Civic Education Network for Eastern and Southern Africa (CENESA)
CENESA is a sub-regional network that brings together like-minded organisations that focus on civic education to share and exchange experiences, resources, and best practice approaches on how to deal with related regional challenges.
CENESA was founded in November 2017 during the Entebbe Civic Education Forum after a growing recognition that consistent connectivity between Eastern and Southern Africa was lacking, and yet civic education practitioners addressed the same challenges. Therefore, a need arose for the formation of a platform that enables civic education and youth empowerment organizations across the sub-continent to connect, collaborate and cooperate.
CENESA’s Vision is to have a region with a well-informed, empowered, active and responsible citizenry based on the principles of democracy, with respect for human rights and good governance. Through its Mission, CENESA works toward providing a regional civic education platform for mutual support, knowledge sharing, capacity building, advocacy, and regional cooperation to individuals, civil society, private sector, state and other stakeholders.
At the Entebbe Forum in 2017, an Interim Steering Committee (ISC) was appointed by CENESA members who attended the Forum to spearhead, formalize, and run the network. The Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) was consequently selected as CENESA’s host organisation.
Currently, CENESA has twenty-eight members spread all over the region. The network has set up a functional website on www.cenesa.org, published two e-newsletters, taken part in global civic education spaces, hosted regional conferences/meetings on civic education, and nurtured several partnerships globally. CENESA has also adopted several working papers, which are being compiled by the secretariat into policy guidelines for the network.
As a host organization, FHRI is committed to executing secretariat duties on behalf of CENESA geared towards achieving its vision and mission.