At the heart of the first two components of the development program is the fundamental need to promote, increase and support citizen’s capacity to participate in institutional reform process and participate in the management of their country's or community's affairs.

The civil society strengthening, and citizen participation initiative is designed to help people not only participate in the management of public affairs and resources, but also increase their standard of living.

The IIJD works with organizations on both ends of the organizational spectrum to increase their capacity and effectiveness in addressing their communities’ problems. This partnership spans from small groups of people in rural communities or groups living abroad to well-established national and international NGOs. The IIJD focuses its partnerships on groups working to address community problems that impede citizens’ abilities to take part in the wellbeing of their society and government. The IIJD also acts as an intermediary organization to facilitate interaction between funding sources and their beneficiaries and enhance expertise and networking among its partners.

These initiatives offer important skill sets to NGOs and local community leaders. Ultimately, through these initiatives, we aim to strengthen the civil society of African countries, encourage and increase women’s participation by ensuring that they are represented in all phases of sponsored projects and reduce local tensions by enhancing collaboration between different cultural groups. All these elements are built into our innovative platform: the African Spiders Webs’ Initiative (ASWIN).