June 12, 2021

- Ibraheem Bukunle Sanusi

Ibraheem Sanusi is a Senior 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, African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), and other 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 meaningful engagement of African citizens in the development planning and implementation of Agenda 2063.

Prior to this, Ibraheem was a Deputy Head and Citizen’s Engagement Lead at the African Governance Architecture (AGA) Secretariat based 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 10,000 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.

Previously, Ibraheem has worked with the Africa Leadership Forum and the Centre for Human Security at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, both in Nigeria.

Ibraheem is a 2018 Alumni of the Atlantic Dialogue Emerging Leaders Programme, 2018 Fellow of the Abshire-Inamori Leadership Academy of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), United States and 2017 Inductee (Delegate) of the Academy of Achievement.