Our aim is to be a global resource for democracy promotion for governments, institutions and practitioners through knowledge creation, skills development and third sector ecosystem improvement.
Thoughts and Mace (T&M) is a policy and third sector support firm established to ensure that governance in Africa and beyond reflects the best interest of citizens and ordinary people. We are focused on supporting third sector and public institutions to serve their beneficiaries better and also address policy and legislative framework that undermine the civic space, innovation and democratic practices. We are a social enterprise with a wide network who provides the right answers to important questions around democracy, third sector effectiveness and legislative accountability.
We believe that we are at a defining moment for democracy in the world and there is a need for new thinking (CSOs, private businesses, government, funders, and the interplay of these forces). CSOs need to adjust to this new environment, and they need guidance for this. There are gaps in the way government works. There is a knowledge and capacity gap within the CSO sector. There is a system gap within the donor’s community. T&M has the capacity to fill these gaps by developing information, generating knowledge, bringing our own experiences to the table, and mobilizing our networks. We have the capability to pull in knowledge from other spaces and to facilitate collaboration between different actors in the service of development. We aim to provoke a rethink of how the funding environment works in Africa and hope to help broaden funding sources for social interventions in Africa.
Thoughts and Mace prides itself in providing peculiar services to peculiar clienteles. Peopled by consummate researchers, governance experts and public policy analysts with international exposure, the firm offers an interesting blend of local services with international standards. It offers an uncommon blend of expertise amongst its partners with a combined professional expertise of more than 70 years.
Support to Third Sector Institutions: The Firm provides third sector support services ranging from strategy and program design to institutional needs assessment, advocacy development and operations management. T&M works with international organisations, NGOs, research establishments, think tanks and philanthropies. The Firm provide support to organisations establishing offices in West Africa to help them understand the landscape, legal requirements, network mapping and program entry points. Partners in T&M have acquired considerable experiences in third sector operations. Its network of virtual partners and consultants also provide a veritable human resources and expertise in a wide range of issues concerning third sector institutions.
Public Policy Research and Analysis: T&M also offers research services on public policy issues. The Firm has excellent resources on democracy and governance, civic space issues, media landscape, resource governance and legislative operations. T&M has provided services on issues concerning justice sector reform, designing of mapping documents and implementing needs assessment in key areas like anti-corruption, elections, and criminal justice sector reform. It has experience in supporting elections in more than 20 countries in Africa. It has wide range of publications relating to the justice sector, electoral reform issues, socio economic rights/policies and Human rights. It provides research assistance to government institutions, third sector organisations and research establishment on wide range of policy issues with a major bias on democracy promotion and comparative practices underpinning cutting edge practices.
Legislative Service: On the legislative front, Thoughts & Mace provides technical assistance to Legislative Houses, committees and individual legislators on bill drafting, policy analysis and needs assessment in a wide range of issues. T&M has provided service in drafting of the Electoral Act, Legal Practitioners Act, Sheriff and Civil Processes Act and other key areas of legislative activities both in the Federal and State level. The Firm has also designed training programs for legislative committees and provided technical advice on capacity building for legislators and their staff. Its international affiliates provide a comparative edge to our support services.
Litigation: One core area of focus in the Firm’s work is support for strategic impact litigation or public interest litigation. Guided by the conviction that the law is an instrument of social change, The Firm is committed to addressing social ills and protection of individual/ collective rights through public interest litigation. In effectively prosecuting this, the Firm relies on and draws from a vast network of consultants, advisers, and affiliate institutions. T&M has considerable expertise in engaging regional and sub-regional courts (ECOWAS Court of Justice and African Commission on Human and People’s Rights etc). Thoughts and Mace is a firm with special bias for Human rights cases and public interest cases. The Firm provide advocacy and communication support for strategic litigation with a firm understanding of the nuanced utility of effective communication as a major pillar for public interest litigation.
T&M has experience in negotiations, alternative dispute resolution and other conflict resolution mechanisms.
