Council for Global Advocacy

Hear the voices behind the vision

Care to Change the World

Mandate and Legal Basis

The Continental Social Council (CSC) is an institutional programme under the Council for Global Social Advocacy (CGSA), created to serve as a structured, participatory, and representative body for continental dialogue on social equity and transformative implementation. While not a legislative entity in the traditional sense, the CSC holds a consultative and guiding mandate, acting as the continental conscience within the broader Global Social Equity Alliance (GSEA).

Its foundation is rooted in the statutes of the CGSA and the shared principles of the Agenda for Social Equity 2074. The Council is legitimized through its unique architecture: built from the ground up and inclusive of a wide range of actors—public, private, academic, and civil society—spanning the entire African continent and engaging the global community. Through this embedded mandate, it holds the power to raise issues, synthesize the voice of the people, and channel these insights into strategic and actionable guidance for the GSEA implementation frameworks, including African Unity 2063 and SDEP.

The legal basis of the CSC is articulated in its Founding Declaration, which is adopted and endorsed by the CGSA Board and ratified by the GSEA General Assembly. It binds the Council to transparency, equity, and effectiveness while empowering it to develop its own rules of procedure, sessional agenda, and strategic engagement pathways.

Membership Criteria and Appointment Process

To ensure integrity, inclusivity, and competency within the CSC, a structured and deliberate process has been designed to guide the appointment and engagement of members. The Council is composed of appointed representatives from each African region, with optional extensions to include global observers and advisors from relevant continents or aligned networks.

Membership is open to individuals or delegates representing:

Civil society networks or advocacy platforms
Academic and research institutions
Faith-based and indigenous communities
Youth and women’s movements
Private sector actors aligned with equity principles
Development professionals or former public officials with demonstrated commitment to social impact

Members may be nominated by their respective national, regional, or sectoral forums or recommended by CGSA and UACE partners. Each nomination is subject to a vetting process conducted by the CSC Secretariat and approved by the CGSA Executive Committee to ensure alignment with the Council’s values and objectives.

Each member serves a renewable term of three years, with a maximum of two consecutive terms. Careful balance is maintained in terms of gender, regional distribution, youth inclusion, and thematic diversity, with a strong emphasis on experience, thought leadership, and grassroots connection.

Sessional Calendar and Rhythms

The Continental Social Council operates on a well-defined calendar designed to foster continuity, dialogue, and responsiveness. The core structure is built around two Ordinary Sessions per year, scheduled semi-annually to align with CGSA and broader GSEA programming milestones.

These sessions are held physically or in hybrid format, allowing for both in-person deliberation and virtual participation through ECHO, the shared platform of the alliance. They are dedicated to reviewing social progress, discussing priority themes, adopting recommendations, and preparing formal submissions to CGSA and affiliated bodies.

In addition to these regular meetings, Extraordinary Sessions may be convened in response to emerging social, humanitarian, or strategic challenges. These are called by the Bureau of the Council, either independently or upon request from the CGSA Secretariat.

Importantly, the calendar also includes an annual Pan-Continental Social Summit, a high-level convergence hosted in collaboration with all five continents. The Summit allows for cross-continental dialogue, shared learning, and the formal tabling of the CSC’s yearly State of the People Report, serving both as a symbolic and strategic event.

The sessional rhythms are also structured to include time for cluster work, public consultation periods, and regional caucuses, enabling a participatory, consultative, and iterative working model that reflects the dynamic reality on the ground.

Thematic Clusters

To reflect the complexity and diversity of the social challenges faced across the continent, the Continental Social Council is organized into Thematic Clusters, each acting as a permanent focus area with dedicated capacity, research partnerships, and appointed rapporteurs. These clusters mirror and complement the strategic goals outlined in Agenda for Social Equity 2074, as well as the operational priorities of African Unity 2063 and the Unity Center of Excellence.

Each cluster serves as a semi-autonomous space for continuous engagement, expert input, and field-based learning. It allows Council members to deepen their focus, draft thematic recommendations, engage with specialized stakeholders, and co-develop solutions that can feed directly into the broader implementation agenda.

The current clusters include areas such as:

Education, inclusion, and skills for the future
Equity in economic transformation and value chains
Climate justice and resilience
Governance, social justice, and accountability
Gender, youth, and human dignity
Cultural heritage, spiritual systems, and identity
Urbanization, mobility, and access to basic services

Each cluster is co-chaired by Council members with proven experience in the area and supported by an embedded liaison from either the Unity Center of Excellence or Unity Academy Center of Excellence. They work collaboratively to produce targeted position papers, highlight urgent concerns, and host regular dialogues with communities, changemakers, and institutional partners.

Clusters are open to cross-cluster engagement, and new clusters may be created based on need, while others may merge or evolve over time. This flexibility ensures that the CSC remains responsive and relevant in the face of a constantly shifting social landscape.

