Transforming Africa by transforming her future leaders: The WAYLead Fellowship
The Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and the Ghana Center for Democratic Development
(CDD-Ghana) are implementing a one-year West African Young Leaders (WAYLead) Fellowship project for young adults across Anglophone West Africa. The Fellowship is part of two main strategies to support the quest of increasing the quality of citizen participation in West Africa:
- a) Building capacities of civic institutions, organizers and actors
- b) Creating channels and avenues for civic engagement towards citizen activism.
Since March, CDD-Ghana and OSIWA have been conducting interviews and reviewing applications of over 300 candidates, from which our 20 fellows were chosen. Our inaugural fellowship class is made up of youth from Ghana, Gambia, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone between 18 and 25 years of age.
For the next month, the selected fellows will engage in online seminars and exercises led by instructors and mentors, including international mentors who will aim to inspire and challenge the fellow. The combination of knowledge sharing tasks and sessions and practical exercises are aimed at addressing the gaps identified in previous programs in the sub-region.
Fellows will treat and work on topics such as: self-leadership, political economy of African development, design thinking, leading change, communication skills, social media skills, resource mobilization, movement building and personal security.
Follow our social media handles (on the footer) for news and updates on the program!
Nanahene Djan
Digital Media Officer, Corruption Watch Ghana