ICA West Africa Regional conference opens in Lagos

The ICA West Africa Regional conference in Nigeria opened on 29th November 2018 in Lagos, Nigeria.

After welcoming participants, the Chairman of EPDI Nigeria said that he was delighted to see representatives (Directors and staff/members) of all the ICAs in West Africa. He announced the theme which is Re-Positioning West Africa ICAs for Greater Effectiveness. He added that our desire is that all ICAs will be strengthened, renewed and re-fired for impacting the world around them in a greater dimension. Lastly, he said that, during this conference, very talented speakers from various organisations will share their experiences and how we can be more effective as NGOs.

In his short speech, the Vice President of the ICAI in West Africa, Mr Yawo Gator, said that the role of ICA International is to facilitate peer-to-peer interchange, learning and mutual support in the ICA network across the world, for greater and deeper impact in line with our mission. Talking about the mission of the Institute of Cultural Affairs International, the vice President said that ICAI wants to build a just and equitable society in harmony with our planet earth. Moreover, he informed people that the conference is possible through the ICAI support in the framework of our global peer to peer approach. ICA International organizes this kind of regional conference at regional levels since 2015. In The West Africa region, we started with Cote d’Ivoire in 2015 and after three years, we are in Nigeria, a great country in the West Africa Region.

In the evening, we worked on the presentation of country reports; we heard from ICA Benin and Cote d’Ivoire. During the second day, we will hear reports from Togo, Ghana and Nigeria.

For this conference, delegates arrived from ICAs in the West Africa countries, such as ICA Cote d’Ivoire, Development Institute Ghana, ICA Togo, Lambassa ICA Benin and EPDI Nigeria.


Dear EPDI Board members, Dear EPDI Board members, Dear Colleagues from ICAs in West Africa, Dear invited guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of ICAI Board members, I would like to welcome you to the conference that EPDI is hosting in Nigeria.

The role of ICA International is to facilitate peer-to-peer interchange, learning and mutual support in the ICA network across the world, for greater and deeper impact in line with our mission.The mission of the Institute of Cultural Affairs International is to build a just and equitable society in harmony with our planet earth.

This conference which is connected on the theme: re positioning West Africa ICAs for Greater Effectiveness is possible through the ICAI support in the framework of our global peer to peer approach. ICA International organizes this kind of conference at regional levels since 2015.  In The West Africa Region, we started with Cote d’Ivoire in 2015 and after three years, we are in Nigeria, a great country in the West Africa Region.

By this conference, we want to achieve the following objectives:

  • Strengthen ICAs in Technology of Participation
  • Share individual and collective experiences in the last 12 months, and celebrate each ICA
  • Review our 3-year Strategic Plan and 1-year Action Plan and Develop the next one-year Action plan
  • Discuss the way forward with our common proposal and Action plan

We wish successful deliberations in our meeting.