Building a Unified Movement for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Tanzania
Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Tanzania sit at the intersection of women's rights, children's rights, gender equality, and adolescent health. For years, advocacy in this space remained fragmented, with platforms and networks each focused on individual themes and rarely coordinating around shared agendas. This fragmentation limited the collective voice of civil society and slowed progress on critical SRHR issues affecting women, girls, and young people across the country.
The Tanzania SRHR Coalition is a national network of more than 100 women and children's rights organizations committed to collective action and coordinated advocacy to advance SRHR in Tanzania. The Coalition was formed following a national convening in 2022, where more than 75 SRHR, women's rights, and children's rights actors agreed on the need for intersectionality, common understanding, and unified action. Through that convening, members selected the Doris Mollel Foundation to serve as Coordinator of the Coalition, anchoring its leadership, secretariat, and day to day operations. The Coalition has a technical committee that brings expertise from the coalition members and meets regularly to provide strategic and technical guidance, review progress, and shape shared advocacy priorities across the movement.
DMF leads the strategic direction, planning, and convening of the Coalition, while members contribute their respective expertise across thematic areas, including adolescent health and wellbeing; youth and reproductive maternal health; people with disabilities; women, girls, and children's rights; policy and government engagement; access to health, social, and legal services; and key, vulnerable, and marginalized populations. Members capacitate each other, share skills and strengths in a complementary manner, map and engage stakeholders across government and the private sector, and execute joint activities that strengthen the intersectionality of the movement.
To build collective capacity, the Coalition holds regular convenings, joint trainings, and strategic planning sessions. These convenings are usually held for two days involving comprehensive, Intersectional, and transformative feminist training bringing together participants from across the Coalition to deepen members' understanding of feminist principles, intersectionality, and movement building. Coalition members continue to issue joint statements, develop shared advocacy strategies, and engage in collective campaigns on issues ranging from policy reforms to ending violence against women and children.
Through leading the Tanzania SRHR Coalition, DMF amplifies the collective power of civil society to influence national policy, hold duty bearers accountable, and elevate the voices of women, girls, and young people in Tanzania's reproductive health and rights agenda. The Coalition is part of DMF's broader commitment to coalition building, evidence based advocacy, and putting the rights and wellbeing of women, children, and adolescents at the centre of national decision making.
To join the Coalition or for coalition engagements, please email us at srhr.coalition@dorismollelfoundation.org.