Kepa Tanzania Annual Report 2013 Kepa is the biggest civil society umbrella organisation in Finland. Its members are more than 300 Finnish non-governmental organisations working with global justice issues. We provide expertise on development policies and promote actions that will help to build a just world. Kepa is based in Helsinki, Finland and has country offices in Nicaragua, Mozambique, Tanzania and Thailand (covering the Mekong region). Kepa has been active in Tanzania since 1997. For a long time Kepa was based in Morogoro, and moved to Dar es Salaam in 2009. Kepa does not implement development projects in Tanzania but supports the activities of its member organisations and its Tanzanian partner organisations, and contributes to Kepa's capacity development, communications and advocacy in Finland. Kepa Tanzania has a staff of eight, led by the Country Director. Kepa Tanzania's 2013 programme budget was 118,558, of which 60,000 was for partnerships. The remaining 58,558 was used for Kepa activities such as membership outreach, studies and analysis on Kepa themes, civil society collaboration and networking, and partnership planning, monitoring and joint learning. Kepa Tanzania's website: In English: https://www.kepa.fi/international/english/kepa-south/kepa-in-tanzania In Finnish: http://www.kepa.fi/toiminta/kepa-maailmalla/tansania In 2013 Kepa Tanzania has moved forward in implementing its new 2013-15 3-year programme. We have increased cooperation between development policy and civil society colleagues, started reaching out to Kepa MOs in the East African region, and started working in small, global thematic task groups. The sections below shows progress on our Kepa Tanzania process objectives, and in relations to global Kepa's strategic objectives. We also discuss unplanned achievements, challenges and the outline plans for 2014. 1. Progress on 2013 Tanzania objectives Globally Kepa implements a common three-year programme with three strategic objectives. The Tanzania office works mainly on Strategic Objectives 1 (influencing political decisionmaking and participating in global processes) and 3 (strengthening the capacity of Kepa's membership). These are discussed in section 2 below. In 2012 we also made Tanzania-specific plans for some process improvements, which included the following priorities. Progress has been made on implementing all of them: Increased focus on Kepa member organisations: greater attention on involving MOs in our work, communications, and member priorities - see Objective 3 below Regional approach: reaching out to Kepa MOs, Finnish embassies and potential partner organisations in the East African Community countries (beginning with mapping of organisations in 2013) - the regional membership mapping and visits to Uganda and Kenya have been done and the two new partnerships for 2014 have a regional scope. Increased integration of 'One Global Kepa' - all Kepa's offices in Nicaragua, Mozambique, Tanzania, Mekong and Finland - through internal team reorganisations and closer cooperation in global working groups: the task groups have been established and are 1 Kepa Tanzania annual report 2013
functioning well. Kepa Tanzania staff participate in the task groups on post-2015, civil society, Kepa's roles as an umbrella organisation, development effectiveness, tax justice, corporate accountability and trade and investment. At the management level all country directors and the Kepa management team form the Global Leadership Group. A reorientation of advocacy themes: Kepa Tanzania dropped the theme climate justice. Fewer advocacy partnerships, and adding one civil society theme partnership: we have only signed three new partnerships, each longer than 6 months, in 2013 (see section 2). Phasing out the Training and Advice Plans as they were not available equally to all Kepa MOs: this has been done and the work on redefining services for members in Tanzania has made progress on shifting the emphasis of work from project advice to operating environment analysis. The job title of Kepa's Project Advisers (PAs) changed to Civil Society Officer (CSOs). Producing wider communications and English-language outputs from our work: we have written more blog entries and columns in English, published writing by our partners and associates, published a Policy Forum briefing paper and a poster in Kiswahili and contributed to partners' and wider Kepa publications. Through improving our working methods and approaches as mentioned above, we hope to make a more effective contribution to Kepa's strategic objectives, discussed below. 2. Progress on Kepa's global programme 2013-15 Strategic objective 1: Kepa and its members will influence political decision-making in order to eradicate poverty and inequality in the world. Kepa Tanzania does this through three main channels: 1) providing research and analysis on Kepa themes for use in Kepa's Finnish advocacy work and publications, 2) supporting Tanzanian and East African partners' advocacy work on Kepa themes, 3) linking Tanzanian and East African CSOs to global networks and processes. 