{"id":16,"date":"2024-02-16T13:45:47","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T13:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.agentz.org\/?page_id=16"},"modified":"2024-02-18T13:34:41","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T13:34:41","slug":"our-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.agentz.org\/index.php\/our-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Our History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The United States of America is a land of opportunity for serving the poor from across the world. The philosophy is about creating opportunities for the disadvantaged to move out of poverty. As such, AGEN-USA Inc oversees global operations. Meanwhile, Affirmative action on Gender Equality Network (AGEN) oversees operations in Tanzania and the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our history is an interesting one: a group of US and Tanzanian fulbrighters established AGEN in Sub-Saharah Africa and then launched AGEN-USA Inc. in America. AGEN-USA Inc and AGEN are a product of innovation. The initial driving force for AGEN and AGEN-USA Inc.\u2019s establishment was to foster cooperation among the U.S Department of State Alumni in Tanzania and USA to make changes to the diaspora society in USA and marginalized societies across Sub-Saharan Africa. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The. founders made use of a call by the United States of America Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF) of the US Department of State to come up with innovative ideas. The fund was launched on February 16, 2011, by the AEIF State Alumni Team to address global issues on a local, national, regional, or international level. Proposals in the following categories or combination thereof were considered: Democracy and human rights; Economic opportunity and prosperity; Food security; Promoting a cleaner environment; Women\u2019s empowerment; Global health; and Outreach to marginalized communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All alumni members were encouraged to work collaboratively through State Alumni to recruit team members, mentor one another, or comment on posted project ideas. As part of the global community of alumni, members could offer advice and share information with one another to improve submitted project ideas.  On April 4, 2011, State Alumni announced the finalists of AEIF. The AGEN and AGEN-USA Inc project was among the 137 finalists of nearly 700 project ideas that were submitted for the first phase of the AEIF. The project idea became the most voted project of all finalist projects submitted in Africa. The project led by a significant huge margin (180 votes by 89 vote of the second most voted project) meaning that it was the most liked project idea in the whole continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 23, the project was announced as one of the 38 winners of the AEIF and received an award of $25,000; this award was used to raise more than $300,000 grassroots resources and impacted the lives of 400 rural entrepreneurs and over 120 scholars and activists from across the globe. Our innovation gained its innovative status after going through a review by regional specialists, feedback from U.S. Missions, voting from State Alumni members, and a final evaluation by a U.S. Department of State review panel. A wide range of factors was considered: the feasibility of the project within the time frame specified, appropriate budget items, and how well a project met the proposed category. Of all the projects that initially suggested the creation of a Grameen Bank-like model for women\u2019s microfinance (or more broadly for microfinance for women, youth, or marginalized communities) that were submitted, or that remained in the final 137, AGEN&AGEN-USA Inc project was the only project that made it to the final round of AEIF. The key difference for the project, as judged by AEIF officials, was the degree of alumni and other team members\u2019 involvement in the training of the women entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the beginning of AEIF, Dr. Rasel Madaha encouraged team members to expand their collaboration to include all like-minded state alumni scholars from the U.S. and Africa to dedicate their expertise and experience to grassroots efforts of women in Tanzania with a hope of expanding to the rest of Sub-Saharan at the end of AEIF. Nevertheless, the initial idea, shaped by all of the team members, evolved into a new more innovative idea dedicated to linking the US diaspora and grassroots women of Tanzania and the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa. The initial project was called, \u201cWomen Empowerment in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa through Capacity Building and Training.\u201d The project continues to empower over 100 women entrepreneurs in Tanzania.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was expected that the initial project, in Tanzania, would lead to the creation of a model that could be used elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa where grassroots women continue to be trapped in extreme poverty despite countless development efforts aimed at uplifting them out of the cycle. It was believed by the founders that in order to successfully share success from the Tanzanian project to those elsewhere in Africa, the creation of NGO was of great importance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Often times, abbreviations stand for keywords or phrases only. Affirmative action (A) refers to a member\u2019s commitment to advocating for policies and actions that take into account equalities of all people regardless of their sex, race, color, religion, national origin, and all other bases of discrimination. But our emphasis is to dedicate all our actions and interventions to ensure women\u2019s empowerment as a means to counter the effects of a history of women\u2019s discrimination. \u201cAffirmative action\u201d is one key inseparable phrase that was used for the first time in the U.S by President Kennedy to rectify inequalities in the 1960s. The word Gender (G) refers to members\u2019 commitment to improving relationships between men and women. Equality (E) refers to members\u2019 commitment to ensuring equality in all aspects of life and finally, Network (N) refers to members\u2019 commitment to networking with people with like-mind whether they are individuals, groups or institutions across the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One month after the AGEN team won the AEIF grant members managed to officially register AGEN in Tanzania, as a not-for-profit, on June 22, 2011, with registration number 000NGO\/00004708. Members acknowledge the role played by a dedicated member, the late Dr. James Jesse towards his efforts that resulted in the registration of AGEN. Dr. Jesse was a renowned Tanzanian lawyer with expertise in International and Human Rights Law. Members also acknowledge the role played by Dr. Rehema Monko, Dr. Elinami Swai, and Mr. Felix Mlaki who introduced AGEN to Tanzanians through a local Television show in the most-watched TV in Tanzania and East Africa, the Independent Television (ITV) in its \u2018Uchumi Wetu\u2019<\/em> broadcast on June 24, 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 2\/06\/2012 AGEN-USA Inc. was incorporated by a US steering committee led by Dr. Rasel Madaha; other members of the steering committee (all of them are the African diaspora living in USA) include Divine Maragijimana, Dr. Christopher Zambakari, and Prof. Hodan S. Isse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, AGEN-USA Inc and AGEN link the diaspora in the USA with marginalized people in sub-Saharan Africa. AGEN-USA inc and AGEN engage in a number of projects including: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Women and men socio-economic empowerment<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Gender Issues and Mainstreaming<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Sustainable Rural and Community Development<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Poverty reduction<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Agriculture and Food Security<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Community development<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Rotating and Savings Associations<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Agroecology<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Water and sanitation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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    The United States of America is a land of opportunity for serving the poor from across the world. The philosophy is about creating opportunities for the disadvantaged to move out of poverty. As such, AGEN-USA Inc oversees global operations. Meanwhile, Affirmative action on Gender Equality Network (AGEN) oversees operations in Tanzania and the rest of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-16","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agentz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agentz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agentz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agentz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agentz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.agentz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96,"href":"https:\/\/www.agentz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16\/revisions\/96"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agentz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}