internship Programme includes a 2 months placement component at a partner organisation. The placement/attachment programme gave me valuable
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opportunity to acquire ample work experience with another civil society organisation. The attachment which usually takes place in the last two months of the internship offered me great experience. My attachment was the Women Peace and Security Network-Africa (WIPSEN-A) located in Ghana. WIPSEN-A is a woman led organisation with the goal to enable, enhance and sustain womens right to participation and leadership in fostering human security, sustainable peace and development. The organisation provides platform for women across Africa societies to exchange, share, and harmonise strategies for womens leadership and build coalitions to promote peace and security. WIPSEN has among other objectives, the commitment to promote the twin approach of mainstreaming gender in peace and security mechanism and mainstreaming peace and security in all gender mechanisms. I worked directly with the programmes department specific tasks assigned. The diversification of WIPSEN-As programmes department granted me huge benefit to interact with other units in the organisation Administrative, finance, and research unit. The flexibility of the organisation helped in enhancing my previously acquired knowledge in NGO management and programmes implementations. In addition, it created a platform to exhibit all accrued knowledge in trainings skills, facilitations and research. Some of my tasks includes; development of concept papers; development of training modules; budget writing for programmes; organisation and management of training programmes; project management and liaison with partner organisations; logistics provision for programmes implementation, amongst other tasks. I coordinated the organisation and implementation of training workshop Training of Trainers (ToT) on Gender and Multidimensional Peace Support Operation in West Africa under the directive of the Programme Director. The project exposed me to the complexities of United Nations Peace Support Missions across the globe, with special focus on UN missions in West Africa region. The project dwelt largely on the urgent need to mainstream gender into peacekeeping institutions and mechanisms, and critically considered the changing trend in evolution of Peace Support Operations (PSO). It highlighted the comptemporary demand for a shift from traditional peacekeeping to a more comprehensive, multifaceted and integrated pattern of PSO engagement, as exemplified in multidimensional PSOs.7 The workshop expressed the need for gender perspective in multidimensional PSOs to be highly critical, bearing in mind diverse skills and expertise required for a successful PSO. The required skills are of two categories: 1) military and 2) civilian skills. While the civilian skills include, but not limited to human and civil rights, humanitarian and relief aid delivery, medical and reproductive health, public information
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Multidimensional PSO connotes diversity within the context of the peace support operations and implies the taking into consideration of conventional military and non-military issues including military and civilian issues, human rights and justice, gender-based violence, rule of law, humanitarian relief efforts, law enforcement, peacebuilding mechanism, gender, youth issues, post war reconstruction, elections, etc.

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management and communications, legal, psychosocial support, law enforcement, nutritionists, gender, mediation and negotiation, the military skills strictly provides armed forces supports. The training which was implemented in partnership with the ECOWAS Gender and Development Centre (EGDC)8, Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), and the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) created space to interact and dialogue with experts and practitioners alike in strategic area of Peace and Conflict, Security, and Peace Support Missions across the continent. Ideas, knowledge and experiences were exchanged on topical peace and security related issues in several parts of the region, continent and in the international system. Finally, the project offered me profound insight on the Peacekeeping forces of ECOWAS i.e. ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), particularly its involvement in restoring peace to war ravaged countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau.

REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

WACSI internship also creates opportunities for interns to attend professional training programme/courses within and outside the sub-region. The training courses are to help in enhancing the interns intellectual capacity; career development; CSOs perception (needs, interests and challenges) amongst other benefits. Furthermore, the trainings provided opportunities for international exposure, exchange of ideas between Europe and Africa, and international networking. Specifically, I attended a two weeks Core Course in Peace Support Operations organised by the Zentrum fr Internationale Friedenseinstze (Centre for International Peace Operations ZIF) in Berlin-Germany from March 22 April 3, 2009. The course aimed at increasing the professional readiness of civilian personnel to participate in peacekeeping/peace support missions across the world and to enhance personnel capacity to respond effectively to complex challenges of mission realities and post-conflict reconstruction processes in war-torn societies. The course contained 15 modules with basic knowledge and skills required by international PSO civilian personnel. Major components of the training emphasised on, desirable attitudes of mission personnel; significance of active awareness and involvement in host society; critical approach to complex issues of civilian crisis; risk prevention and management; and security
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The EGDC was established in January 2003 at the 26th Session of the Heads of State and Government held in Dakar, Senegal where its headquarters is based. It is also a product of the ECOWAS Gender Policy. The Centre also works in conjunction with member states as well as sub-regional and international bodies to advance gender equity and women empowerment, as part of efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). For more see http://allafrica.com/stories/200710030627.html accessed 28 April, 2009