1. Inputs into policy advocacy in Finland: Kepa Tanzania's inputs were used in various advocacy activities in Finland. For example, under tax justice we contributed to our tax alignment, a seminar in November, advocacy training in Finland, campaign materials for parliamentarians and a policy briefing. On corporate accountability we were involved in the formulation and translations of reports on landgrabbing and corporate accountability. Kepa Tanzania s partner organization TANGO (Tanzania Association of NGOs) contributed to a Kepa policy brief on post 2015 process. TANGO gave views of Tanzanian civil society for the Post 2015 agenda. 2. Partnerships: In 2013 Kepa signed three partnerships with East African CSOs. These were a two-year partnership with longstanding partner Tanzania Association of NGOs or TANGO (2013-14); a six-month partnership with the East African Civil Society Forum EACSOF (2014); and a one-year partnership with Reality of Aid Africa (2014). In addition, the 2012 partnership with ANGONET was extended into July 2013. By having fewer, more substantial partnerships we can devote more time and energy into making the most of them. 2 Kepa Tanzania annual report 2013
Under the leadership of our partner organisation TANGO, a group of Tanzanian CSOs has analysed the draft development cooperation framework for Tanzania (TDCF) and provided useful input to the drafters. TANGO has since been recognised as a relevant and reliable actor and were invited by the Ministry of Finance to the final consultation meeting to finalise the TDCF. Several high level delegates have visited TANGO for their insights on the development cooperation issues and the Post 2015 agenda. TANGO have also conducted an analysis of the NGOs legislative regimes that involved over 400 CSOs across the country. The analysis clearly shows impacts of current legislations on CSOs work. TANGO and like-minded organisations are using this analysis in a constructive engagement with Members of Parliament in a bid to influence changes and review of the current NGO legislation. In a similar initiative Kepa partner Arusha NGOs Network (ANGONET) have conducted analysis on corporate accountability in tanzanite mining in Mirerani, leading to constructive engagement with communities and decisionmakers at various levels in Tanzania and internationally. The research sheds light on the complex effects of mining this unique Tanzanian gemstone: the difficulty of assessing whether international and local investors are fulfilling their legal responsibilities; the opportunities and exploitation in the small-scale mining enterprises; the struggle of the local authorities to provide enough services for the people attracted to tanzanite. ANGONET's report and short film were well-received in the community and dissemination events, and we hope to continue this work in 2014. In 2013 we also signed our first civil society topic partnership, with the East African Civil Society Forum EACSOF. The aim is to analyse the legal framework for civil society space in five EAC partner states countries, to be implemented in the first half of 2014. 3. Global networks and processes: Kepa also collaborated with Tanzanian civil society organsiations outside of formal partnerships. We participated as active members in Policy Forum's working groups on local government and budget analysis. Our Budget Working Group briefing paper on general budget support trends in the Tanzanian budget came out in January and was followed up in a development partner- CSO info session in October. Kepa organised another seminar with Policy Forum on Local government systems and structures in November. The event was jointly coordinated and involved members of the Policy Forum Local Government Working Group, Kepa partners, and MOs' partners. A total of 25 participants took part in the seminar. The positive feedback received translates into strengthened CSOs knowledge and understanding of local government structures and functions, and their shortcomings. Policy Forum raised the issue of local government inefficiency in the discussion with Development Partners after the seminar. On trade policy, we have been an active partner in developing the Tanzania Trade and Economic Justice Forum TTEJF's organisation and content. We also joined forces with Tanzanian and international CSOs who work on tax justice, and coordinated our resources to make a coherent training programme for CSOs and media covering 3 Kepa Tanzania annual report 2013
