LSF announces plans to broaden legal aid services in Tanzania

Newly-appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Legal Services Facility (LSF), Ms. Lulu Ng’wanakilala speaking to the legal aid stakeholders in Dar es Salaam yesterday at the special function to welcome her to the organization (LSF). 

Legal aid stakeholders following proceedings of a special function held in Dar es Salaam to welcome a newly-appointed Legal Services Facility (LSF) Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Lulu Ng’wanakilala to the organization.

The newly-appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Legal Services Facility (LSF), Ms. Lulu Ng’wanakilala has reiterated the organization’s priority to ensure timely and extensive availability of legal aid services continues to be at the core of LSF’s agenda.

This goal is expected to be realized by broadening the delivery of these crucial services which, have provided access to justice for millions of Tanzanians since 2011 when the organisation was established.

Ms. Ng’wanakilala, said this in Dar es Salaam during an iftar event which was attended by key stakeholders from the government, development partners, the private sector and civil society organisations, to welcome her and bid farewell to the outgoing CEO Kees Groenendijk who served as head of the organisation since its inception.

“LSF has undoubtedly been very successful and its strong influence made a significant contribution towards the eventual enactment of the new Legal Aid Act, 2017 which is not only beneficial for LSF’s mission but, for legal aid in Tanzania in general. Our agenda now is to enhance collaboration with the Ministry of Constitutional and Legal Affairs in making sure the Act is implemented and from it a strong, reliable and effective legal aid community is established,” she said.

Drawing from the extensive work the organization has done in every district of both mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, she added, “Looking forward, our focus will be strategic particularly, focusing on how LSF can be more sustainable and build on what we have so far achieved. Our broad aim is to ensure the legal aid sector through our nationwide network of paralegals reaches every community while placing at its centre women empowerment, civic engagement, economic empowerment and poverty reduction. We will also work with other sectors, that LSF has traditionally not engaged including mining, agriculture, tourism/natural resources and the private sector, to ensure paralegals are able to help communities address every day legal issues that remain marginalizing obstacles to them”.

To date LSF has created a network of over 4,000 functional paralegals who are providing legal aid and legal education to communities across the country. Hundreds of thousands of women, men and children have benefited and continue to benefit from LSF-financed projects which are implemented by regional mentor organizations, paralegals units and other partner organizations.

“I am very optimistic that our collaborative efforts will propel LSF to expand our services and enable many more people to access justice and enrich their daily lives with the comfort of knowing they have legal aid available to them more than ever before and that it’s free”, she added.

Ms. Ng’wanakilala assumed office earlier this month and will lead an organization that has over the last 8 years cultivated and maintained strong relations with all levels of the government in helping ordinary citizens enjoy every day rights that were previously beyond their reach.