Publications

The 2020 Africans Rising Annual Report highlights achievements and successes of the Africans Rising movement throughout the year.

Read and download the full 2020 Annual Report below

CSOs, including International Organizations, began to emerge in the 1960s during the imperial regime with the enactment of the law governing civil society associations (1960 civil code of Ethiopia). Apart from traditional associations, such as iqubs and idirs, other associations are of recent origin.

The traditional forms of civil society in Ethiopia primarily served the interests of their members, rather than those of the general public. Such organizations included traditional community-based organizations like idir and iqub and other informal self-help organizations. Other associations, registered under the 1960 Civil Code, were mainly professional associations such as trade groups and unions which did not play a significant role in the development or public issues. Groups, such as government-supported women’s associations and patriotic groups played a marginal role in their communities.

During the Derg regime (1974-1991) CSOs considerably increased in number as a result of the catastrophic famines of 1973-1974 and in particular 1984-1985. Philanthropy grew in importance and visibility during these famines, both of which caused mass migration and a huge loss of lives and property. This resulted in exponential growth of organizations and faith-based institutions engaging in humanitarian aid. Since the famines, organizations began to engage in development work as well.

This report is a synthesis of messages from the four volumes of the “Generosity During the Time of COVID” reports published in 2020 by CivSource Africa. This report is an analytical endeavor that aims to ‘make meaning’ of the stories that were captured in these four volumes. The volumes were compiled during the first COVID 19 pandemic lockdown that happened in Uganda from March 2020 till July 2020. At the time of writing this synthesis report, a second COVID 19 pandemic lockdown had been announced for 42 days from June to July 2021.

This report presents a synthesis of the findings on the impact of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic on civil society organisations (CSOs) in West Africa, with particular focus on Cameroon, The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. In particular, the report document show the COVID-19 pandemic has affected CSOs’ operations, funding prospects and relationships with donors and stakeholders. Given that CSOs are agile actors with an agency, this report further analyses’ strategic responses for mitigating the effects of the pandemic in ensuring their short-term survival and long-term sustainability. The findings, therefore, present data-based evidence to inform stakeholders’ engagement with West African CSOs.The implications of the findings for policy and practice are further discussed.

The findings in this study are informed by a sequential explanatory mixed-method design which involves first collecting and analysing the quantitative data followed by qualitative data. As part of the quantitative phase of this study, a survey questionnaire was administered to 313 CSOs across the six countries (i.e., Cameroon – 36 CSOs; The Gambia-16 CSOs; Ghana-86CSOs; Liberia-27 CSOs; Nigeria-80 CSOs; and SierraLeone-68 CSOs) between June and July 2020. Following the quantitative data administration and analysis,6 focus group discussions were conducted with 48 CSOs who first participated in the quantitative phase between July and September 2020. Additional, key informant interviews were conducted as part of the data collection in each country. The final analysis in this report integrated the quantitative and qualitative data, which provided nuanced perspectives on the impact of COVID-19 on CSOs’ in West Africa.