For the past 30 years Shamshad has worked to strengthen Civil Society in East Africa and South Asia in the fields of human rights and democratization focusing on good governance, gender equality and constitutionalism as a trainer, grant-maker, program manager, director and consultant. The biggest part of Shamshad’s work has evolved around civil society engagement particularly as one of the founding and active members of successful Women Rights Organizations, namely, Tanzania Women Lawyer’s Association (TAWLA) and Kilimanjaro Women Information and Consultancy Organization (KWIECO). As program manager and grant maker for International Development Organizations such as Oxfam (2001-2008) and Open Society Initiative of Eastern Africa (2010-2013), Shamshad closely collaborated and worked with prominent civil society organizations as well as government departments, the academia, development partners and other INGOs in East Africa and Pakistan engaging in capacity development and advocacy on human rights focusing on gender equality and access to justice by marginalized women and issues of good governance.

 

Besides being an active member of the Women Constitution Rights, Elections, and Women Leadership and the Anti-Sextortion Coalitions in Tanzania, as a Consultant and Trainer, Shamshad has undertaken assignments from a variety of donors, international agencies and national NGOs for divergent assignments. These have included external evaluations of end of project development programs, situational analysis of the Tanzania’s women movement, gender assessment of organizational structures, institutional policies and strategic plans. She has facilitated inclusive and consultative development of strategic for women rights organizations, developed tailor-made modules and human rights-based approaches and gender mainstreaming training for staff of partner organizations of INGOs, and has carried out participatory organizational assessments of NGOs and recommendations for re-structuring for better and efficient delivery. She has undertaken Policy and Human Rights context analysis in Tanzania for identifying opportunities and challenges for CSOs working on different human rights issues in the country, and providing recommendations on the guiding principles, channels of support as well as looking at untapped opportunities by development partners. Her milestone consultancy assignment is the Situational Analysis of Women’s Movement in Tanzania wherein she undertook analytical and exploratory work that facilitated the understanding of the current state of women’s movement in Tanzania, provided baseline information, and a conceptual framework that informed programming options for development partners for supporting women’s movement building in Tanzania, as well as for the women movement on how to build on what has been achieved, for a robust and sustained movement.

 

Shamshad’s areas of specialization include:

• Project Cycle Management, Program Monitoring and Evaluation

• Country Program development and management of humanitarian and multi-cultural/ethnic contexts.

• Participatory Strategic Planning and Development of Results Frameworks

• Gender Reviews- organizations and programs

• Participatory Organizational Assessment and Restructuring

• Policy Analysis and Rights Based Approach to development

• Participatory Human Rights Based Approach and Gender Training

• Human Rights and Governance focusing on the rights of the marginalized communities including women and Human Rights Defenders

• Gender perspective Socio-economic and political contextual analysis

• Feminist leadership/Feminist Movement Building

 

Shamshad is Advocate of the Hight Court of Tanzania and holds a Masters in Law (LL.M) and Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) degrees, both from the University of Dar es Salaam- majoring in Corporate Law and. Jurisprudence; a Post Graduate in Development Law and Human Rights Diploma from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, and certificates in Appreciative Inquiry and Learning to Lead.

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