The Pan-African Citizens’ Online Consultation gathers ideas and recommendations from citizens of African countries on democratic governance in Africa. The main aim of this innovative continental initiative is to give African citizens a significant voice in decision-making processes at national level in particular, and continental level in general.

ware of the importance of diverse representation, AfricTivistes seeks to bring together all African citizens, particularly young people and civil society players, by giving them the opportunity to contribute to major discussions such as freedom of expression and access to public information, respect for the constitution and presidential term limits, and the participation of young people and women in political institutions…

Two webinars have been organised on citizen participation and the spiral of constitutional and anti-constitutional coups d’état as well as an X Space, on citizen watch during election periods. 

During the latter session, discussions focused on the contribution of civic technologies to improving citizen participation and the reliability of electoral processes as well as advances in citizen participation thanks to civic tech… all these sessions brought together over 100 participants.

Power of citizen participation

Citizen participation has become a strong democratisation point . Nine African countries are among the world’s top 50 in terms of political participation, as reported in the latest Global State of Democracy from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA)

Recent experiences in Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone…, have shown that grassroots involvement can play a vital role in ensuring the transparency of the electoral process. Since the end of the first decade of the millennium, initiatives using civic tech to accelerate citizen contribution in the public arena have played a key role in this respect.

However, political mistrust and disappointment remain endemic pitfalls that hinder citizen participation in many countries. To overcome these challenges, it is essential to put in place effective, sustainable strategies and initiatives aimed at increasing citizen participation and building trust in the electoral process.

The consortium implementing Charter Project Africa will feed its regional dialogues with the contributions collected during this citizen consultation in a bid to respond to the democratic expectations of citizens who aspire to a different form of governance.
You can contribute and share your ideas via the dedicated platform: https://consultationen.africtivistes.org/