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Our Stories
A united civil society voice for equality education in Tanzania: So They Can featured by TENMET
Published 8th Jan, 2026
The So They Can team was delighted that our Tanzanian colleagues were recently featured in several of TENMET’s key reports for 2025! So They Can was also invited to sit on two panels at TENMET’s 5th International Quality Education Conference (IQEC) in September 2025: “Strengthening Systems and Investments: Advancing Domestic Resource Mobilization for Inclusive, Quality and Sustainable Education in Africa”.
The Tanzania Education Network/Mtandao wa Elimu Tanzania (TEN/MET) was founded in 1999 and is a national network of 255 Tanzanian CSO members working in the education sector. So They Can joined TENMET as a member in 2015. Working as a united civil society voice for quality education, TENMET provides pivotal opportunities for its 255 members to regularly come together and ask: how can we leverage our on-the-ground experience to inform and influence policies at a systems level?
With TENMET itself a part of ANCEFA or the Africa Network Campaign on Education – there is also exciting potential to see how TENMET’s education policy learnings might be further disseminated and emulated across the African Continent.
Divided into both regional zones and thematic caucus’, So They Can submits reports every quarter to a growing and influential database on investment, infrastructure and advocacy for girls’ education in Tanzania. It was through this TENMET led process, that a major breakthrough policy was achieved in 2024. For the first time ever, young girls who had fallen pregnant in Tanzania were allowed to complete their schooling. This historic movement was only possible due to a groundswell of collaboration between NGOs, local, regional and national government.
In addition to representing So They Can’s dedication to gender equality in Tanzania, So They Can’s membership with TENMET underscores our firm belief that in order to create sustainable and long-term change, our model must be in line with local, regional or national policies in the areas where we work. Collaborating with other NGOs and CSOs in the sector also represents an important opportunity to strategically learn from other NGOs, engage in shared advocacy, research, and mobilise shared resources.
Congratulations to the So They Can Tanzania team for their ongoing commitment to quality education and girls rights in the Manyara Region of Tanzania!
Feature image: Panel Discussion: “Motivating Teachers Where They Are Needed Most: Incentives for Serving Rural and Hard-to-Reach Communities” at the 2025 International Quality Education Conference (IQEC) featuring So They Can’s Grace Swai (Education Programme Manager, So They Can Tanzania), Edward Wawa (Assistant Director, Teacher Training, MoEST), Peter Maina (School Teacher, Sunray Pre and Primary School) and moderated by Nicodemus Shauri (Executive Director, Maarifa ni Ufunguo).
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So They Can is accredited by the Australian department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), responsible for managing the Australian government’s development program. So They Can receives support through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).
So They Can is a registered charity in Australia (ABN 91 138 063 475), New Zealand (CC # 45673), a registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit in the USA (EIN 47-1079440), and a UK charity with the Registered Charity Number 1213084.