This was a three years project with the Overall Objectives to secure income and livelihood opportunities for PFM (Participatory Forest Management) villagers in return for conserving critically important forest habitat. It was supported by African Wildlife Foundation to support the community and Longido District Council to establish Joint Forest Management in Gilai and Ketumbeine Forest.

The process has several main steps which included activities such as; Community sensitization and mobilization meetings, participatory forest boundary resurvey, demarcation, mapping and beaconing, forest inventories, development of forest management plan and by laws and joint forest management agreement. Therefore AWF engaged the Longido District Council to implement the activity.

AWF provided financial support to enable LCDO to facilitate logistics during the implementation of the activities.

Strengthening Democratic Practices through Adult Civic Education among
Maasai women and men in Longido District in Tanzania.

This project was funded by UNDEF (United Nations Democracy Fund)and it aimed to ensure Maasai women and men’s effective participation in civic and democratic processes through awareness raising activities and civic education workshops for Maasai community members. The project will try to improve the decision-making processes by training local leaders, holding community dialogue meetings, establishing community watch-dog groups. Cultural institutions such as Ilagwanak, Council of Elders, local government institutions, and influential individuals will be involved in order to gain recognition of women into democratic political forums.

Among the local population in Tanzania, in particular in the pastoralist Maasai communities, civic education is always perceived as being closely connected to politics. As a result, the contributions that could be made by civic education to development are not clearly understood. This culminates in an increased restriction of the freedom of expression, poor participation in political and civic processes, and failure to assume the roles, rights and responsibilities of citizenship in democratic systems.

Longido Community Development Organization (LCDO) aims to implement this two-year project on strengthening democratic practices through an Adult Civic Education targeting the marginalized and underrepresented Maasai women and men in Longido district. The project focuses on improving democratic practices through enhancing civic engagement among community members as an instrument for improving community social-economic growth.