Robin Hood Model
Robin Hood Model
What Sets us apart
Proven and Impactful Content
We work with practical, well-tested tools and approaches, shaped by over ten years of experience in civil society. Our content is continuously refined through practice and feedback.
Care for People and Purpose
We care about the people we work with and the purpose they serve. Through reflection, trust, and personal support, we create learning spaces that enable real change.
Outstanding Facilitation
Our work is guided by skilled, well-prepared facilitation that is engaging, structured, and goal-oriented. We design and lead processes that help people move from learning to action.
KEY CONCEPTS
Our work is grounded in a set of practical concepts and tools that are part of our Civil Society Academy toolbox.
These concepts have been developed, tested and iterated over more than a decade through our training, advisory and facilitation work across diverse contexts.
Principles for Advocacy Coalitions and Multi-Actor Partnerships
Our work with coalitions and multi-actor partnerships is based on clear principles around collective purpose, inclusivity, power awareness and adaptive management, which underpin our trainings, mentoring and learning paths
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The Advocacy Canvas
The Advocacy Canvas is our core advocacy planning tool, supporting organisations and coalitions to clarify goals, demands, strategies and key actors, and has been used in hundreds of advocacy strategy processes within and beyond CSA.
Change Processes for Building Coalition and Multi-Actor Partnerships
We apply a structured change process for coalition building, guiding coalitions from urgency and vision through experimentation, learning and adaptation towards sustained policy and systems change.
Land For Life Toolbox
The Land for Life Toolbox is a practical toolbox for multi-actor partnerships, capturing approaches and learnings from multi-actor collaboration for people-centred land governance, and translating them into concrete guidance, tools and case examples.
Download here
Social Accountability – The Governance Triangle
Our social accountability work is guided by the governance triangle, strengthening accountability between citizens, civil society and public institutions through practical mechanisms such as community scorecards and grievance systems.
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Scale and long-term experience
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Over a decade of experience in advocacy, partnerships and social accountability: For more than 10 years, Civil Society Academy has delivered more than 100 open and tailor-made trainings and workshops, reaching thousands of participants across diverse regions and political contexts.
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Trusted capacity-building provider: Our long-standing work in advocacy, coalition building and accountability has positioned us as a trusted training and advisory partner for civil society organisations and international programmes.
Multi-actor partnerships
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Trusted provider for BMZ-supported multi-actor partnerships: Since 2025, Civil Society Academy has been commissioned by BENGO to support BMZ-funded multi-actor partnership projects.
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Trainings, learning paths and mentoring: We deliver around six multi-actor partnership trainings per year in English and Spanish and accompany partnerships in Uganda, India, Brazil and Bolivia with tailored learning paths and mentoring.
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Land for Life partnerships on land rights: We have supported land rights-focused multi-actor partnerships in Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Liberia, contributing to concrete land policy influence processes.
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Institutionalisation and sustainability: In several Land for Life contexts, our support contributed to the creation of new organisations that now host and sustain the partnerships.
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Land for Life Multi-Actor Partnership Toolbox: Finalised in 2025, this toolbox supports learning and capacity building for multi-actor partnerships.
Advocacy coalitions and social accountability
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Advocacy strategy development: We have supported more than 20 advocacy strategy processes for international and national organisations and coalitions, including Welthungerhilfe, GIZ, WWF, ActionAid and Sightsavers, as well as national initiatives such as My Food is Zimbabwean.
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Right to Food in Africa initiative: For the past five years, we have accompanied Welthungerhilfe’s Right to Food in Africa initiative, supporting four advocacy coalitions with systematic advocacy strategy development and coalition building.
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Food systems advocacy: We currently implement a multi-country advocacy training programme on food systems with GIZ in five countries, working with national and transnational advocacy coalitions.
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Social accountability mechanisms: Our work includes hands-on experience with community scorecards, grievance redress mechanisms and citizen feedback systems, including in fragile contexts such as Afghanistan.
Other cross-cutting expertise
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Human rights-based approaches: Since 2019, we have delivered trainings and advisory support on human rights-based approaches for civil society organisations.
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Planning, monitoring and adaptive management: We support advocacy, accountability and partnership initiatives through theories of change, adaptive management, outcome harvesting and outcome mapping, strengthening learning and impact.
Partners
Facilitators
Arturo Bellot Irusta
Topics: Organizational strategy, multi-stakeholder alliances, social and political advocacy.
Arturo is a specialist in human rights and strengthening civil society organisations as democratic counterweights and inexhaustible sources of social, environmental, and cultural innovation and creation.
Arturo has been advising networks, civil society organisations in Latin America, and international NGOs on political strategy and social change for more than 25 years.
He is known for his vision and analytical skills, his ability to build passionate and effective teams, the design and implementation of organisational strategies, the facilitation of participatory processes, and the development of innovative methodologies.
