Advocacy

UCRT works to improve national policies and promote good governance through:

Policy Advocacy

Informing policy and law-makers about how best to help communities realise their needs and secure their rights;

Community Leadership

Building community leadership that is accountable to their constituencies at the grassroots level.

Women's Representation

Increasing women's representation in decision-making bodies at the local level.

We participate in different regional and international conferences to raise awareness and strengthen our advocacy work. For example, two members of UCRT joined the 2009 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference of parties in Copenhagen, representing Tanzanian interests in international climate negotiations. In 2012, a delegation comprising of UCRT staff and other pastoralist and hunter-gatherer community organizations carried out visits to parliament and met with MP's and President Kikwete. In addition, in 2025 we were formally invited to help in the land discussions UCRT supported a rare and powerful moment of direct dialogue between Ngorongoro community representatives and the President of Tanzania, Her Excellency Samia Suluhu Hassan. Community voices centered on defending rights to over 1,500 km² of customary land in Loliondo and raised concerns over the relocation of residents from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area to Msomera. The result: the President established two independent commissions to investigate these issues—an important step toward transparency and community-centered land governance. In 2025, we also became an IUCN IP Member giving us voting rights and key attendance of formal conferences that leverage the voices and the rights of IPLCs in funding opportunities and to influence favourable policy.

We form part of the Tanzania Land Alliance (TALA), which primarily carries out lobbying and advocacy with government at a national level. We are also part of the Katiba Intiative (KAI), a newly established network of all CSOs working with hunter-gatherers and pastoralists. The network works to promote community land and natural resource interests in Tanzania’s constitutional reform process.