The CSO week, organized by the Foundation of the Civil Society, brought together Tanzanian Civil Societies and the Government with great success in strengthening the partnership for development as partners of the government.

As the slogan itself was, ‘UBIA KWA MAENDELEO’ which means “PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT” over 70 Civil Society Organizations attended and showcased what they do and the impact they have on the society.

UNA Tanzania participated fully in the exhibitions during the CSO WEEK 2019, attracting all people and spreading more information on what it focuses on Democracy, Good Governance, Peace and Security and Human Rights and the Sustainable Development Goals as a major target to be achieved by 2030 in Tanzania.

We also conducted a panel side event with the theme, “Fostering Meaningful Youth Participation in Development: For us by us, with us!” A discussion to steer and press on creative ways to meaningful partnering with youth as real actors and contributors to the country’s development. This aimed to pass and gain information from youth attending on the matters of development and how much youth are involved through opportunities provided by the government, international and local organizations. Over 100 youth attended and contributed to the theme bringing in their experiences from their societies. The panel was so interactive and came up with strong contributions to the discussion.

This steered a number of questions and contribution to the topic. More attention was put on matters that hold weight in the criterion to foster development which are; Gender Equality,  Access to Information, Education and foundation to use the set amount of fund in the Municipal councils, Volunteering in development projects, and overall efforts made by the youth and the government collaboratively.

UNA Side Session: Fostering Meaningful Youth Participation In Development; For Us, By Us, With Us.

On the 7th of November 2019, UNA Tanzania hosted a youth side session during the CSOs week. The main objective of this session was to foster meaningful youth participation in development and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in Tanzania. During the meeting, it was outlined that youth, women and Persons With Disabilities in rural areas do not fully utilize the council’s loans because they have insufficient knowledge on the whereabouts of these funds.  As a result, it handicaps them from transforming their lives economically, socially, and politically – ultimately ruining their chance of participating in meaningful development issues. Following these observations, Reynald Maeda – UNA Tanzania Secretary-General – stressed on the importance of conducting proper research on the challenges youth face, to make CSO engagements effective and meaningful as opposed to focusing solely on seminars and trainings.

Maeda also emphasized the value of regularly following up on youth clusters participating in capacity building sessions and seminars to measure the level positive change these sessions make in their lives. These observations led to the conclusion that youth need to participate in low-level society meetings for a closer understanding of their societies. Secondly, they should take into consideration volunteering for various developmental groups rather than focusing solely on employment opportunities.

Lastly, women are encouraged to run for higher political positions to build their societies and challenge the gender equation.  Additionally, continuous youth forums and platforms for sustainable youth discussions should be introduced to help contribute to meaningful youth participation in development issues. Finally, the government should lay foundation to youth regarding the 4-4-2 strategy through education on saving and business tips for sustainable engagement of youth.

On the 1st of November 2019, UNAT held a workshop at Sinza, Dar es Salaam for members of VICOBA (Village Community Banking) around the theme “Entrepreneurship and Empowerment”.

The participants were all entrepreneurs and the majority run their own business. In this regard, the purpose of the workshop was to inspire and equip participants with a tool that can be used to further develop and strengthen their business.

The workshop was an interactive session focused on Sustainable Development Goals number 1: No poverty, 5: Gender Equality and 8: Decent work and Economic Growth. The session started by asking the participants to think about who their role model is and why. This was followed by an activity where participants were asked to relate to different statements concerning work in Tanzania, which opened up for reflection and discussion on various norms and prejudices that may exist in society.

The main activity of the workshop was the “SWOT Analysis”. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and is a strategic planning tool used to help a person identify their internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats. The participants were divided into small groups and provided with a SWOT sheet in order to fill in their own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in relation to their business.  This enabled participants to, in a concrete way, reflect over their current situation as well as their future ambitions.

After completing the task, the workshop was concluded with some of the participants sharing their analyzes with the whole group and relating them to the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Global Week to Act for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or #Act4SDGs week kicked off this month from 20th- 30th September 2019 where we here at UNA marked it in Dodoma. Sustainable Development Goals as promised by all nations in 2015 were to be achieved by 2030 aim at creating a future of peace and prosperity on a thriving planet. We here at UNA continue to do our best ensure that we spread awareness on the SDGs and encourage active participation on a community level.

The Global Week to Act for SDGs is an annual call to action for individuals and organizations across the world to accelerate action for the Sustainable Development Goals. The Global Week to Act for SDGs rallies public support for the Sustainable Development Goals throughout the world while world leaders are meeting at the UN Headquarters for five milestones UN Summits: the Climate Action Summit, the UN High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage, the first-ever SDG Summit after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development and the SAMOA Path-way Midterm Review. This was the largest Global Week to Act4SDGs ever to drive action in solidarity with citizens across the globe including youth groups through Fridays for Future and youth-led global climate strikes, and civil society organizations through the #StandTogetherNow campaign.