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surveillance/consciousness while on mission. The course exposed me extensively to the works of UN in Peace support missions across the globe; how UN plays the role of an international organisation, particularly fulfilling its utmost mandate to maintain international peace and security. Ingenious skills and knowledge on human security; international humanitarian aids and assistance; behaviour in complex risk situation; conflict transformation and resolution; mission realities; mine awareness; practical negotiation and mediation skills; rule of law, human rights and minority protection and the need to promote the policy of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) formed core of the training. Overall, the experience has successfully enhanced my worldview, reshaped my career pursuit and expanded my scope of reasoning in Peace and security related issues. I had great opportunity to make a presentation about WACSIs mandate and significantly, how it has been able to rejuvenate the capacity of West Africa civil society and its actors to better engage governments, policymakers and other relevant stakeholders in nation building. The platform of the gathering was also employed to convey to multi-cultural set of people about the ongoing democratisation process in West Africa, with reference to Nigeria (as a citizen), Ghana (as a host) and Liberia (as one of the countries emerging from war). The course did not only launch me to the international scene for the first time, but successfully created a notable impression on my worldviews; sharpened-up my academic background and competencies; and strategically imparted my career plan.

RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE THE INTERNSHIP PROGRAMME

Introduction of Sub-Regional Youth and Leadership Training There are perpetual challenges confronting the comptemporary West Africa youths Lack of access to quality education, lack of mentoring opportunities, abject poverty on a national and regional scale most of which has led these youth into many immoral practises such as robbery, corruption, assassination, recruitment or volunteer as political thugs etc. Though, WACSI Next Generation Internship Programme seeks to build the capacity of young professionals, it should be noted that only few youth have the opportunity to participate in this life-moulding programme due to some challenges - limited number of internship spaces available within the institute; budgetary constraints and time required to go through a mentorship process. The volume of applications received by the institute for internship placement demonstrates to a large extent how strong young West Africans craves for knowledge, skills and mentorship opportunities. Therefore, I recommend that the institute expand its training programmes to incorporate an annual Youth Leadership Training workshop. The proposed workshop will further advance the objective behind the
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Next Generation Internship programme, and consequently build the capacity of civil society actors, and also strengthens the institutes contributions and commitment towards a more accountable civil society. Through this process, youths with exceptional leadership potentials and academic excellence across the region can be easily identified, brought together and encouraged to participate constructively in the democratisation and governance process of their countries. This training workshop can accommodate and impart over 30 outstanding youth across the region aside the six month internship programme. Re-packaging the Internship orientation programme The internship orientation programme needs to be repackaged to include all necessary information, trainings and skills required for a new intern to settle into the institute culture/system without being loss or feeling un-cared for. This is of great importance considering the fact that, most of the interns are changing environment on international scale for the first time. Additionally, there are the possibilities that the new intern has not worked in an official environment before, in such case; he/she requires intensive trainings on organisational assimilations into the new work environment. The proposed orientation programmes should include the following: a) exhaustive introduction of all members of staff and management of the institute, b) comprehensive information about the institutesvision, mission, objectives and mandates consisting of past and present success stories and future endeavours/commitments), c) provision for adequate platform to familiarise with all units in the institute e.g. visiting and assisting each unit for at least a day Administrative, Finance, Programmes and Research units, d) provision and teachings of the institutes codes of conduct coupled with the Internship Policy, e) provision of all institutes publications for the interns peruse, understanding and familiarisation with the institutes previous scope of works, f) organisation of a welcome forum/party by the Welfare committee to promote active participation in team work. Introduction of an additional mode of learning Having completed my internship programme, I realised six months is highly insufficient, to complete the internship syllabus designed for the programme. Thus, there is need for an alternative mode of learning in order to speed up the learning-teaching process. This alternative means will hasten provide special space for the interns/mentors to cover most all topics highlighted in the programme - leadership training and skills, proposal writing, knowledge on sub-regional trends like ECOWAS, APRM, NEPAD amongst others. I hereby propose that, the institute devise a class mode of teaching/learning (i.e. teacher-student approach), where the interns will have opportunity to interact with one another outside office duties but rather listen, ask questions on bothering issues, and get immediate corrections. I consider this proposed approach important due to the fact that, many prospective interns have no prior academic/professional or practical knowledge of the civil
