In June 2012, the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) and the West Africa
Research Center (WARC) co-hosted a workshop on Civil Societies in Africa.1 IDA
subsequently commissioned a number of short papers, inviting conference speakers to
expand upon the ideas that emerged over the course of the three days of discussion. In
these papers, each author presents his or her own views of various aspects of the
challenges facing African civil society. In addition, however, a few overarching themes
emerge that are of particular relevance to the state of civil society in West Africa at the
beginning of 2012 in light of the crisis in Mali, recent presidential elections in Senegal
and Ghana, and the ongoing sectarian violence and Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria.