For Doreen, it’s all about unleashing inner potential

Dar es Salaam. Everyone deserves a fair chance in life. However, the reality is that getting a fair chance depends on your context.

To ascend to the top, women have no option but to unleash their inner potentials.

Starting and growing business are imperative for women to build a better future - although, in Tanzania, it is not the case anymore that women cannot rise to the top.

This calls for more gender awareness programmes and campaigns of reach the message to all women.

In celebrating Season-2 of Mwananchi Communication Limited’s Rising Woman Initiative, Doreen Anthony Sinare says women need to unleash their inner potential to become what they always dream of in leadership.

Passionate, enthusiastic, self-disciplined and negotiator helped Doreen in becoming the Chief Executive officer and Copyright Administrator of the Copyright Society of Tanzania (Cosota).

Appointed by the Board and approved by the minister responsible with copyrights in Tanzania in 2013, Cosota was then under the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Currently, it is under the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Sports.

Doreen did participate in a research on Economic Contribution of Copyright Based Industries in Tanzania, 2012 funded by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and participated in WIPO Project Mandated to the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law in Munich to conduct a survey on the practice of competition law jurisdictions on “Copyright, Competition and Development” and currently tutoring copyright to WIPO students.

She has, however, participated in the preparation of Tanzania Quadrennial report in line with the 2005 Unesco Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

Very passionate and enthusiastic about creative industries, Doreen always believes that women have a lot of creativity that can be brought by them on the table if they would be given the chance to showcase what they have.

“We can stand by our own but what is needed sometimes is the support, these women already have the confidence but what they need is something to bring them up to the top, something to motivate them in such a way that they will accomplish all their works,” said Doreen.

No matter how small a part of the big picture it is, in the journey of knowing who we are and becoming what we always dream, is one of the big changes in pursuing the dream and building up our confidence.

In her journey, Doreen narrates that she was always thought that she would be a human right lawyer because of the way want to help people, but in the process she ended up being an intellectual property lawyer.

“I remember intellectual property was a one day course by our renowned Lecturer Prof. Andrew Mollel during our International Law Course when studying a First Degree in Law at Tumaini University, Iringa.”

In 2008, she passed her lawyer’s exams, and she was called for an interview at COSOTA where she had applied for the post of ‘principal copyright documentation officer, She luckily got the job in 2009.

“My passion and expertise grew by the day. I joined the Munich Intellectual Property Law Centre in 2011 to deeply specialize in it - and, in 2013, I became the CEO, which I still am to-date,” a proud Doreen says.

According to Doreen, in her journey on becoming a leader as a woman, she had one of the most memorable experiences: remembering when she thought of becoming human rights lawyer - and did something about that.

In 2019, she facilitated the ratification and domestication of the Marrakesh Treaty, helping access to published works for people who are blind, visually impaired or known as “print disabled.” The aim of facilitating this is to make sure that more books are widely available in accessible formats such as braille.

Despite the treaty for the visually impaired, she was able to coordinate activities to promote and protect rights holders through awareness and sensitization programnes.

“I attended more than 120 copyright dispute resolutions and gave evidence of the ownership of copyright where there were disputes or infringements,” said Doreen.

Challenges are always there for those who are willing to make sure they do whatever it takes to achieve their dream and those who have never stopped chasing opportunities.

Doreen traced her challenges all the way back during college time, during that time they weren’t able to make the right and timely decisions because they were never aware about it.

“I and my friends were not able to make the right and timely decisions because of lack of political will, we would take ages to realize a very crucial thing in the copyright industry,” Doreen recalls.

During that time, she was able to strengthen the cooperation with other stakeholders which involve artistes, producers, authors, composers and other people who are participating in the industry of creativity.

Being in the list of the top leaders is not an easy job, because it requires a lot of sacrifices and ambition to achieve what you always dream of, according to Doreen - adding that, for a person to become successful, it needs correct plans, discipline and time.

“We all do need a plan and discipline to move to higher levels of management. Time also matters - if only because not knowing how to manage your time, you will end up losing everything that you had aimed to achieve,” said Doreen.

Apart from the facts on how someone can be successful, Doreen narrates that there are things that motivate her daily to always keep on pushing the boundaries without being tired. What she does every day is all about the support from her colleagues at COSOTA and from the Ministry of Information, Culture and Sports.

“Seeing those I serve liquidated - paid and satisfied - helps me keep on pushing harder. I also get support and critiques that assist me in making timely, bold and correct decisions,” she said.

According to Doreen, having women in leadership positions brings more trust, because women are committed and have a lot of potential for leadership.

“In most cases, we are trustworthy and we all know that we are committed. We have our special potential, and we only need to unleash our potential to become successful,” said Doreen.

In explaining how women can develop their leadership skills, Doreen narrates that, all it takes is confidence and a bit of the right training. Being confident is the right thing to do in the scenario that we wish to become.

“Also, women need networking. We need training, we need confidence - and the best thing that we need to consider is to have the right mentors who will guide us on our journey to become exemplary leaders,” Doreen said .

She also explained that women need to set high standards of quality in order to excel in top leadership positions - always realizing that it’s their right to also to reach the top levels of leadership on Planet Earth this side of the Heavens.