Report of the inaugural meeting of the Organizing Committee for the 2024 WACSOF Peoples Forum

Introduction

The organizing Committee of the 2024 WACSOF Peoples Forum held its Inaugural Meeting on Tuesday 10^th September 2024 from 1 PM to 3 PM GMT (2 PM to 4 PM WACT). The meeting involved an opening session, a presentation of the comprehensive plans for the 2024 WACSOF Peoples Forum, a General Discussion Session where committee members collectively agreed on several resolutions and well as a Closing Session. This document is a report of the meeting. The meeting was attended by the following Committee Members:

1. Mr. Siddikh Niass (RADDHO, Senegal) – Chairman of the Session
2. Mr. Omang Dave (Eduradio, Nigeria) – Secretary
3. Mr. Matthew Mahnboe Yeanay (Infoquest, Liberia) – Member
4. Mr. Alhassan Konah Balde (CPJ, Guinea) – Member
5. Mr. Tiemokho Sangare Souleymane (FDS, Mali) – Member
6. Mr. Felix Best Agorvor (5SCG, Ghana) – Member
7. Mr. Sallieu Kamara (NMJDP, Sierra Leone) – Member
8. Mr. Kop’ep Dabugat (WACSOF General Secretary) – Member

Absent with apology

• Mr. Sidikou Moussa (EPAD-ONG, Niger) – Chairman of Committee

Opening Session

The opening Session included an elaboration of the purpose of the meeting as well as the committee being set-up. It also involved formal personal introductions by each member of the Committee. The substantive Chairman of the Committee was not present on the call because he is currently critically ill and under close observation in the hospital. Hence a chairman for the inaugural meeting was adopted in the person of Mr. Sidikh Niass of RADDOH, representative of Senegal on the Committee, who quickly proceeded to propose an agenda for the meeting. The agenda of the meeting was swiftly adopted and the meeting proceeded.

Presentation and Discussion of Plans for the 2024 WACSOF Peoples Forum

A presentation of the plans and proposals for the 2024 WACSOF Peoples Forum was delivered by the WACSOF General Secretary. In it he highlighted the importance of the forthcoming forum in view of the immediate need to institute strong leadership for WACSOF, address an on-going crisis within the organization and also the general need to ensure a renewal of the organization for continuity and effectiveness. He elaborated the activities of the Forum to include a series of national consultative forums at the country levels, which will all crystalize into the 2024 WACSOF Regional Peoples Forum. He explained that the national Forums are aimed at identifying key issues within the different countries of relevance to regional integration, while also identifying a representative for the different countries at the level of the Executive Committee.

On the other hand, he said that the regional forum shall bring all civil society organizations in West Africa to collectively constitute a new leadership and deliberate on plans to move the organization forward. The 2024 forum’s envisaged outcomes include the adoption of key priorities for the organization, the constitution

of a new Executive Committee and the adoption of critical policy objectives to guide the new executive Committee in driving the organization into the future.

A comprehensive description was also given of the role of the committee in assisting the WACSOF Secretariat in organizing the 2024 WACSOF Peoples Forum. The Committee Members shall support the Secretariat through reviewing and adopting the plans developed by the Secretariat, mobilization of civil society and partners to participate in the forum, leading on to the organization of the national forums and also participating in the regional Forum as panelists and presenters.

The presentation was ended with a reference to the timelines proposed for the conduct of the WACSOF peoples Forum. Following the inaugural meeting of the Committee on 10^th September 2024, the period from 11^th September 2024 to 1^st October 2024 was earmarked as the time to conduct the national forums, while the Regional Peoples Forum shall hold on 2^nd-3^rd October 2024.

Following the presentation by the General Secretary, the following key questions came up during the discussion segment:

1. What is the current status of the institution’s leadership (the Executive Committee & National Platforms?
2. What is the true problem of WACSOF that it has fallen into the current situation, with crisis at the regional and national levels?
3. Will the committee reorganize the national platforms first before the regional forum? Is there enough time to do so?
4. What is the nature of the relationship between WACSOF and ECOWAS at the moment? How can ECOWAS be brought onboard to support WACSOF?
5. What is the regional context of WACSOF with several networks and groups that are fiercely competing with WACSOF for space?