Joachim Schwarz
Topics: Leadership, Coaching, Social Innovation, Advocacy,
Multi-Actor Partnerships
Joachim is passionate about social justice and co-creation. In 2014, he left his NGO career to embark on a mission to support civil society actors and social entrepreneurs in becoming more powerful and innovative. Together with his colleagues, he founded the Civil Society Academy, which began its journey in India and later expanded to many parts of the world. In 2023, Joachim established Civil Society Academy International as a social enterprise in Germany.
With more than 25 years of experience across Africa and Asia, he brings deep insight into the realities and potential of social change.
Joachim is an outstanding trainer and coach who loves facilitating collective processes that are creative, fun, and deeply impactful. His work focuses on leadership, culture, innovation, and strategy — always with a strong commitment to empowering disadvantaged groups. Now based in Berlin, he continues to inspire and support changemakers worldwide.
Jonathan Tusubira
Topics: Advocacy, Human Rights-based Approach,
Journalism
Jonathan is an award-winning Innovator, Civic Journalist, Trainer and consultant in the areas of Human Rights, Media Development, Media Literacy and Good Governance in Africa. Over the last 15 years of his career, he has consulted for the Ford Foundation/Uganda Land Alliance, Disability Rights Fund, DW (Deutsche Welle) Akademie, and Boehm Gladen Foundation, among others.
One of Jonathan’s social innovations aims at creating more spaces for diverse voices in the media and gives leaders an opportunity to listen to their citizens, and generally make better decisions. He believes that a community without a voice breeds disorder, suspicion, and a lack of public trust.
Josanthony Joseph
Topics: Advocacy, Human Rights Based Approach
Josantony is Advisor (Maharashtra) to the Commissioner appointed by the Supreme Court of India on Food Security. He is on the Board of Creative Handicrafts, a Fair Trade organisation in India. Josantony was instrumental in setting up and conducting advocacy programs for the National Center for Advocacy Studies in India. He is an international resource person who has worked in Africa, the US, Canada and many countries in Europe and the Far East.
Dr. Petra Speier-werner
Topics: Leadership, Multi-Actor Partnerships,
Coaching
Dr. Petra Speier-Werner is fervently dedicated to transforming organizations and individuals through pioneering and sustainable approaches. She has lived and worked in various sectors in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America. As an organizational psychologist, economist and political scientist, with a doctorate in change management, her training, conferences and coaching are distinguished by a rich interdisciplinary perspective.
Driven by a soulful purpose, Petra aspires to serve as a wellspring of inspiration and unconditional love, empowering individuals to discover and embrace their authentic truths. Her mission is to foster a transformative journey for all, enabling them to lead lives aligned with their genuine selves.
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Retta Menberu
Topics: Leadership, Advocacy, Human Rights Based Approach
Retta Menberu Woldetsadik (M.D., MSc) stands up for civil society-state dynamics, good governance, advocacy, and a rights-based approach to development. Since 2018 he has been part of CSA, built up, and leads the Africa office to advocate for change and empower the youth. After working more than two decades in development and health leadership, as a trainer, researcher, and consultant in clinical medicine and public health, Retta developed himself to a broader development leadership and facilitation role by operating as Country Director for ActionAid International, and as regional Strategy Adviser for Rush Foundation.
He works as a coordinator, researcher, adviser, and facilitator for international development and humanitarian organizations, alliances, and multi-actor partnerships in diverse contexts across Africa, Asia, and Europe.
Sohini paul
Topics: Leadership, Social Accountability, Advocacy,
Human Rights-Based Approach, Coaching
Sohini Paul brings over thirty years of experience in the development sector, grounded in a strong social science background. She holds a master’s degree in Geography and Regional Planning and is a certified Life and Leadership Coach. Her work combines analytical rigour with a deep commitment to human growth, learning, and transformation.
Over the years, Sohini has worked with a wide range of social change organisations on issues including local self-governance, the right to information, and land rights. She has extensive experience in strengthening the capacities of civil society actors, from grassroots communities to large networks and coalitions.
Passionate about building a vibrant and resilient civil society, Sohini is known for her warm, inclusive, and reflective facilitation style. She creates learning spaces that encourage curiosity, trust, and meaningful growth.
WUBSHET ERGETIE
Topics: Social Accountability, Partnership and Coalition Building
Wubshet Ergetie is an Ethiopian expert with over 28 years of experience in the development, humanitarian, public, and business sectors. He specializes in organizational development, capacity building, and participatory approaches.
Wubshet has led major initiatives, including conducting an Organizational Capacity Assessment for 41 local CSOs across Ethiopia for Save the Children, with a focus on community engagement. He has worked extensively on social accountability projects, strengthening communities’ roles in public service delivery. Highly skilled in research, strategic management, and financial systems, Wubshet aspires to be a leader in promoting good governance and fighting poverty and injustice.