Reporting Mechanisms and Communication Pathways

At the heart of the CSC lies its role as a continental feedback mechanism. Its core value lies in its ability to listen, synthesize, and channel the voices of people—especially those historically excluded—into the strategic decision-making processes of GSEA and its implementing entities.

Each year, the Council produces the State of the People Report, a consolidated reflection of its observations, concerns, and proposals. This report is tabled formally before the CGSA and shared with all branches of the Global Social Equity Alliance. It is also presented publicly at the annual Pan-Continental Social Summit, thereby creating a transparent space for civil society, academia, business, and governments to respond to the emerging realities documented by the Council.

In addition to this flagship report, the CSC operates on a live feedback model. Insights and findings from regional forums, local hearings, and thematic cluster sessions are captured through ECHO and channeled in real time to relevant partners. This allows for more agile adjustments in implementation and reinforces the principles of transparency and accountability.

The CSC is also empowered to issue Advisory Notes to GSEA institutions and Urgency Briefs in the case of crises, emerging human rights issues, or governance failures. These are generated with speed and precision, drawing on both community feedback and expert insights.

To ensure two-way communication, all reports and recommendations are followed up through a system of tracking responses, documenting uptake, and updating stakeholders, including the people themselves. This cycle of feedback and response serves as the backbone of a truly participatory ecosystem—one that delivers not only on promises but on the social contract itself.

Regional Caucuses and Special Caucuses

To reflect Africa’s rich and multifaceted regional identities, the CSC is structured to include Regional Caucuses, each representing one of the five continental regions: North, East, West, Central, and Southern Africa. Each caucus is composed of Council members from its respective region and is tasked with ensuring that regional priorities, cultural specificities, and political realities are fully represented in the CSC’s deliberations.

These caucuses serve as coordination platforms for regional dialogue and thematic exchange. They meet regularly, both virtually and in-person, and play a central role in preparing the Council’s positions ahead of high-level summits or strategic implementation decisions. Each regional caucus appoints a Chairperson, Deputy Chairperson, and Rapporteur, responsible for managing internal dynamics and ensuring timely reporting to the wider Council.

In parallel, the CSC recognizes the critical role of Special Caucuses in addressing cross-cutting social equity issues. These include, but are not limited to:

The Youth Caucus, focused on elevating intergenerational perspectives and youth-led change.
The Women’s Caucus, which champions equity, safety, and systemic transformation in gender relations.
The Disability Inclusion Caucus, working to ensure full societal participation for persons with disabilities.
The Indigenous Voices Caucus, committed to the protection of ancestral knowledge systems, land rights, and spiritual traditions.

These special caucuses operate horizontally across all clusters and regions, ensuring that intersectional challenges are not sidelined but rather embedded into every decision, recommendation, and implementation pathway.

Working Methods and Secretariat

The Council functions with a clear mandate to remain both deliberative and action-oriented. It meets quarterly in full session and operates continuously through its clusters, caucuses, and regional structures.

To enable this, a dedicated CSC Secretariat has been established under the auspices of the Council for Global Social Advocacy (CGSA), acting as its administrative, logistical, and editorial engine. The Secretariat is responsible for convening meetings, maintaining archives, producing communications, ensuring translation and accessibility, and managing the flow of documentation across internal and external interfaces.

The working methods of the Council are grounded in four guiding principles:

Participation – Every member has the right to speak, propose, and challenge.
Consensus – Decisions are ideally made by broad agreement, and only in deadlock will votes be required.
Transparency – Proceedings are documented and shared with both the GSEA and the public unless confidentiality is required.
Continuity – Structures are reviewed every five years, but the core mechanisms remain stable to ensure long-term efficacy.

Council sessions are hybrid by design, enabling both physical gatherings and digital engagement via the ECHO platform. Members can submit motions, draft statements, propose amendments, and review working documents asynchronously, ensuring efficiency and wider participation across diverse time zones and realities.

Institutional Relationships and Integration

The CSC is not an isolated deliberative body—it is deeply embedded within the architecture of GSEA. While hosted as a formal programme under the CGSA, its relevance and impact extend across all five components of the Alliance.

With African Unity 2063, the Council acts as a grassroots accountability mechanism, feeding directly into project design and adaptation across the continent.
Through Agenda for Social Equity 2074, it serves as a social conscience and voice, ensuring that implementation remains rooted in the aspirations and rights of people.
In dialogue with the Unity Center of Excellence, the Council collaborates to shape research questions, policy prototypes, and system innovations grounded in lived experience.
With the Unity Academy Center of Excellence, it inspires new educational paradigms, pedagogies, and knowledge systems reflective of people’s real conditions and transformative dreams.

The CSC also maintains an advisory link to the EUSL and its international partners, including DFIs, private foundations, and civil society networks. It has no legislative power—but it wields significant social legitimacy, credibility, and influence. It is the connective fabric between implementation and aspiration.

In this way, the CSC is more than a consultative forum—it is the living soul of the Global Social Equity Alliance, ensuring that equity is not merely a principle, but a practice sustained by real participation, real dialogue, and real change.