The Youth Cafe Community of Practice discussions about Good Governance in Africa that were hosted in partnership with the East Africa Regional Advisory Board [EARAB] demonstrated that there are significant capacity gaps in understanding the application of the principles of democracy, good governance and accountability at the local level. Limitations in the availability of reference materials, inadequate knowledge and limited opportunities for effective networking and collaboration hampers the capacity of CSOs and activists to fulfil their mandate in promoting democracy at the local level, including failure to conduct effective grassroots civic education. This implies limited opportunities for citizens to be educated on the governance process.
The Youth Cafe, USAID, VSO Kenya, and EARAB spearheaded this project to create a governance toolkit meant to enable young leaders and other actors to gain deeper understanding and skills as well as access tailored tools and reference materials to aid their work in the promotion of good governance at the local level. The training of the communities on democratic governance and accountability demands a comprehensive and user-friendly set of learning materials. This handbook is to be accompanied by other elements of the governance toolkit and to be used for civic education at grassroots levels. The toolkit will provide a combination of simple fact cards and notes(handbook) on basic democratic principles that will help popularize and demystify democratic processes and the responsibilities of each person both the elected leaders and the citizens. These components of the toolkit can be used as a handout for participants at grassroot training activities.