Coming to the end of the project, UNA Tanzania, reflects on how for the past 1 year the project has been beneficial to the 21 Clusters that we work with through our ‘KIJANA PAZA SAUTI, KAMATA FURSA!’ Project this February 20^th and 21^st,2020.

The objective is to follow up on the progress of the clusters, challenges, best practices and the way forward to reaching the goal set at the beginning on the implementation of the project in 2019/20.

The workshop included 25 participants, 4 women and 21 men, who collectively discussed on reviewing youth access to 4% loan given by municipalities. Success is proven by 30 Youth groups have managed to access the 4% out of the 119 groups in the clusters. The total amount of loan accessed by the 30 groups being 98,350,000 Tanzanian shillings. Challenges are sort out to being by-laws by the LGA’s which does not cohere to the National guidelines which guides the disbursement of 10% women, youth and people with disabilities funds, untimely handling out of the funds despite prior applications.

Reaching out to Zanzibari Clusters, challenges are that there is not a law guiding the provision of Youth loans, this calls for more intervention and advocacy by engaging UNA Tanzania who have played a key role in ensuring Youth from Tanzania Mainland are aware of the availability of funds while informing the government on gaps existing in an overall process to access the funds.

However, the 21 Clusters have expressed their appreciation since the clusters have helped to develop youth platforms that provide awareness and motivation to youth to engage and grab economic opportunities and develop legal economic projects for sustainability.

UNA Tanzania participated in The Power Breakfast radio programme on Clouds Media, a wide known and most listened to radio show in Tanzania. The show participation aimed to speak and inform the mass about UNA Tanzania and the work that its committed to but more particularly on the Youth Economic Sustainability with the Livelihood Programme funded by the Foundation for Civil Society in Tanzania.

Our programme officer also highlighted the 4% loan given to youth, as part of the 10% loan given to Youth, Women and People with Disabilities (4%, 4%, 2%) respectively showing how UNA Tanzania follows up closely on the Implementation of this policy but also provide awareness on the terms and opportunities to access this funding.

Questions and recommendations came from the mass through online and calls concerning how UNA Tanzania can reach out further to more of its target groups particularly and better ways to advice the Government of Tanzania on the polish of the policy for the benefit of more youth to fit in since UNAT works on a national level with the President’s Office – Regional Authorities and  Local Government.

UNA Tanzania is at the heart of the implementation of the SDGs with a target to leaving no one behind, in the next ten years.

In the last two years, UNA Tanzania has devoted to spreading the word to top decision-makers to incorporating the government actions and budget to match and work on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, where we are proud that the Parliamentarians have an SDG workgroup that discusses the way forward to Agenda 2030. Inline to that, UNA conducts time to time capacity building, to the Members of Parliaments and the President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government officers with the emphasis on how to amplify the role of LGA Policies with the SDGs in the next ten years. Discussions were made on the SDGs as an umbrella, broken down to different topics such as taxation, and digitalization of records, and more so gained experience from our partners in Finland on how they are committed to making SDGs part of their daily duties to its success.

UNA Tanzania works with young people in building on decision making for Sustainability. We put effort in hearing the youth voices through dialogues and focus group discussions. On 7^th of December, we conducted a Focus Group Discussion on Fostering Youth Engagement in Decision Making on the SDG’s, Democracy, Youth Council and Economic Empowerment. We had a number of 30 Youth including our partners from Sweden who came up with way forward to push the Engagement, Opportunities, and willingness of the Youth in Tanzania.

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.