Call for Round One Applications (2026): West Africa Democracy Fund

 

TrustAfrica wishes to announce the launch of the first application cycle for the West Africa Democracy Fund (WADF). Applications are invited from organisations in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo working at local, national and regional (West Africa) levels, to improve governance outcomes for citizens through advancement of dialogues, strengthening institutions and accountability mechanisms, citizens engagement and inclusion in development and political transition processes. Organisations seeking to advance democratic governance at the sub-regional or regional (West Africa) level but are not based in one of the countries listed above may also apply.

Introduction to the WADF

The West Africa Democracy Fund (WADF) was officially launched in Abuja, Nigeria. The fund is currently supported by contributions from the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Luminate Group, Open Society Foundations and Carnegie Corporation of New York. It seeks to support efforts to reimagine, renew and strengthen democratic governance across West Africa through funding to civil society, young people, trade unions, women-led organisations, community groups and key public institutions.

The aim of the WADF is to contribute to expanding the democratic and civic spaces in West Africa by strengthening opportunities for citizens’ voices to be included in defining the norms for the governance of their countries.

Reimagining the Role of Citizens in Governance

The overarching aim of the WADF is to reimagine the role of citizens in governance in West Africa. Central to this is the need to understand how to most effectively incorporate citizens’ perspectives into governance and into the present and political futures of their countries and the region. A multifaceted approach is required to achieve such an outcome, including promoting active citizens’ participation in decision-making and the formulation of political outcomes,  improving or developing future policy frameworks, strengthening key actors within civil society, promoting responsive and accountable leadership, and building the resilience of public institutions that are central to open societies and the upholding of the rule of law.

The WADF seeks grant proposals that will operationalise the concept of reimagining governance outcomes for citizens by thinking outside the box about approaches, strategies and tactics that would help the priority countries and region to leapfrog into the promise offered by democracy. Consequently, the WADF uses the notion of reimagination as a starting point. From a democratic standpoint, reimagination may include the following actions.

• Engaging young people to reconstruct and create new narratives that shape daily lives in their societies by teaching them leadership skills and supporting their proactive engagement on the issues affecting their societies;
• Generating and implementing new ideas on how to make democracy more resilient, responsive and inclusive;
• Develop and strengthen safeguards for key public institutions to prevent them from being eroded or captured by interest groups or elected  officials who may seek to use them for their own advantage;
• Developing indigenous knowledge systems and practices (such as ubuntu, reparative justice and others) that can help reposition politics and governance in the region.

Specific Objectives of the Fund

Specifically, the objectives of the fund are to:

• Elucidate and incorporate the perspectives, aspirations and expectations of citizens in seven priority West African countries into public policies and programs and future directions of their countries.
• Strengthen social contracts and establish broad frameworks that promote specific national reforms and agreements relating to the rules that govern elections, media use, and other consequential topics to prevent their abuse.
• Catalyse the mobilization of citizens’ communities (youth, cultural and religious groups, the media, and social movements, including unusual actors like trade unions and the private sector) and the inclusion of a broad spectrum of agendas into the political discourse in countries that define the future of governance.
• Facilitate collaboration and solidarity building between critical actors across countries and between civil society organizations, and regional organizations.
• Strengthen strategic institutions, such as judiciaries, electoral management bodies and regulatory bodies for media, across the region to position them as avenues for enacting, enabling and projecting the voices of citizens and upholding the principles of the rule of law.

Thematic Areas

Applicants should align proposals to one or more of the following thematic areas. Applications can be for a period of between 12 and 24 months.

Multi-stakeholder Dialogues

Dialogues at national or subnational level within a country, which may take the form of public consultations, town hall meetings, and discussion spaces within cultural and religious gatherings. The aim of these dialogues should be to provide the space for citizens to articulate their visions and aspirations for their countries and/or local communities. Where possible, these dialogues could also be used as spaces to discuss grievances and build social cohesion.

