The Réseau des Femmes Leaders pour le Développement (RFLD) organized a capacity-building workshop in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, as part of the establishment of an advocacy network to strengthen civic space in West Africa. This activity was organized through the CHARM Project funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) to strengthen the technical capacities of journalists and human rights defenders in the field of advocacy, while consolidating links between them for a strengthened civic space.
Through a number of panels, the media and human rights players reflected on themes such as: the current state of civic space in West Africa and current challenges; the importance of networking for effective advocacy in the face of the restriction of civic space in West Africa; and effective advocacy. The RFLD representative stated that civic space, the environment that should enable civil society to play its full role in the political, economic and social life of our African societies, is being put to the test. Instead of enabling groups to contribute to the development of policies that affect their lives, notably by accessing information, engaging in dialogue, voicing disagreement and uniting to express their point of view, they are subject to repressive laws, and with them increasing restrictions on freedoms of expression, participation, assembly and association.
While it’s true today that new technologies have helped civil society networks to develop, they have also enabled some governments to control civil society movements and media freedom, often under the pretext of guaranteeing security. Today, the urgent need in Africa is to break down the barriers to an open, pluralist civic space that guarantees freedom of expression and opinion, as well as freedom of assembly and association, which are essential to guarantee sustainable development and peace.
This is why the objectives to be achieved and the results expected from the work of this workshop are enormous: to draw the attention of Francophone authorities to ways of improving civic space while enhancing strategic responses to threats. RFLD expects the strengthening of good practices in protection, including protection networks, the monitoring of trends in civic space and the situation of human rights defenders, and the integration of civic space into policies, practices and operational activities.