UNA Tanzania organized a Knowledge building session on Why Access matters across the SDGs during the National commemoration of the Access to Information Day which was held at the Morogoro Hotel – Morogoro on the 28th September 2019.  The Knowledge building session was moderated by UNA Tanzania Secretary-General – Reynald Maeda

This is part of our efforts to get Journalists on board as SDGs champions for the Marginalized voices #RightToKnow. #RightToKnow is a program that allows all citizens access to information that affects their lives. “Information is part of Rule of Law, and democracy, governments should guarantee access to information for citizens to be able to make informed decisions and participate in the democratic process” Amb. Hon. Dr. Augustino Mahiga #RightToKnow #AsiachweMtu #AccessToInfoDay “Access to Information is both a right and a responsibility. We have a responsibility to give accurate information” #RightYaWrong #accesstoinfoday #asiachwemtu #SDGs

The UN General Assembly is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) in which all 193 member states have equal representation. It is the main deliberative, policy-making, and representative organ of the UN. This year, the 74th Session of the General Assembly kicked off opened on 17 September 2019 with the first day of the high-level General Debate being 24 September 2019.   The assembly had a host of high-level events which also convened including a Climate Summit hosted by the UN Secretary-General, UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), a high-level dialogue on financing for development (FfD), as well as a high-level meeting on the elimination of nuclear weapons.

We, here at UNA Tanzania, look forward to these meetings baring positive feedback which will impact our lives positively.

UN Climate Summit 

‘You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words,’ climate activist Greta Thunberg harshly criticized world leaders at the 2019 UN climate action summit.

Without a doubt, this was the highlight of this summit. In her emotionally charged speech, she accused world leaders of ignoring the science behind the climate crisis, saying: ‘We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth – how dare you!’.

Ms. Thunberg has since received lots of criticism from conservative media personalities, elected officials, and climate change sceptics after delivering her speech. These critics have taken various approaches in countering Thunberg – some more reasonable than others.

However, a majority of these criticisms do not address her main argument, “The IPCC has found that in about 11 years the earth will face a number of “tipping points” that threaten to destabilize not only ecosystems around the world, but also the safety and infrastructure for millions of people, and that the global community ought to act on this information now”. We, here at UNA Tanzania believe in climate change and support Ms. Thunberg in her fight for immediate climate action through participating in events like the Beach Clean-Up on World Clean Up day.

UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF)

The High-Level Political Forum is the main United Nations platform for sustainable development. It has a key role in following up and reviewing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the global scale. The Forum takes place every year under the supervision of the  Economic and Social Council for eight days, includes a three-day ministerial segment and every four years at the level of Heads of State and Government under the supervision of the General  Assembly for two days.

This year, the United Republic of Tanzania became one of the forty-seven (47) countries that participated in this forum. The country is committed to achieving high quality, sustainable human development for its citizens through developing strong nation-wide partnership and commitment towards implementing, monitoring, tracking and reporting of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), backed up by a strong political will, collective ownership, integrated planning, and supportive legal frameworks. During the meeting, it was recognized that the global goals were integrated into the mainland’s National Five-Year Development Plan 2016/17 – 2020/21 and Zanzibar’s Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty 2016 – 2020. Both national medium-term plans adhere to all 3 dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental.

During the meeting, it was discovered that the country was doing relatively well in goals 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 and 16. Goals 7, 9, 11 and 12 are likely to be achieved with stepped up efforts, and the remaining goals 2, 13, 14, 15 and 17 will need significant local efforts, as well as, international support to achieve.

High-level meeting on the elimination of nuclear weapons

The UN General Assembly held a high-level event to commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, on 26 September 2019, per resolution 72/251. This event took place during the first week of the 74th session of the UNGA.  Some 2000 nuclear tests have been conducted since 1945, with devastating consequences for people and for our planet. The effects – on lives and livelihoods; on human health, including that of unborn children; on soil and groundwater; on animals, birds and marine life; on the atmosphere – reverberate across generations, with profound impacts on all aspects of sustainable development.

María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés – President Of The General Assembly said that, as we commemorated the International Day against Nuclear Tests today, she urged all States that have not done so to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. She also appealed to the international community to make progress on our shared vision of a world free of nuclear weapons – set out in the very first resolution of the UN General Assembly. This is the best way to honour the victims of past tests and to ensure no more join their ranks in the future.