Drive for Democracy Project (former Open Space Project) - Punchline Africa Drive for Democracy Projektet (tidigare Open Space Projektet) Open Civic Space project – to increase democratic dialogue

The principles of democracy and human rights are on a downward trend in Tanzania. As in many other countries the democratic space is shrinking at a fast pace. A repressive and authoritarian state is nothing new in Tanzania and cannot only be attributed to the fifth phase president, but it is without any doubt that Tanzania since 2015 has turned into a country that more openly and harshly uses the state machinery to increase control over oversight functions in society and go after persons with opposing views. This should be seen both as a consequence of a liberation party doing what is needed to stay in power (also an issue for previous Presidents) and  the personality of the present President - authoritarian rule with a nationalistic and moralistic agenda. The leadership accepts no personal critique and has continued to shut down democratic space and to apply an increasingly controlling leadership. The popular and probably genuine fight against corruption, which has been made the current presidents trademark, has not been followed by a corresponding agenda for improved transparency.

Against this background the Embassy is now reviewing its work on human rights and democracy within the development cooperation portfolio as well as seeking synergies with political dialogue and events planned for 2018. The questions at hand are how we can reshape what we do in order to mitigate the situation better and how all sections at the Embassy can work even more effective together to achieve this. New approaches and innovative actions are necessary. In the project called “Open space” the Embassy aims at using its whole tool box (contributions, synergies, regional/global contacts, dialogue, networking, events, support to change agents, alliance building, leadership, seek new "out-of-the-box" partnerships, create common interest platforms, ITP courses, experiences from other embassies etc) in efforts to counteract the negative trends and the closing space in Tanzania. 

The actual costs incurred for the project  is an estimation and will be constitute a variety of procured services and other related costs still undetermined in detail. Additional support to civil society organisations will for the most parts be handled under the actual CSO contributions. However, the project will include also these activities in the total assessment of the actions and results. Since the launching of the current development cooperation strategy the Embassy has developed a human rights portfolio to support human rights defenders, children’s rights (focus on the right to education and social protection), freedom of expression with an emphasis on local journalists and media council, women´s and young people´s rights. The Mid Term review of the Strategy in 2017 showed that this portfolio composition is still relevant and should continue but with an increased support of capacities of human rights defenders and promoters. This will be done both through adding support to existing key partners in these areas as well as expanding the portfolio to include some more actors. The Embassy also intends to tie clearer bonds with the Swedish funded global and regional actors supporting human rights defenders in Tanzania and engage Swedish civil society to a larger extent.Contributions alone for civil society and state actors are not assessed as enough in the current situation. With a variety of methods and strategies the Embassy will more broadly contribute to increased understanding of the importance of civic space for a democratic discourse and the active fight against corruption in Tanzania. The Embassy will engage civil society (in its own right) and state actors alike to alleviate the understanding between diverse positions. The Embassy intends to take lead on the issue of shrinking democratic space and make sure it gets priority, also by engaging other development partners. The Embassy intends to utilize its mandate and broader tool box to increasingly provide space for expressions of and dialogues on human rights and civic space. This may be through organizing events and occasions for people to meet, share and inspire each other, it may entail creation of forum(s) through partners, or by encouraging partners to jointly approach an issue or a challenge. The intention is that human rights should increasingly permeate all activities organized or initiated by the embassy, be it political, on development cooperation or in the area of promotion of Sweden.Main message: An open civic space which allows for a multitude of voices and opinions are necessary when fighting corruption and making Tanzania a modern, industrialized, middle income country. Strategies: 	1) Speak out on human rights and open space2) Support civil society organizations to organize themselves on shrinking space3) Encourage collective actions for open space	4) On our own, or with like-minded, engage in dialogue with state actors and other stakeholders5) Provide neutral arenas (small and larger setting) for meetings and dialogue between actors6) Effective use of Swedish funded small and fast contributions in Tanzania7) Effective use of Swedish supported global and regional actors which can assist human right defendersProject set-up: The Project will be discussed at different levels in the organisation and include: - Reference Group: one or two external persons with good knowledge in good governance for further risk analysis, back stopping, in-puts, contacts and suggestions - engaged on consultant basis.- Management Group: Decision making and the formal steering of the project.- Communications Group: For aligning with all communication activities.  - DCD and RAG 3: For handling of related contributions, coordination and dialogue with partners. - Specific Project meetings every three months: Project leader, Communications Officer, PO Governance/Human Rights, Political Councillor and reference persons/s.  - A part-time Embassy internal Project leader handles the coordination, administration, set-up of meetings and events, contribution in Trac etc. An alternative could be to let the Project leading alter between the POs in RAG 3. Given the potential of political sensitivity to some of the actions, risks of doing-harm and the level of transparency of the various actions will be considers carefully for each intervention. This is an internal Embassy of Sweden (EoS) project with an objective of ensuring all sections of the EoS counteract, in the ways that are possible depending on their areas of responsibility and to support democratic development and the re-opning of the civic space in Tanzania. The Embassy aims at using its whole tool box (contributions, synergies, regional/global contacts, dialogue, networking, events etc.) to contribute to this objective. It is also an integrated part of the Embassy's implementation of the Swedish MFA's Drive for Democracy as well as the Democracy Assignment at Sida.