2015, A YEAR OF EXPANSION FOR WFT

The past year was a year of expansion for WFT. Our recognition as an organization fighting for gender equality has grown tremendously. Not only were we able to increase our grant reach to new regions in Tanzania, but we were also able to give out financially bigger grants. Lastly we were able to increase our amount of grantees (see Figure 2). This is the result of a growing robust, diverse and sustainable funding/resource base

We further expanded our coalition base; we have been receiving a lot of positive feedback from prospective donors; we were invited to take part and attend various meetings and platforms to engage in gender equality discussions; we have become an authority that various media houses call upon to seek opinions in matters of gender equality; and we received more grant proposals than any other year.

This has also become our biggest challenge and it is clear that with the implementation of the new SP for the period 2016 – 2020 we need to fully focus on bringing in more funding. As we know, with more recognition comes more expectations and responsibility that we would like to fulfill.

We all need to remember that women’s rights are part of human rights. We cannot separate the 2! We want to see a Tanzania that is equal for all and gender balanced. For the past 50 years of our independence we have been moving quite slowly with mostly male leaders. We hope the involvement of more women, new thinking and new strategies will be able to help us grow as a country.