Tanzania Stories From The Field: Women are decision makers in the East Usambara Eco-Village Project

There are countless hidden gems to be discovered in the Amani Forest Nature Reserve, located 500 kilometres north-east from the capital of Dodoma. The area forms part of the Eastern Arc mountain ranges and is teeming with sunbirds, tree frogs, chameleons, colobus monkeys and African violets. Known as the Galapagos of Africa due to its rich bio-diversity, there really is

nowhere quite like it on earth. It is here that the Integrated Approaches for Climate Change Adaptation in the East

Usambara Mountains Project, funded by the European Union has been working alongside Muheza District and eight villages to implement climatechange adaptation activities, which all have a gender focus. The project plans state that at least half the village

participants must be women and activities carried out have seen women transform from being silent bystanders to having a voice in community decisions.

The GCCA Tanzania programme started with the first phase from 2011 to 2013, during which three community-level projects on climate change adaptation were funded: (i) Resilient Landscapes for Resilient Communities in Pemba;  (ii) Empowering Vulnerable Rural Communities to Adapt and Mitigate the Impacts of Climate Change in Central Tanzania; and (iii) Enhancing Climate change adaptation and mitigation capacities of vulnerable communities in eco-villages of different ecosystems of the Uluguru Mountains. All three projects used the eco-village approach to increase the climate change resilience of the target communities.

The second phase of GCCA Tanzania built on the first phase and sought to extend the eco-village approach. Through an open call for proposals with detailed guidelines, 5 projects were selected and funded, with implementation periods from 2015 to 2019. The East Usambara Project is one of them. Villagers continue to carry out an eco-village approach.