summary
5th Tanzania Women’s Athletic Meet “Ladies First
date(s) (e.g. for exhibition)
November 24 (Friday) – 26 (Sunday), 2023
organizing
National Sports Council of Tanzania and JICA Tanzania Office
Location
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (Benjamin Mkapa National Stadium and Uhuru Stadium)
Main Participants
Minister Dumbalo of the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Sports; Ambassador Sawa Misawa, Japanese Ambassador to Tanzania and Special Assistant to JICA President Togawa; Mayor Uchitani of Nagai City, Yamagata Prefecture; Professor Okada, Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University; former marathon Olympian Juma Ikanger, JICA Tanzania Office Public Relations Ambassador.
Background and Objectives
Ladies First” is a women’s track and field event held in Tanzania to promote gender equality, women’s empowerment, and sports through providing diverse opportunities for women and girls. The event was started by Juma Ikanga, a former Olympic marathoner and JICA Tanzania Office Public Relations Ambassador, who believed that Tanzania, with its lack of female athletes, must have a potential for female athletes. JICA and the National Sports Council of Tanzania (NSCT) have co-hosted the event since 2017 with the aim of improving the situation of female athletes, who have extremely few opportunities to practice and compete compared to male athletes, as well as promoting gender equality, female empowerment, sports promotion, and the spread of physical education. The program has been implemented since 2017 jointly by JICA and the National Sports Council (NSCT).
Contents
Starting with a side event on Friday, November 24, 2023, the 5th Ladies First was held on Saturday, November 25 and Sunday, November 26, 2023, with approximately 160 athletes from 30 provinces in Tanzania, watched by a total of over 1,500 spectators, including elementary school students in Dar es Salaam City. The competition was held in nine events (100meter, 100meter, 100meter and 100meter). The competition consisted of 9 events (100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1,500m, 5,000m, 10,000m, 100m x 4 relay, and javelin throw).
International competitors have grown out of this competition, with Magdalena and Jaclyn, who participated in the 2017 and 2018 Ladies Firsts, being selected to represent Tanzania at the Paris Olympics.
Along with the athletics, the event also featured seven side events, the largest number to date for women’s empowerment, which were attended by a large number of people.
In particular, 46 companies applied for the business competition for women entrepreneurs (NINJA [1] Mwanamke (meaning NINJA Women), which was held the day before the competition, and four women entrepreneurs who passed the preliminary screening presented their business plans for “manufacturing organic hair care products” and “developing financial management apps for young people and women” in front of the competition participants. The four female entrepreneurs who won the preliminary screening presented their business plans, including “manufacturing organic hair care products” and “developing a financial management application for young people and women,” in front of the participants of the competition. It was a great inspiration for the female participants for the future.
Other activities included an HIV prevention awareness campaign, handmade cloth napkin workshops, health checkups, jogging events, and fan relays to promote women’s empowerment and health.
Participants had the following to say
I am very happy to have the opportunity to show what I can do through Ladies First” (Participant)
‘I got to see and learn that women can participate in sports just as well as men.’
[1] NINJA is an entrepreneurship support platform launched by JICA in 2,021 to foster entrepreneurs who can solve social issues as a business and trigger the creation of quality jobs in order to support national development in developing countries.
Middle school students who participated in the stadium
In addition, three people from Nagai City in Yamagata Prefecture, which has continued to interact with Tanzania in various ways since becoming Tanzania’s host city for the Tokyo Olympics in 2017, including Mayor Uchitani Nagai, participated in this Ladies First. The Ladies First event was held with the cooperation and support of many stakeholders, including Japanese local governments, private companies (8 Japanese companies and 3 Tanzanian companies), and international organizations.
We will continue to do so, along with the development of top female athletes through the further evolution of Ladies First,
development through sport”, including promoting understanding of women’s empowerment and increasing opportunities for empowerment through sport.
Women entrepreneurs presenting at a business competition
HIV prevention awareness campaign
Scenes from the competition (Javelin Throw) Scenes from the competition (100 m x 4 Relay Final)
© Source JICA