Each of these was clarified as follows:

1. Current Status of WACSOF’s leadership at the national and regional levels: On the current status of the WACSOF leadership at the national and regional levels, the General Secretary explained that at both levels, the leadership of WACSOF has currently collapsed and has been generally non-responsive. He explained that he has sent out several updates and communications to them but only a few of them are willing to respond to the General Secretary, or avail themselves for the role being played. He further noted that most of the national platform coordinators, who were put in place by the previous General Secretary have not cooperated with him. He says that these national platform coordinators have clearly expressed their support for the former General Secretary and have refused to participated in any activities that have been organized by the General Secretary.

On the other hand, he mentioned that, while the Executive Committee Members are still in place, they have for long signaled that they would like a Peoples Forum to be carried out as soon as possible so that they can exit the scene. He also mentioned that the Executive Committee has generally gone silent since March 2024, where all attempts to hold meetings have generally failed due to their unavailability. He mentioned also that several Members have gone silent, while others have expressly resigned their positions and yet

others have said they will be available only to hand-over to the next Executive Committee. He concluded by mentioning that the priority for WACSOF at the moment is to get a new leadership in place.

1. The True Problem of WACSOF: Concerning the true problem of WACSOF, the General Secretary mentioned that in general assessment, and in relation to specific institutional assessments that have been made in the past, the problem of WACSOF is purely one that came up in its institutional design and institutional development process. He explained that these errors have produced several crises over the years, and all have manifested in a similar way – with the Executive Committee and the General Secretary conflicting over the role of coordinating and managing the organization’s activities and affairs. He says that this has happened 4 times over the years since 2003 when the organization was founded – 2007,2013, 2017, and 2022.

• The committee’s role in the reorganization of National Platforms: On whether the Committee’s mandate included the reorganization of the national platforms in the countries, the General Secretary mentioned that the committee’s role does not include a reorganization of the national platforms in the various countries. He said the reorganization of the national platforms will form part of a long-term plan that should be the concern of the next Executive Committee to oversee. He further explained that for now, the Peoples Forum has two primary objectives. That is, to constitute a new Executive Committee as well as to adopt key priorities for the new committee to focus on in restructuring the institution. He mentions that this will serve as a first step in WACSOF’s institutional renewal and revitalization. He highlighted that one key element in the institutional renewal process that the new Executive Committee is meant to oversee will be institutional strengthening of WACSOF and the subject of national platforms will be a part of it.

• The current relationship between WACSOF and ECOWAS: Concerning the current relationship between WACSOF and ECOWAS, the General Secretary explained that the relationship is currently not pleasant. He stated that while the current crisis in WACSOF has essentially resulted in the presence of two groups claiming to be the legitimate representative of WACSOF. With this confusion, ECOWAS has chosen to withdraw its support to WACSOF because it cannot deal with the two groups at the same time.  Hence, ECOWAS has remained non-responsive.

The Current Regional Operational Context of WACSOF: The General Secretary Explained that the current regional context of WACSOF is currently challenging because the internal crisis of the organization has prevented it from being able to actualize its goals and mandates. As a result, different organizations a gaining currency with ECOWAS. But despite this, the organizations currently engaging with ECOWAS may not be able to effectively satisfy the goals of WACSOF, so there is still space for WACSOF, if only WACSOF would be able to wake up to its responsibility

At the end of the clarifications given by the General Secretary, the committee Members made the following additional observations:

1. It is important to carry out the national forums because they are the building blocks of the regional Forum. The national forums will serve the purpose of mobilizing civil society at the national levels to participate effectively in the regional forum
2. Some committee Members equally observed that the national platforms in various countries are not functional so it is logical to focus on the leadership changes so as to start the process anew
3. It was also observed that the leadership challenges of WACSOF, especially at the Executive Committee level has resulted not only in a lot of challenges to the organization’s operations.

The committee adopted the following resolutions:

1. There is a need for members of the committee to review the situation at the national level and re-examine the options on how best to proceed at another meeting before finally proceeding with the full plan. Hence, the committee shall reconvene on 19^th September 2024 to further deliberate on the matter and adopt the final plan for the event
2. Considering the need for effective national consultations and mobilization, the committee decided to adopt a new date for the Peoples forum. The new date shall be 9^th – 10^th October 2024
3. The General Secretary was asked to go ahead and announce and promote the new date for the peoples Forum 9^th-10^th October to civil society and all Partners

Closing Session

The committee Members were very happy to be a part of the noble initiative and agreed to do their best in seeing how to support the General Secretary in mobilizing civil society in the different countries towards the conduct of the 2024 WACSOF Peoples forum as well as a revitalization of WACSOF going forward. The General Secretary thanked all participants for their making out time to be at the meeting as well as their commitment to support the important initiative of the 2024 WACSOF Peoples Forum.