The urgency of sustainable development to the society is more evident than ever. The changing climate affects all parts of society, with catastrophic environmental, economic and social consequences, such as poverty, violent conflicts and famine. Journalism has a fundamental role to play in informing the public and framing the issues of society. In addition, journalism is capable of spurring engagement with various sustainability issues at local, national or transnational level as well as investigating and putting pressure on those in power to take sustainable development issues seriously and to do their utmost to live up to the promises they make to their citizens. 

Since 2018, UNA Tanzania in partnership with Media Space Tanzania have been running the SDG’s journalist and storytelling club. The objective of the club is to bring journalists, editors and storytellers in Tanzania at the forefront of telling the SDGs stories from the lens of the people. The club provides mentorship and capacity building to both young and experienced journalists in Tanzania as well as connecting the members with SDGs related opportunities for journalists. Members of the club come from three different journalistic categories: general journalism, specialized journalism and investigative journalism, and fill important roles with different qualifications and areas of expertise.

Journalism plays a key role in driving social change 

One enthusiastic member with a passion for advocacy and promoting the SDGs in the media is Imani Henrick, who joined the SDG’s journalist and storytelling club in 2019. Imani is a Station Manager at Kings FM Radio in Njombe and the founder of the podcast Dig It with Imani, a community-informing podcast highlighting human rights issues related to gender, inclusion and safety on the internet. In addition to her impressive track record, which includes being the only African winner of the Youth Peace Challenge (YPC), a Thomson Reuters Changemaker and Award-Winning Digital Content Creator, she is particularly passionate about girls and women’s rights in digital spaces. 

In her role as a journalist and media person, Imani feels she has an important responsibility to inform and drive social change. Journalism and the media have the power to change, especially when people have a strong trust in them, says Imani. The dissemination of stories, documentaries and investigative journalism is therefore an important element of democracy – and not least the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. 

Imani Henrick – SDGs Journalists and storytelling Club member

Practical tools on how to fully package stories about SDGs and valuable contacts

The main reason Imani joined the SDG’s journalist and storytelling club was to get practical tools to better connect the SDGs in her writing to help raise public understanding of sustainability issues. Before joining the club, she found it particularly difficult to produce material related to the SDGs that was well supported by data, which she feels the SDG club has helped her with.

“I now know how to better package my stories and how to build my arguments with data, which is a powerful tool to persuade and create change!” 

In addition to gaining access to new techniques and ways of working to better include the SDGs in journalism, the SDG journalist club has also contributed to a larger network with many valuable contacts, says Imani. 

Imani Henrick drives change to embed gender equality online

A driving force in Imani’s projects has always been to transform the internet for the better, especially for girls and women who often lack opportunities and skills to use and create digital tools and online content. Bridging the digital gender divide, would make online spaces safer for both genders, enabling both genders to utilize opportunities as well as benefiting their communities, economically, socially and politically, according to Imani. 

“We must actively strive to dispel the myth that technology is “for boys” and ensure that girls and women are included in the digital world. Holding girls and women back in this area affects all aspects of their lives, including their ability to speak out and campaign for change in issues affecting them.”

In the future, Imani looks forward to continuing the work of enforcing gender equality online in Tanzania. It is an important, and necessary, work to ensure that no one is left behind of the development that we look forward to in the future! 

Click the link to know more about the club and how to sign up:

https://www.una.or.tz/2022/10/20/sdgs-journalists-and-storytelling-club/

The CSOs Week is an annual event organized by a consortium of local and international Tanzania civil society organizations. This year UNA Tanzania was among the steering committee of twenty-eight (28) CSOs. The primary objective of the CSO week is to strengthen relationships between key development actors. The 2022 CSOs Week theme was “People’s Development, People’s Stories”, emphasizing the importance of inclusion to ensure that no one is left behind. The CSOs week mobilized about 400 attendees representing the government, young entrepreneurs, students, community-based organizations, civil society organizations, youth, women and people with disabilities from different parts of the country. UNA Tanzania organized 3 sessions (2 side events and 1 outreach session);

 UNA Tanzania team in a group photo during the national CSOs Week held in Arusha.

Session 1: Career Guidance Outreach at Tengeru Institute of Community Development

The session targeted university students in building capacity to explore opportunities beyond formal education. The outreach session was attended by 300 students (186 female and 114 male). A number of issues were raised by students including the need for enabling business environments for student Entrepreneurs, access to finance for business establishment and support for internships to gain practical skills in their profession. The issues raised were compiled to form part of key advocacy messages for increasing effort to empower young people soon after years in college.

UNA Tanzania team in a group photo with Tengeru Institute of Community Development students  on an outreach session organized by UNA Tanzania, Restless Development and UMATI during CSOs week.

Session 2: Enhance Youth Voices & Agency in Governance 

This session expounded on meaningful representation of youth as equitable partners with equal voice and rights, rather than silent objects and tokens of policy or programs. Young leaders from the grassroots discussed creating channels for participation, mobilization and lead not only to yield a more contextualized solution to the development and civic issues but also in co- creating an empowering process for the community involvement in governance to create long and lasting change. 60 youth participated in the session (31 female and 29 male). The panelists urged on; the operationalization of the youth council,  youth to play their role in capacitating themselves, seek information, participate in statutory meetings and air their voices so that the programs and policies meet their needs, The government should be ready to adopt new techniques such as digital methods or community outreaches to seek youth consultations.

Panelists during the session on youth voices and agency in governance  organized by UNA Tanzania and Restless Development during CSOs Week at AICC.

