Youth under the age of 15 years comprise 45 percent of Tanzania’s population of over 53 million people (UN population division). At the current growth rate, Tanzania’s population is projected to reach 70 million by 2025. Despite these numbers women and youth are among the most marginalized and underutilized Tanzania Citizens.
Advocacy and lobbying for young women’s rights has been caught up with a number of challenges in Tanzania such as development of strategy, leadership, crafting and sustaining coherent agenda for and by girls and young women in Tanzania while building strong constituencies so as to achieve visible results.
Therefore, in 2022 with the support of Open Society Foundation, Msichana Initiative launched the “SAUTI YETU, NGUVU YETU” project, which aimed at strengthening young feminists capacity to build their agency, strengthen their power to collective organizing and assert themselves better in shaping policies and hold the government accountable on issues around leadership, sexual reproductive health and rights and gender based violence.
The project has engaged 20 young women leaders from Tabora, Dodoma, Dar es salaam and Bagamoyo. These young feminists have in turn engaged a total of 240 as part of the groups they lead in their communities. These young women have been a catalyst for reaching other girls in their communities while standing up and speaking out against girls’ rights violations happening in their communities. In two years, the participants have engaged in comprehensive workshops covering critical skills such as leadership strategies, feminist leadership, public speaking and effective advocacy techniques. As a celebrated impact of the project, the program participants have shown interest to vie for various leadership positions in the upcoming local government and general elections.
The achievements of “Sauti Yetu, Nguvu Yetu” project not only celebrate the success of the individual participants but also symbolise a hopeful future for gender equality and leadership across the country.