the Tanzanian tax system, natural resources taxation and a hands-on tax research. This informal tax group cooperated on training plans and ideas, pooled mailing lists and contacts, and were invited to support ActionAid's tax justice campaign launch in November. As part of our regional and international networking, Kepa (in Finland and Tanzania) was also actively involved in organising a two-day international seminar on transfer pricing in Dar es Salaam on the 3-4.10, arranged with Tax Justice Network Europe and Agenda Participation 2000, with funds from the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Kepa Tanzania was also invited to a policy roundtable discussion in Nairobi organised by TJN-Africa. Strategic objective 2: Kepa and its membership will work together to influence public opinion in Finland and increase activities by Finnish people for a just world. Activities under this objective take place in Finland. Kepa Tanzania staff contributed to the initiative 'Southern Voices in Global Education', wrote blogs for the Globbarit campaigning network, supported an ETVO-volunteer on background to the country and participated in the August 'Market of Possibilities' event in Kouvola. Civil society officer Asna Mshana's membership blog entry on civil society in the Tanzanian constitution review was the sixth-most read entry of 2013. In addition the Development Association and Turku University received information by email from Kepa Tanzania on the constitution review process. 4 Kepa Tanzania annual report 2013
Strategic objective 3: Kepa will strengthen the operating capacity of its membership Kepa Tanzania does this through sharing information about the working environment in Tanzania on Kepa's website, in meetings and through email. We continued linking member organizations with each other and with local civil society. We are especially happy that we managed to connect several Finnish organizations who work on disability in Tanzania. Kepa Tanzania also linked FinnChurch Aid's (FCA) regional office in Nairobi with Rauhanliitto in Finland. FCA wrote a story for Rauhanliitto on how women s work for peace can have a positive impact on the development of a fragile state (Somalia). FCA`s office in Nairobi has also been in contact with Kepa Helsinki on the same topic. We also used Kepa member organizations expertise in our work, for example in the annual NGO seminar organized jointly with the Embassy of Finland in Dar es Salaam. The topic was Community- Based Natural Resource Management and the well-informed, energising speakers were very wellreceived. It united Finnish and Tanzanian CSOs and Finnish Embassy staff, and was followed by the Embassy-hosted seminar on political and economic updates in Tanzania, and counteracting corruption. The meeting on general budget support in October also created space for dialogue between CSOs and development partners. In 2013 Kepa Tanzania developed a database of Finnish NGOs and their activities in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, which was shared with the MOs. We also interviewed five Kepa member organizations active in the region. As a result we know more about member organizations work and the organizations know more about Kepa and each other. The database and interviews will support us in the ongoing work to develop ways to best support member organizations work in East Africa and Finland. Kepa has also worked closely with MOs, for example publishing blog entries by MO Uhusiano, and about MO Toivala Säätiö's partner DeCo's social accountability monitoring work. One civil society officer co-facilitated the well-received advocacy planning web course together with Helsinki staff. CHAVITA, the partner of the Finnish Association of the Deaf, contributed a case study for the web course on influencing parliamentarians on disability issues. The Finnish Christian Medical Society (FCMS) requested Kepa to participate as an expert in their project exit strategy planning session. This started a vibrant relationship between Kepa Tanzania and FCMS by email. 3. Plans for improvements in 2014 2014 sees the 'middle year' of the current 3-year programme, focused on implementation based on new and improved working methods. In addition to our ongoing work, we endeavour to improve our processes: Participate actively in partnerships and use the findings even more in task groups, publications and capacity building work Follow up on a second civil society partnership and a civil society pilot programme Implementing learning events with Mos and continue the discussion on Kepa s umbrella organization role under the new Kepa strategy Participate in the mid-term review of the Kepa strategy 2012-17 5 Kepa Tanzania annual report 2013
Refine our communications strategy Increase cooperation with Helsinki-based colleagues on member support Capitalise on our new internal cooperation tools as 'One global Kepa' Implement the regional approach through partnerships with EACSOF and RoA, the task group work on trade and investment, and continued communications with the Finnish Embassy in Kenya. If you'd like to stay in touch with Kepa Tanzania and our MOs, you can join Kepa's 'Tansania' email list by sending a blank email message to tansania-l-join@kepa.fi The list is open to anyone interested in Tanzanian development. Most subscribers are Finnish and Tanzanian development actors. 6 Kepa Tanzania annual report 2013