Session 03: Girls’ education and digital adaptability for development 

UNA Tanzania organized a Session in collaboration with Malala Fund, Haki Elimu, TEN/MET, PWC and Plan International. The session highlighted key digitalization aspects in transforming education in Tanzania, especially access to the most marginalized girls for effective transitioning. This session was attended by a total of 61 people (35 female and 26 male) including young girls from schools. The panelists for the session were from various Civil Society Organizations and a representative from the Ministry of Education;  Nicodemus Gachu from Plan International, Dr. Gladness Kirei from Ministry of Education, Khalila Mbowe from Girl Effect, Dr. Estahappy Wenje from Girls Foundation of Tanzania and Loyce Andrea a girl (13 years old) from Geita. The session highlighted the key barriers that prevent marginalized girls from exercising their educational rights. The issues raised during the panel discussion were School-based gender violence, Community Support for Girls’ Education and Social-cultural norms that hinder girls’ education when transitioning to secondary education. Among the recommendations were developing comprehensive and forward looking policies to guide digitalization in education, increasing investment in digital technology skills for teachers and infrastructure in schools and for distance learning.

Panelists during the session on girls education and digital adaptability for development  organized by UNA Tanzania, Plan International Tanzania, Malala Fund, Haki Elimu, TEN/MET, PWCCSOs during CSOs week at AICC.

This year marked 77 years since inception of United Nations on October 24, 1945 and 61 years since United Republic of Tanzania became a member to the United Nations.

This year’s theme for the commemoration was “Inclusive Communities, Leaving no one behind”, the celebration was honored by Dr Damasi Ndumbaro (Minister of constitution and Legal Affairs) at JNICC and other guests from The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East Africa Cooperation, UN agencies , United Nations Association of Tanzania, ambassadors, Diplomats, Tanzania Peoples Defence Force, youth, and students.

UNA Tanzania’s Executive Director Mr. Reynald Maeda had a chance to offer his remarks during the commemoration. The remarks focused on three issues that are key to ensuring that no one is left behind and there is inclusive communities;

• Financial inclusion and Economic empowerment to vulnerable communities (Youth, women and People with Disabilities). In the past year UNA Tanzania was able to make groups of youth access 1 billion from 10% LGAs loans now is working with PO-RALG and looking forward to collaborate with UN Women in finalizing the financial guideline for the 10% local government loans that will help to reach more women, youth and people with disabilities and improve their livelihoods.
• Inclusive representation and meaningful participation in decision making platforms where UNA Tanzania is working with other partners to establish UN Youth Delegate program as part of increasing Global South youth participation at the UN level.
• Voluntary National Review process which provides a unique opportunity to ensure that voices of marginalized groups are included in the reporting. UNA Tanzania just like in 2019, is coordinating Civil Society’s participation in the exercise to contribute to the National report as well as the Civil Society Report. Young people, women, children and communities that a hard to reach will participate through leave no one behind hearings dialogues and consultations.

He commented that, “the true meaning of an inclusive community is where everyone has a voice!”

UNA Tanzania welcomes new members to The SDGs Journalists & Storytelling Club. The club is a group of Sustainable Development Goals interested journalists, editors and story tellers established by UNA Tanzania in 2018 with the main objective of advancing awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals through connecting it to journalism and storytelling. Since the club’s inception, UNA Tanzania has been conducting a series of training programs to the club equipping them with SDGs knowledge and how to report while reflecting Sustainable Development Goals.

Other objectives include;

• To enhance knowledge and skills in reporting SDGs
• To amplify the voices of those who are likely to be left behind in SDGs implementation
• To equip journalists and editors with a platform to have an open dialogue, explore opportunities on SDGs, raising awareness and encouraging collaborative actions needed to achieve the goals by 2030
• To incorporate SDGs in writing and journal stories
• To explore national and international opportunities on Agenda 2030
• To inspire news and entertainment organizations to leverage their resources and talent to amplify and accelerate progress towards achieving the Goals.

SIGN UP TO BECOME A MEMBER ON: https://bit.ly/SDGs-JOURNALISTS-CLUB-REGISTRATION

As the world jointly celebrates the Girl Child on every 11th October, this year on Tuesday October 11th the United Nations Association of Tanzania celebrated this day with the girls at Mikocheni B Primary School while acknowledging our theme for the day “Our Time is Now- Our Rights, Our Future”.

The session was attended by 70 energetic & powerful the girls of from class 3, 4, 5 and 6 together with their teachers. The aim of commemorating this day was to educate young girls on their rights such as rights to education and issues around health living as a key to unleash their potential. Moreover we wanted to hear directly from the girls on what challenges they face and provide a platform for them to offer their call to society to uphold girl’s rights.

The discussions included;

• The history of the day, rationale and its importance.
• The rights they are entitled to as children regardless of their sex, such as right to education, right to health, right to play & recreation, right to be heard and right to lead.
• How they can engage themselves in leadership at school and home through clubs and leadership posts at schools and its importance in building confidence and skills to become great leaders.
• Lastly hearing from the girls as they issued a call to adults and the community at large. They expressed their desire of being nurtured to become great leaders giving example of the president of Tanzania. Apart from that they issued a call to be provided with ample time to study, to be protected from harm and abuse so that they can live to fulfill their dreams.

Young girls believe they are key agents of change and are important in creating the future they want if their aspirations are nurtured and their rights to education, health and engagement in leadership are protected.