DSW Tanzania is a DSW Country Office registered as a development and advocacy organization. Our goal is to enable people to decide freely and responsibly about the number and spacing of their children. We believe that a person’s access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is both a fundamental human right and a crucial step towards eliminating global poverty. Our focus is on achieving universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), which is fundamental to improving health and fighting poverty.
We work with the Government to support communities around Tanzania on issues related to population dynamics. DSW’s vision is for a healthy and sustainable world in which all young people can realize their full potential. DSW applies a three-tiered strategy of advocacy, capacity development, & service delivery in designing and implementation of evidence-based and cost-effective projects. Our beneficiaries are young people, women, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Decision makers, Health Services Providers, Government institutions and vulnerable communities.
DSW Tanzania was officially registered in 2006 and maintains a Head Office in Arusha Region as well as a liaison Office in Dar es Salaam. We operates in ten Regions: Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Manyara, Kilimanjaro, Mtwara, Lindi, Tanga, Shinyanga, Mara, and Dodoma.
In the past ten years, DSW Tanzania has worked with partners to support communities and has changed lives with positive results/outcomes. The design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation have been inclusive of stakeholders in our programming. A snap short of these achievements are:
Expand our reach by replicating and up scaling successful approaches and making them accessible, especially to vulnerable populations.
Investing in young people SRHR. To achieve universal access to SRHR information, services and supplies. DSW provides Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) to equip young people with knowledge and skills to improve their health through smart choices and overall wellbeing. DSW uses its Youth-to-Youth (Y2Y) approach of transferring knowledge and information to youth and communities through a peer approach. The approach has been sighted as best practice by a number of stakeholders.
Youth as agents of change: We build the individual competences, collective capabilities and overall capacity of adolescent and youth serving CSOs necessary to advocate effectively for the development and implementation of adolescent and youth sensitive SRHR policies, programs and budgets as well as participation in decision-making processes.
Work for improved and equal access to sustainable socio-economic opportunities: DSW implementing intervention seeking to promote young people and women health, promote social protection and improved livelihood. Through economic empowerment, advocacy, life skills, property rights, employment, decent work and SRHR we are contributing to increased young people and women engaged in sustainable income generating activities, employment and self-employment
Advocating for better SRHR policies, budgets and programs. We are engaging with government at National and Subnational levels to pro-poor invest into family planning gaps. Civic education for health, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) capacity development on advocacy and resources mobilization, policy analysis and budget studies approaches are used to ensure evidence based advocacy, meaningful engagement and accountability.
Enhancing citizen’s engagement through public dialogues: Through Civic Education for Health, we have supported citizens’ engagement in health decision making processes through the facilitation of public dialogues. More outcomes of Civic Education for Health include active citizens’ participation in health decision making, increased awareness on spaces for participation and health rights as well as improved accountability and good governance.
Resources Center Establishment: Our Youth Training and Development Centre with 100 people max sitting capacity was established in 2013. Offering a range of courses on SRHR, leadership, advocacy, project management, Monitoring and Evaluation, resources mobilization to our beneficiaries. We have also developed a range of curriculums to facilitate capacity building.
Embedding youth and women in to local structures: From 2013 DSW Tanzania is operating 5 Youth Empowerment Centers (YECs) and 2 Women and Girls Empowerment Centers (WECs). These are permanent community-owned centers that facilitate youth clubs and women group’s coordination and act as service delivery points for education, information dissemination, referral and consultations.
Civil Society Capacity Strengthening.DSW enhances CSOs effectiveness and efficiency through provision of capacity building coupled with mentoring and coaching. Our support activities working towards improving internal working organization; improving planning and financial management; governance and accountability, resources mobilization and youth programing. Parallel with capacity strengthening, DSW has contributed to the creation and enhancement of networks and collaborations amongst CSOs and other partners.
Contribute to strengthening health systems: DSW has strengthens health systems to improve access to sexual and reproductive health services. We support health facilities and enhanced the capacity services providers in Youth Friendly Services.Moreover,DSW enhances the capacity of local government officials to support youth focused SRH project and integration of youth and women in decision making process on health as well as in accessing local resources.
