I am the CEO of the Legal Services Facility (LSF) in Tanzania. LSF is an organisation that was established as a basket fund to support organisations in Tanzania, that provide legal aid/legal empowerment and implement directly through a network of paralegals across the country. The Legal Services Facility strives to increase access to justice for all, in particular for women and girls, through a legal empowerment approach. LSF channels funding on equal opportunity basis to organizations which provide legal aid and paralegal services and work toward empowerment of women, children and men.

Through these services, individuals and communities are assisted to ensure that their rights are observed, grievances redressed, disputes resolved and that fundamental human rights are protected. LSF provides funding for activities toward legal empowerment in 170 districts and municipalities of Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar.

We directly and indirectly support more than 200 implementing partners such as regional mentor organizations and paralegal units, strategic and urban grantees, which ensure availability and accessibility of quality legal aid services, legal education and facilitate legal empowerment in the communities they serve.

Our strategic objective is to increase access to justice for all, in particular for women and girls. Key results areas include: • Accessibility of legal services, in particular for women. • Legally empowered communities, in particular women and other marginalized groups. • Conducive environment for legal empowerment. • Institutional sustainability of legal aid provision and legal empowerment.