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Rakesh Rajani રાકેશ રજની | |
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Born | c. 1966 (age 57–58) [1] |
Education | International School Moshi [1] |
Alma mater | Brandeis University (B.A.) Harvard University (M.T.S.) |
Occupation(s) | Exec. Dir., HakiElimu (2001-07) Head, Twaweza (2009-14) Director, Ford Foundation (2015–2018) Vice President, Co-Impact (2018–2023) President, Just Systems (2023–Present) |
Spouse | Margaret Bangser |
Children | Amar and Chhaya |
Parent(s) | Rasiklal and Indira Rajani |
Rakesh Rajani (born in 1966) is a Tanzanian civil society leader. Rajani has established and led key social initiatives in the evolution of education in Tanzania and East Africa since 1991. He has worked with Haki Elimu as an advocate for young people through education, as well as with open government, ICT, and the organizations Twaweza, and Uwezo. Rajani is known for his expertise in the field for International Development work, particularly related to child rights, education, democracy, and open government in East Africa.
Rajani was born in Tanzania in circa 1966 where he completed his primary and secondary education, graduating from the International School Moshi in 1985. He was then awarded the Wien Scholarship [2] and began his university studies in the United States. In 1989, he graduated from Brandeis University with a BA in Philosophy and English Literature and in 1991 he graduated from Harvard University with an MTS in Theology. [3] While studying at Brandeis and Harvard, Rajani was part of the Catholic Worker movement at Haley House in Boston, Massachusetts.
From 1991 to 1998 Rajani co-founded and served as the first executive director of the Kuleana Centre for Children's Rights in his hometown of Mwanza, Tanzania. The organization worked with "street children" and advocated for children's interests across the country. This work concluded that a lack of rights caused the deprivation of these children. [4] It received the Maurice Pate Award [5] but is now largely defunct.
After Kuleana, Rajani served as a resident fellow at Harvard University's Center for Population and Development Studies and the Human Rights Program of the Harvard Law School from 1998 to 2000. He continued as a non-resident fellow for many years and served as an associate of the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS from 2006 to 2009.
In 2001, Rajani founded Haki Elimu and served as its executive director. Early on, the organization offered advice on the primary education and secondary education development plans (PEDP and SEDP) that led to the expansion of government primary and secondary schooling in Tanzania throughout the 2000-2010 decade. Rajani also co-edited two volumes of speeches and papers on education by Julius Nyerere, Tanzania's founding president. [6] Rajani stepped down as executive director at the end of 2007 but continued some work with the organization through its Board until 2009. [7]
After leaving HakiElimu, in 2008 and 2009 Rajani worked as a consultant with Hivos, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Google.org, and other agencies. His main work involved researching and advising on strengthening citizen driven accountability in East Africa. This work led to the formation of Twaweza in 2009, a program to promote access to information, citizen agency and better service delivery in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Through this Rajani played a key role in helping set up the Open Government Partnership, where he served as the civil society chairman for two years. One of Twaweza's major projects is Uwezo, which undertakes a large-scale assessment of basic literacy and numeracy in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania regularly. The World Bank Development Report in 2018 [8] was anchored in the main finding of this work. Another major program of the work started under Rajani's leadership is Africa's first nationally representative mobile phone survey, known as Sauti ya Wananchi (Citizen's Voices) [9] which regularly collects and publishes independent and scientifically credible data.
Rajani stepped down from Twaweza in December 2014 and became director of the Democratic Participation and Governance program at the Ford Foundation in New York, USA in January 2015, charged with strengthening the organization's global engagement. [10] From 2014 until 2015, Rajani served on United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Independent Expert Advisory Group on the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development, co-chaired by Enrico Giovannini and Robin Li. [11]
Rajani married in 1998 and has two children, Amar and Chhaya. Rajani was born into a Hindu family and converted to Christianity. [1] He lives with his family in New York. [12]
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to the south; Zambia to the southwest; and Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, is in northeastern Tanzania. According to the 2022 national census, Tanzania has a population of nearly 62 million, making it the most populous country located entirely south of the equator.
Julius Kambarage Nyerere was a Tanzanian anti-colonial activist, politician and political theorist. He governed Tanganyika as prime minister from 1961 to 1962 and then as president from 1962 to 1964, after which he led its successor state, Tanzania, as president from 1964 to 1985. He was a founding member and chair of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) party, and of its successor Chama Cha Mapinduzi, from 1954 to 1990. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he promoted a political philosophy known as Ujamaa.
