PROJECTS THEMATIC AREAS
PESA currently works in 3 areas of Resilience, Participation and accountability and the area of Social entrepreneurship.
What is resilience?
PESA defines resilience as the ability of people, households, communities and systems to mitigate, adapt to, recover from, and thrive and learn in the face of shocks and stresses, in order to reduce chronic vulnerability and enable sustained development, inclusive growth and learning, and transformative capacity. Achieving resilience is a progressive and long-term process that goes beyond humanitarian relief and development investment by addressing a wider set of inherently connected challenges that together hold the most vulnerable communities back.
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Human development is a core component towards reducing poverty, with the most vulnerable being able to have a voice in decision making processes and have income earning opportunities. Currently, Pastoralist and other marginalized groups have been excluded from decision making processes and policy development. Similarly, Tanzanian youth have been unable to access economic opportunities and the empowerment of girls’ and women’s rights through gender mainstreaming in development has been overlooked.
Tanzania is undergoing a rapid pace of policy change. The new constitution review process, Vision 2025, the National Strategy for Growth and the Reduction of Poverty, the Rural Development Strategy, the Agricultural Sector Development Strategy, a draft Livestock Policy, a new Wildlife Policy, and the Local Government Reform programme are just some of the institutional changes that have taken place in the last five years. Most of the policy maker their mind set is against pastoralism, most view pastoralism as unfriendly to the environment, is unproductive and primitive way of life. Therefore, for the future of pastoralist there is the urgency of lobbying and advocacy to these policy makers to understand pastoralism and for them to accept it as a viable livelihood buy doing this, we can improve the policies hence un enabling environment for the pastoralist to develop
The rapid pace of change has also prevented many citizens from participating in shaping the policy options and directions being proposed by government. As a result, many communities have been left behind. This is particularly true for rural people, and the pastoral and hunter-gatherers’ communities are among them. The theme also seeks to have a wider and longer-term impact by enabling citizens to have the information, skills and tools to participate in governance and decision-making processes by demanding accountability from their Leaders.
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What is Social Entrepreneurship?
Social entrepreneurship is about applying practical, innovative and sustainable approaches to benefit society in general, with an emphasis on those who are marginalized and poor. It captures a unique approach to economic and social problems, an approach that cuts across sectors and disciplines grounded in certain values and processes that are common to each social entrepreneur, independent of whether his/ her area of focus has been education, health, welfare reform, human rights, workers’ rights, environment, economic development, agriculture, etc., or whether the organizations they set up are non-profit or for-profit entities. It is this approach that sets the social entrepreneur apart from the rest of the crowd of well-meaning people and organizations who dedicate their lives to social improvement. PESA uses this approach to attain sustainability of the projects we establish to address communities’ social problems, it includes the groups established within the community through our facilitation.