The International Journal
of Not-for-Profit Law

Volume 4, Issue 1, September 2001

In July 2001 TANGO, the Tanzanian NGO umbrella organization, held the first ever National NGO Forum for Tanzania. The Forum was attended by NGOs from all over Tanzania, and by government officials, including the Permanent Secretary in the Vice President’s Office, who oversees the NGO Bureau. There were speeches by donors, describing their funding programs, a discussion of tax legislation (led by Lee Irish and Karla Simon of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law), a discussion of NGO capacity-building (led by T.S. Muyoya of MWENGO), working groups on a variety of practical issues, and a very successful NGO fair. Led by the Chief Executive of TANGO, Mary Mwingira, the Forum was an excellent opportunity for Tanzanian NGO leaders to come together and express their concerns.

One of the issues at the Forum was the draft Code of Conduct, presented by TANGO for discussion. The Code is based on extensive research by TANGO staff into other codes of conduct in Africa (Botswana, South Africa, and Ethiopia, for example) as well as in Europe and the US. While it is not yet complete and must go through a lengthy consultative process, this first effort to establish a code of conduct for NGOs in Tanzania.