African socialism or Afrosocialism is a belief in sharing economic resources in a traditional African way, as distinct from classical socialism. Many African politicians of the 1950s and 1960s professed their support for African socialism, although definitions and interpretations of this term varied considerably. These politicians include Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, and Modibo Keita of Mali, among others.
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Nancy Abraham Sumari is a Tanzanian author, business woman, social entrepreneur and beauty pageant titleholder. She is the Managing Director of Bongo5 Media Group (T) Ltd, The Executive Director of The Neghesti Sumari Foundation and The Jenga Hub, as well as a published author of the children's book series, Nyota Yako. In 2017 Africa Youth Awards named her among the 100 Most Influential Young Africans.
Education in Tanzania is provided by both the public and private sectors, starting with pre-primary education, followed by primary, secondary ordinary, secondary advanced, and ideally, university level education. Free and accessible education is a human right in Tanzania. The Tanzanian government began to emphasize the importance of education shortly after its independence in 1961. Curriculum is standardized by level, and it is the basis for the national examinations. Achievement levels are important, yet there are various causes of children not receiving the education that they need, including the need to help families with work, poor accessibility, and a variety of learning disabilities. While there is a lack of resources for special needs education, Tanzania has committed to inclusive education and attention on disadvantaged learners, as pointed out in the 2006 Education Sector Review AIDE-MEMORE. The government's National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty in 2005 heavily emphasized on education and literacy.
Ujamaa was a socialist ideology that formed the basis of Julius Nyerere's social and economic development policies in Tanzania after it gained independence from Britain in 1961.
Penina Muhando, also known as Penina Mlama, is a Tanzanian Kiswahili playwright, a theorist and practitioner of Theatre for Development in Tanzania.
Maria Nyerere served as the inaugural First Lady of Tanzania from 1964 to 1985. She was the seventh of nine children of Mr. Gabriel Magige, of Baraki, Tareme and his wife Hannah Nyashiboha.
Horace Kolimba was a Tanzanian CCM politician.
General elections were held in Tanzania on 25 October 2015. Voters elected the president, members of Parliament, and local government councillors. By convention, the election was held on the last Sunday of October and was supervised by the National Electoral Commission (NEC). Political campaigns commenced on 22 August and ceased a day before the elections.
Elieshi Lema is a Tanzanian writer and publisher, also active in Tanzania's civil society.
Tanzania Social Support Foundation (TSSF) is a non-governmental organization which is primarily and duly registered under the Non-Governmental Organisations' Act, [Cap.56 R.E 2019] of the Laws of the United Republic of Tanzania. The TSSF is legally a body corporate that is mandated to operate in whole of the part of the United Republic of Tanzania as the National oriented Non-Governmental Organization. Since its permanent incorporation on 7 March 2014, the TSSF has been focusing on promotion of Diplomacy, Economic Development, Education, Environment, Good Governance, Healthcare, Social Support and Tourism.
Tanzania–United Kingdom relations are bilateral relations between Tanzania and the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom has historically been a partner of Tanzania in many areas, particularly trade and security.
Marjorie Mbiliniyi is a scholar, feminist and gender activist. She was born in New York and studied educational sciences before settling in Dar-es-Salaam and became a citizen of Tanzania after married a Tanzanian. She worked at the Department of Education at Dar-es-Salaam university. Mbiliniyi has dedicate herself to collaborate with and organize women to fight against patriarchy and neo-liberalism in Tanzania and beyond. She worked as a lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam where she retired in 2003. After her retirement from academia, she served as the Principal Policy Analyst at the Tanzania Gender Networking Program; later known as TGNP Mtandao from 2004–2014.
MV Nyerere is a Tanzanian ferry that capsized on 20 September 2018 while travelling between the islands of Ukerewe and Ukara on Lake Victoria. The Tanzanian government have declared that 228 people died as a result of the capsizing while 41 could be rescued. The capsized ferry was successfully righted, retrieved and unloaded more than one week after the disaster.
Ubongo is a social enterprise based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania that creates edutainment and educational children’s television series in Africa. They produce two shows: Ubongo Kids, for 7-12 year olds, and Akili and Me, for 3-6 year olds. In the five years since the first episode of Ubongo Kids aired, Ubongo’s shows have become relatively popular in Africa, receiving 11 million viewers a week in 9 different African countries.
Isaya Yunge is a Tanzanian internet entrepreneur, speaker and first African J8 delegate to speak at the G8 2007 Summit. He was one of the two Tanzanians who received the Queen's Young Leader Award in 2018 as a recognition for his work to use a scholarship-matching mobile App (SomaApp) that help more than 7000 young African people to progress in their education. He co-founded SomaApp a mobile application which enables African students to search for scholarships.