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First edition of the Africtivistes Youth Civic Engagement Workshop in Dakar

24 octobre 2025

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The first Africtivistes Youth Civic Engagement Workshop took place at the West African Research Center (WARC) in Dakar from 25 to 28 March 2019. In partnership with the Staley School of Leadership at Kansas State University and IREX, Africtivistes trained 25 young changemakers over four days.

Tim Steffensmeier took part in the first workshop. He is an Associate Professor and Director of the PhD programme in Leadership Communication at the Staley School of Leadership Studies. He is also Research Director at the Kansas Leadership Center, based in Wichita, Kansas. His publications focus on civic leadership, public deliberation and rhetoric.

Tim was accompanied by Dr Trisha Gott, who holds a doctorate in education. Trisha is involved in the Alternative Breaks programme, the Coffman Leadership Institute and the Mandela Washington Fellowship Civic Leadership Institute. Trish teaches elective courses in leadership, supports action-learning initiatives and is Associate Director of the Staley School of Leadership Studies at Kansas State University.

Led by Project Manager Seydina Mouhamed Ndiaye (@nattyseydi), the Dakar workshop was a great success in terms of content, methodology, networking and building a civic engagement community in Dakar.

A Civic Tech Center platform grew out of this first edition and will soon go online to raise the profile of the Africtivistes Youth Civic Engagement Workshop programme. It is led by our Project Manager, Seydina Mouhamed Ndiaye, a YALI Mandela Washington Fellowship alumnus. Natty took part in IREX’s reciprocal exchange programme in the United States, which helped him establish the partnership with the Staley School of Leadership Studies at Kansas State University.

Following the Dakar edition, a series of workshops is planned across the sub-region. As with the Africa Media Cyber-Security programme, Africtivistes teams will soon travel to cities across West Africa as part of the Youth Civic Engagement Workshop tour.

A reminder: the objectives of the workshop are to:

  • Develop a new generation of engaged citizens to strengthen civil society in Africa.
  • Build participants’ capacity to consolidate civic engagement in their communities and make it sustainable and effective.
  • Develop leadership and civic engagement skills to address the civic challenges facing society.

Target group:

These workshops are aimed at young people aged 18 to 35 who are active in social associations, NGOs and non-profit organisations, as well as academics.

  • Young people with experience of civic engagement in their communities through social, humanitarian or civic activities.
  • Young people working for NGOs and non-profit organisations will also take part in the workshop.
  • Academics and student researchers are also a target group.

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