• Multi-stakeholder dialogues that explore and seek to coherently articulate the aspirations and expectations of citizens across priority countries either nationally or sub-nationally. These dialogues should produce concrete expected actions from the government or the people themselves.
• Digital platforms that can be used to counter disinformation and misinformation and disseminate factual information.
• Dialogues intended to contribute to national political transition, institution building and, promote social cohesion.
• Discussion on specific governance issues that inhibit broad-based governance such as security, and may articulate citizens’ perspectives on strategies for addressing them.

Dialogues should lead to the production of policy papers or recommendations for action at the community, national, or other levels.

Advocacy for Institutional Reform

Advocacy projects that seek to achieve specific outcomes for improving systems, implementing policies and laws and creating partnerships or opportunities for the implementation of regional frameworks, treaties and strategies.

• Advocacy initiatives that seek to address specific institutional or policy challenges. These may include projects that seek to strengthen the voices of women, young people, indigenous communities, minority groups within a country and persons with disability in the democratic process;
• Work with governments to explore options for infusing the outputs from national and regional dialogues and reports into public policies, development agendas, and lead to varieties of social contracts between the government and citizens;
• Support for meetings with regional institutions – such as ECOWAS and the institutions affiliated with it (the ECOWAS Court, the ECOWAS parliament), the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) and the African Union to devise strategies for enforcing or implementing the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance and the Agenda 2063;
• Organise opportunities to advocate the inclusion of marginalised groups in the governance of their countries.

Strengthening Strategic Public Institutions

Funding from WADF can be used to strengthen strategic public institutions in the seven priority countries and regionally. Some institutions to be targeted may include, but are not limited to, the judiciary, election management bodies, regulatory bodies for media and telecommunication, and other critical national institutions.

• Support national or subnational governments in strategizing for the implementation of citizens’ articulated aspirations.
• Strengthen key institutions in fundamental ways. Workshops are not seen as ends in themselves and must be part of a broader effort to address the root causes or risks of institutional decay.
• Train, provide technical assistance to, equip and support officials of the judiciary and other critical institutions.

Innovative Projects

Other compelling innovative ideas to the challenge of reimagining democracy in West Africa, including initiatives at local government levels that do not fall in the above themes will be welcome.

Grant Categories

Applications can be submitted for small grants (minimum $50,000), medium size grants (up to $250,000) and large grants (up to $500,000); can be submitted by a single organisation, a consortium or a network; can be for local, national, or regional level activities and may be implemented over a period of 12 to 24 months. Applications for large grants for the purposes of regranting or subgranting, are particularly invited.

Eligibility Criteria

Applications are invited from organisations that are legally registered to operate or have programs in any of the following countries: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo. Regional organisations with work in these countries or at ECOWAS level are also encouraged to apply. In addition to legal status, applicant organizations must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Have previous experience working on governance, democracy, dialogues, citizens engagement, narratives and political participation;
• Have experience managing a budget of comparable size to the category of grant for which they are applying;
• Where a consortium submission, the lead organisation must have prior experience in leading similar work or regranting capacity.
• Proposed grants must be project-focused. The WADF does not provide grants solely for institutional strengthening; at least two thirds of the grant should be for clearly delineated projects and activities.

What the WADF will not fund

The WADF shall not fund the following activities. Also refer to the TrustAfrica website for more information about what we do not fund.

• Institutional or general support to an organisation’s overall work. All applications must have a specific reference to the objectives of the WADF.
• Election monitoring activities. The fund will not fund general election monitoring activities. However, where appropriate, applications for the use of findings from election monitoring for advancing inclusion of priority groups, such as PWDs, women and young people, may be considered.
• Partisan activities, including the promotion of specific candidates in any elections regardless of which level it is taking place.
• Activities lobbying for specific legislation.
• Organizations or individuals on the  US Government’s OFAC prohibition lists.

How to Apply

To apply, organisations must complete the application form via this link. Applications can be submitted in English or French.

The deadline for the applications is April 30, 2026. No late applications will be considered. Applications should be submitted only via the flux platform as email or paper applications will not be considered or reviewed.