Ibraheem Sanusi

Ibraheem Sanusi is an Advisor on the Joint African Union – German Cooperation on Citizens Participation and Innovative Data Use for Africa’s Development. In this capacity, Ibraheem provides advisory services to the African Union Commission and other AU Organs on policy development, capacity building, partnerships development as well as knowledge management for improved citizens participation and the use of data for evidence-based governance. Through the programme, Ibraheem is supporting the development of an AU Innovation Lab, the first of its kind in any of Africa’s intergovernmental organisations.

Prior to this, Ibraheemwas a Governance Expert and Citizen’s Engagement Lead at the African Governance Architecture (AGA) Secretariatbased at the African Union Commission’s Department of Political Affairs. Through his leadership of the citizens’ engagement work of the AGA, Ibraheem led the development of the AGA - Youth Engagement Strategy (AGA-YES) as a strategic framework for the engagement of young people in democratic governance processes at the Regional Economic Communities and the African Union. Through the implementation of the Strategy, engagement of young people in policy processes for the AU Policy Organs and RECS has been institutionalized through annual platforms and activities for youth engagement. An estimated 5,000 young people have been directly engaged through consultations/dialogues and capacity building programmes facilitated by the AGA Secretariat and Platform supported Pre-Fora. Technical support and amplification have been provided to hundreds of youth initiatives across Africa through the Annual Youth Consultations and other activities.

In pioneering the use of innovative technologies for citizens engagement, Ibraheem drove the use of ‘#DGTrends’ – Democratic Governance Trends as a trend monitoring tool aimed at broadening African citizen’s engagement and interaction with the AU Organs and Institutions with democratic governance mandates. Since 2013 till date, the DGtrends campaign has focused on galvanising citizen’s support for the AU Agenda 2063 and particularly its aspirations for democracy, peace and prosperity. Through the online and physical consultations, several programmes and initiatives including cross-regional collaborations have been recorded.