Empowering the grassroots

On a continent with a 40 percent adult illiteracy rate (UNESCO, 2008), bottom-up change in Africa is drastically hampered by rampant ignorance of the rights of citizenship and the duty and power of the people in the political process.

In response, AfricanConstitution.Org is striving to establish widesp
read grassroots awareness of the fundamental principles of constitutional and participatory democracy. Ultimately, the goal is to develop an enlightened citizenry that will partake fully in the African Union (AU).

Toward that end of a democratically enlightened and engaged citizenry, AfricanConstitution.Org aims at:
  • Serving as the premier resource for civic education on the AU and the continental political process for the entire general African public,
  • Offering democratic information and guidance on comprehensive and effective citizen involvement in the AU,
  • Working with individual citizens, schools, workplaces, communities, civil society organizations, libraries, clubs, trade unions, sport teams, election campaigns, mass media and other fora to transform the AU's closed-door and top-down culture in ways that will foster and reinforce core democratic values and principles in African unification,
  • Providing professional development to civic educators across Africa,
  • Identifying and applying world-class civic education practices,
  • Hosting regional and continental civic education conferences, and
  • Nurturing active and responsible citizenship, with every citizen playing a vigilant and active role to assure democratization of the AU and the emergence of a progressive federal democracy for a united Africa committed to advancing equal opportunity and justice for all.
AfricanConstitution.Org has drafted a model continental constitution as a civic education tool for African unification.