1. The Importance Of Context

2� DIFFERENT ROLES PERFORMED BY CSOs AND OTHER PARTNERS IN WPP

Armed with international and regional instruments and frameworks for advancing the cause of gender parity, CSOs have been instrumental in causing significant shifts in the country on awareness about women’s rights and their entry into the public arena as political actors, with their voice and presence. For the most recent national elections in Tanzania (2020), CSOs provided technical assistance to women candidates, created hotlines for women to report violence, and worked with political parties, the National Electoral Commission (NEC), and other institutions to help women gain positions of leadership.

The key challenge experienced in preparations for the 2020 elections was the hard stance of the ruling party against human rights organizations, including the media. The media suffered heavily under the high handedness of the political system. There was a level of unprecedented censorship that impacted the capacity of the CSOs to assess the events pre, during and postelections.

Below is a brief description of the critical areas of work that CSOs have undertaken to support WPP in the country, including legal and policy reforms, advocacy, financial support to women aspirants, training and skills transfer, and monitoring and oversight over elections.

(i) Legal and Policy reforms: Through their websites and publications, the CSOs have been demanding changes in laws and policies that drive reforms in the country. One of the respondents in this assessment opined: “The CSOs have been helping women even in preparing themselves for election petitions when they are taken to court.”

(ii) Advocacy: Many organizations have been engaged in community awareness activities in various political divisions across the country to change the negative perceptions of women in leadership and increase support for women candidates. Different social media channels in the country were used for advertising the campaigns of several women such as TBC, ITV and the social media via YouTube online TV Channels, such as Ayo TV, among others.

(iii) Training and skills transfer: Several CSOs offer women aspirants and candidates training to enhance their knowledge and capacity to effectively compete, both in their party primaries and in general elections. An example of CSOs that have been building capacity for women on their rights generally and on their pursuit of political offices include the LHRC and the Women’s Legal Aid Centre (WLAC) as well as UN Women. By providing technical and financial support to key implementing partners, some CSOs ensure that women lead and participate in decision-making at all levels, including young women and women with disabilities.

(iv) Financial support to women aspirants: One of the key challenges facing women aspirants is the limited financial base. There have been efforts by some CSOs to support women directly through providing financing. UN Women, for instance, has been helping women achieve their political goals financially [2]. However, given the lack of equity and sustainability of such interventions, there is a need to find different ways to support women candidates in a more meaningful and sustainable manner.

(v) Monitoring and election oversight: CSOs start monitoring events around elections as soon as the electioneering period kicks off, through the voting process to the installation of elected officials. CSOs such as LHRC, TAWLA, REDET, ZEMCO, REDET TANZANIA and TACCEO all have been at the forefront of calling out political parties and the Government over election malpractices that have disenfranchised political aspirants, especially women.

...“CSOs in their totality have not been able to unite us all as women"...

During the interview for this task, a female respondent observed: “These CSOs keep us awake and defend us so much. Despite their support, they do not carry us to the required extent. Others will only be seen if a candidate wins the elections.”

3� GAPS IN CSOs AND PARTNER SUPPORT TO WPP

(i) Lack of Strategic Plans: It has been reported that most CSOs in Tanzania do not have well defined strategic plans. Therefore, they undertake ad hoc advocacy activities that are not well rooted [3]. Moreover, small CSOs have many challenges regarding fundraising, program formulation, the definition of results framework, financial management and evaluation. This is partly attributed to the lack of highly skilled human resources that can effectively perform the various responsibilities. As a result, these CSOs end up having inadequate funding, poor programs and poor financial management, which consequently reduces their credibility of accessing donor funding. Their ineffectiveness affects the rights of WPP adversely.

(ii) Limited coordination: This is a key challenge for CSOs while implementing WPP activities, leading in some cases to duplication of activities and inadequate use of the meagre resources in the sector. A respondent noted that “CSOs in their totality have not been able to unite us all as women. Not all of them speak about women. All of them in totality should look for us and carry us along.”

(iii) Limited resources: Many CSOs are competing for the same resources in an environment where funding for WPP (similar to funding for other CSO activities) is limited. This resource limitation has led to the collapse or near-collapse of well-meaning CSOs keen on supporting women, especially those at the grassroots, to join and be active in politics, such as the National Organization for Legal Assistance (NOLA), which was providing education on politics and women rights. The key question remains how many development partners are willing to give money to women and shape them to go a particular way that may not be aligned with male-driven decision making. (iv) Challenges of channelling support: Some CSOs are considered selective in their support for WPP. Their decisions tend not to be demand-driven but based on their program plans rather than the electorate’s needs. Some Tanzanian CSOs, funded by Northern donors, have been criticised for being more accountable to their donor agencies than the people they serve [4]. The respondents to this assessment opined that all partners should be responsive and address the contextual and actual needs of the women and communities they intend to support rather than impose their programmatic requirements.

(v) The politicization of civil society: CSOs continue to struggle due to alignment (real or assumed) to particular political persuasions and individual leaders. This reputational risk has hurt their ability to remain competitive in resource mobilization and in persuading the masses whose voting habits they intend to influence. It is sometimes not easy to differentiate between some political parties and CSOs.

(vi) Monetization of political processes: Like everything else in society, politics is perceived and approached as an income generation venture. The electorate, the agents, parties and individual aspirants approach the whole process as a way to generate an income. This makes it too expensive for new entrants who must spend considerable resources to hire staff, pay for campaigns including branding, and hire security teams.

(vii) The short-term view of WPP: Activities on WPP tend to pick up close to elections and fizzle out soon after. It is notable that to develop a strong movement for WPP, there is a need for long-term investment in the communities (e.g. to address sociocultural and religious perceptions) and in the women aspirants, who sometimes join the political races a bit late in the day.

(viii) Interests of the Media: When commenting on the role of media on WPP, most respondents stated that the media is sometimes too concerned about the personal lives and weaknesses of the women political leaders rather than the successes they have made so far in their careers. The media has concentrated on scandals of female leaders (especially artists) rather than showcasing the progress made so far by WPP in the leadership arena.