The movement is now for women’s rights to be enshrined in Tanzania’s constitution.
Why we care: Women are underrepresented in national politics in Tanzania, however with the drafting of a new Constitution, a huge opportunity has opened for women.
How we’re solving this: Organizing trainings on political advocacy and debate skills to ensure women represent their diverse communities at the national level.
The moment is now for women’s rights to be enshrined in Tanzania’s Constitution. For the first time in 36 years, a new Constitution is being drafted, opening a huge window of opportunity for local women to add their perspectives to this important document. Women Fund Tanzania (WFT) is taking advantage of this timing by conducting political empowerment trainings to ensure the country’s new Constitution represents women from all backgrounds.
A total of 50 women from established networks of community leaders, agriculture workers, market vendors, women living with disabilities or HIV/AIDS will participate in two days of political debate and education trainings. The sessions will be held in Ilala, a city where the majority of women live in poverty and have limited knowledge of national political processes like constitutional review. During the trainings participants will gain debate and reporting skills advice from women in the media on how to better advocate for the eradication of discriminatory laws and the prevention of sexual violence against women. Media personnel will also convene for a two-day training to improve their reporting techniques. As a result they will produce TV and radio news segments, and publish newspaper and social media articles advocating for an end to violence against women.
In addition, approximately 20 community leaders and 100 community members will participate in a one-day dialogue session and strategize on how to ensure that women’s rights issues are incorporated into mainstream political discussions. Overall, WFT’s facilitated dialogues will build the capacities of men and women politicians, and local community members and leaders to advocate for the implementation of women’s rights into the new Constitution.
WFT will ensure that its training is creating impact by conducting a feedback session with training facilitators and partnering organizations; collecting data to assess implementation of women’s rights in the constitutional draft; and compiling a final report to summarize the challenges and successes of trainings.
These sessions will:
- Build communities that champion the inclusion of women’s rights in the new Constitution.
- Increased numbers of women with advocacy skills to effectively engage in local and national politics.
- Strengthen networks of women leaders who promote women’s equality and empowerment throughout their country.