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society sector. The learning process will be further enhanced, if the management agrees to design and adopt it into the internship programme. This should include; periodic in-house mini conferences and flipcharts teaching where interns receive lectures on various topical issues. The approach will not only speed the process of learning, but will serve as catalyst for interns interests on contemporary issues globally; will be more beneficial to interns without academic background in Social Science, Arts or Humanities; will help to facilitate the induction of novice interns into official work/training skills and finally helps to hasten interns acquaintance with CSOs terminologies and concepts. Improving the Internship Placement process Certainly, the two month internship placement remains significant and crucial to the overall programme. It provides opportunity for interns to demonstrate knowledge and skills acquired in the previous months; create room to acquire additional working experience in another organisation etc. However, the placement could be more strategic and beneficial to the institute and the intern, if the institute could be more strategic in its placements. I consider it eminent that interns should be attached to organisation that could accommodate interns academic background or chosen field of interest. This will create a clearer path for interns professional development and academic pursuit, and also permit interns to sharpen their focus in desired areas. This could be better achieved, if prospective interns are required to declare their strategic area of interest/development prior to the commencement of the programme, thus, creating time for the institute to locate among partner organisations one that will be strategic for the interns placement. Introduction of language training Language is a very important factor in cultural diversity and a viable tool in communication and management. Knowledge in language diversity is a valuable asset to an international social/development worker in a multi-lingual society like West Africa. Based on key roles that language plays in a cross-cultural setting, I therefore recommend the institute to incorporate into the internship programme a language training section for interns, particularly those without or with limited knowledge of a second international language. This will be an added advantage to the institute and prospective interns. There is need for a periodic international language class/training, as a form of capacity building aimed at breaching and enhancing communication gap that often exist in a multilingual society, specifically between the Anglophones and francophone West Africans. Besides, it is somewhat difficult for young people to have priviledge to learn a second international language except for those with academic qualification in a language literature. This opportunity will encourage interns to learn a second global language: French or English depending on their first language; facilitate good communication with partners, participants and further strengthen interrelationship among the staff with diverse
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international languages. Additionally, the language training will better prepare and equip interns with major requirement to engage the turbulent civil society in West Africa. Finally, it will serve as mean to facilitate regional integration among young professional at the early stage of their career.

CONCLUSION
My internship period has been both challenging and a rewarding training experience. I acquired pertinent knowledge in the areas of research and documentation which has greatly improved my overall competencies in writing and analysis. I learnt extensively about civil society, the relevance of civil society to state building, promotion of democratic values, human rights, rule of law and sustainable developmental processes in the subregion. I became familiar with the needs, challenges and opportunities of civil society and the processes of strengthening CSOs capacity to better engage the ongoing transformation process in the region. I had professional platform to exhibit and expand my accumulated academic achievements. Creating a career around my academic background had always been my main objective, and this has materialised to a large extent during the course of the internship. Thus, I was able to strategically tailor my career path in peace, security, development and gender studies. I had wonderful time learning and working on topical issues and keeping abreast with new developments across the globe with reference to West Africa. In addition, I acquired resounding knowledge on gender-mainstreaming mechanisms in all sectors; the regional institutions - ECOWAS and its mandate. The Conflict Prevention training workshop for civilian actors in West Africa remains the most memorable training that inspired my continues yarn for professional development in Peace, Security and Conflict prevention.

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