CAN Tanzania is a non-governmental and non-profit organization established in 2011 with its headquarters in Dar es Salaam and sub-office in Stone Town Zanzibar. Led by Dr. Sixbert Mwanga, its establishment has been a critical step towards empowering Tanzanians to become aware of climate change sciences and related impacts on their environment. Importantly, the establishment of CAN Tanzania was hinged on a vision of developing a networking structure that would be able to reach a wider community in the country and offer a platform for voices unheard.

The overall objective is to inform, mobilize, advocate and empower the Tanzanian community to collectively raise the national voice in the international climate change debate and take smarter actions to reduce dangerous activities that lead to harmful impacts triggered by climate change.

Today, the organization works with more than 30 Civil Society Organizations across the country and its long-term goal is to empower more communities to take appropriate actions and to adapt to situations under the changing climate through knowledge generation and sharing as well as raising awareness and setting up model projects, which demonstrate how climate change challenges can be addressed across levels and scales to meet the national development goals.

Since its establishment, CAN Tanzania has grown and adapted to the changing contexts both at the national and international levels. Throughout this development and transformation, the organization has faced a number of periods of challenges. However, over the past years CAN Tanzania, with significant support from Bread for the World, has made progress in reforming its objectives and structure to ensure that it can better overcome some of its ongoing challenges as well as being prepared to face new obstacles in the future.

The approach we choose for the realization of our activity implementation does not only consider a national perspective on climate change debates, but rather covers a broader spectrum from the local, and national to the international horizon. This is a result of the experience gained through working with local authorities which has demonstrated relevance in strengthening as well as broadening its operations to enable CAN Tanzania to achieve more in its current and future interventions.

The expansion of this approach works in line with the organization’s new emphasis to work more practically on the ground through the implementation of model projects such as CLRC.  This will be supported by an increased emphasis on conducting research and policy analyses which will enable CAN Tanzania to fulfill its long-term vision of becoming the leading climate change ‘think and do tank’. It will also enable CAN Tanzania to meet the growing need from civil society organizations, local government and the general public for more up-to-date, country-specific climate change information, advice and initiatives

A powerful and inclusive think-and-do tank that ensures a climate-resilient and sustainable ecosystem that is thriving now and into the future.

Grow and strengthen a transformational national network of actors that actively collaborates to protect, manage, and restore ecosystem health, promote environmental stewardship, act on climate change, and support the wise use of natural resources for the benefit of citizens and the ecosystems.