Evidence shows that civic space in Tanzania and East Africa, in general, is narrowing. In a bid to navigate this, DataShift devised an engagement strategy that targeted National Statistical Offices in Tanzania and Kenya.

We signed up the Tanzanian government to the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data and as a result, a highly successful national data roadmaps workshop sponsored by the GPSDD was held in the country. The key outcome was a multi-stakeholder steering committee that includes civil society to support the domestication, implementation and tracking progress on SDGs. DataShift is a trusted partner of the Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics (TNBS). TNBS has supported a multi-stakeholder process towards the hosting of a national Gender Thematic Forum. Additionally, we are working on a popular version of the Tanzanian Statistics Act to guide civil society that will incorporate guidelines for civil society organisations (CSOs) to improve their citizen-generated data (CGD )collection methodologies, management, and use by policy makers and government decision-makers.

In Kenya our engagements with the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Devolution and Planning, as part of the SDGs Kenya Forum have resulted in the invitation of civil society to contribute to the official Kenya Voluntary National Review of the SDGs that will be presented at this year’s High Level Political Forum (HLPF). We have also been instrumental in technically supporting the Office of the Deputy President in Kenya on a national data for SDGs roadmaps process, advocating for civil society inclusion in the SDGs implementation process.

These engagements have opened doors for creating meaningful civil society partnerships and constructive engagements with government on SDGs in Tanzania and Kenya.