Women and girls in Tanzania face  gender  inequalities and injustices in  social, political, and economic relations and structures that limit their agency to participate in society and claim their rights.  Patriarchal norms and traditions, coupled with gender-blind legal frameworks, perpetuate unequal power relations that create major challenges to achieving socio-economic development in Tanzania.

In this context, The Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) sub-strategy provides goals and actions to promote women’s economic empowerment, advance gender equality, and address social injustices affecting rural women in Tanzania. GEWE is a major component of CARE Tanzania’s Wezesha country office strategy, which seeks to improve the livelihoods  of women in food-insecure rural households dependent on agriculture and natural resources.

GEWE is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030. Women’s empowerment is both a means and solution to each of the SDGs, and a standalone goal to be achieved in every country signed up to the goals:  to  achieve  gender equality and empower all women and girls (SDG No. 5).