LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

MS says yes to ActionAid International
As you can read from the press release issued by MS Denmark on September 14, 2008 (see link below) the General Assembly of MS has approved to start the merger process with ActionAid International (AAI). This implies that Action Aid Tanzania and MS Tanzania now will start discussions on how to proceed. Before these discussions have taken place I cannot say much about the process – except to repeat that MS Tanzania will honor all partnership agreements as entered and will continue to secure the implementation of the Country Programme Strategy as agreed.

Action Aid Tanzania is still not an independent organisation. The timeframe for the merger process will hence also have to allow Action Aid Tanzania to conclude their process of getting established and registered in Tanzania. At this point in time I therefore do not see any major changes in our organisational set-up for the next 18 months – the timeframe indicated by MS Denmark for working out the modalities for the merger.
The MS Tanzania Country Office will of course keep you up-dated on these processes. As for the merger process the objective of MS Tanzania of course is to impact as much as possible on the future new Action Aid Tanzania to bring into this new organisations the core values and the core objectives of our partnerships.

Please read the full press release (September 14, 2008) from MS Denmark here: www.ms.dk/sw104382.asp

Flemming Winther Olsen
Country Director
MS Tanzania

CALENDAR

DW-Days and Topic Team Meetings in 2008
Week 39, September 22-26, 2008
Week 49, December 1-5, 2008

ABOUT MS TANZANIA
is part of the Danish Association for International Co-operation (MS). Our vision is a world in peace where co-operation between people promotes global equity and ensures improved conditions for poor and marginalized people.MS Tanzania has been present in Tanzania since 1963, and since 1993 we have partnered with local civil society organisations (CSOs).The main theme of MS Tanzania’s programme strategy is Building Local Democracy with two sub-themes on Land Rights and Youth for Development. MS Tanzania aims at defending and enhancing popular participation under the assumption that strengthening democracy at local level will help fight poverty.

CONTRIBUTIONS/
COMMENTS
For contributions to the newsletter or further information, please contact Pernille Baerendtsen at info@mstan.or.tz

You can subscribe to the newsletter here: www.ms.dk/tanzania. If you receive this newsletter by mistake or if you no longer want to receive it, you unsubscribe here, too.

ZAPP jorden rundt # 2-2008: UDVIKLINGSBISTAND: Sådan virker dansk bistand i TanzaniaApologies to our English-speaking readers, this is only in Danish, however dealing with Danish development support to Tanzania, targeting Danish youth:

Undervisningsmagasinet ZAPP jorden rundt er Danmarks eneste globale magasin med fokus på aktuelle temaer til undervisning i 7.-10. klasse.

Unge fra både Tanzania og Danmark fortæller her om deres syn på udviklingsbistand, og ZAPP giver tips til hvordan danske unge kan gøre en forskel.

Læs mere her: www.zapp.dk/">www.zapp.dk

NEWS FROM MS TANZANIA

DW-Days and Topic Team Meetings
The next Topic Team and Development Worker (DW) Days are sceduled for September 22–26 at the Country Office.
For the DWs the programme will deal with training on first aid, a traffic police officer will give inputs on how to handle traffic and accidents, and Humphrey Pole Pole from our partner organisation Tanzania Youth Coalition will brief on the recent political developments in Tanzania.
A seperate agenda and programme have been sent to relevant stakeholders.

New Gender Initiative
In July 2008, MS-Tanzania started the operationalisation of its gender strategy by sampling a few partners for documentation of lessons learnt out of MS/partner initiatives around promotion of gender equality or women empowerment or both.
Four partners have been involved in the project (CORDS, Naramatisho, MPLC and ICP Mviwata). There were one-to-one in-depth study and analysis. A detailed report on the lessons leant will be out soon. Late July, a joint meeting was held, where the four partners met in Morogoro to brainstorm on an innovative project ideas as a response to MS Denmark's call for proposal (under Danida fundraising Initiatives). Two project ideas came out of the meeting: Women Economic Empowerment and Women Legal Empowerment with focus on accessibility and ownership of resources (specifically land as an MS Tanzania thematic area). Innovative ideas being engagement of community, traditional, school teachers, religious/spiritual leaders throughout project cycle and engagement of universities as other actors for generating knowledge, testing methods and documenting results as a new way of communicating experiences and knowledge. font>

Up-date and revision of MS Tanzania's Country Programme Strategy (CPS)
The CPS was initially launched in October 2007, and a lot of activities in support of starting the implementation have already taken place. One key has been an organisational mapping of the seven districts identified in the CPS (Kibaha, Kisarawe, Kilindi, Kiteto, Simanjiro, Mbeya Rural and Njombe) with the aim of detecting the most appropriate CSOs for implementing the CPS. The CPS still needs a bit of final revision.

MS Global Review of the Building Local Democracy
The BLD review went on from July 28 to August 4. The review team visited the Danish Embassy, The Foundation for Civil Society, REPOA and Policy Forum in Dar es Salaam. The team in the company of the Country Director and the Programmer Officer, responsible for coordination of activities under BLD theme, travelled to Morogoro and Arusha where they met and discussed issues around the Country Programme Strategy (CPS) and the decentralization process with KINNAPA, MVIWATA. TRC, NADO, officials from Mbeya Rural District Council and the Local Government Training Centre in Hombolo, MS-TCDC and Hakikazi. The review team debriefing note observed adequate alignment between the objectives in the CPS and the decentralization process in Tanzanian context. We are still waiting for the final report on the review.

Spend the money in a week – or send it back!
MS Tanzania shares experiences with partners and their collaborators in the districts: Farmers are sidelined by complicated planning procedures, guidelines in English and serious delay of money for activities. Read more here.

Read about MS Tanzania's work in Danish
Please note that you find a selection of articles about Tanzania in Danish here.

NEWS FROM PARTNERS

Civic Awareness Talks in Kibaha on the CDF
On August 29, 2008, Youth Partnership Countrywide (YPC) conducted the August Civic Awareness Talk to discuss "The Constituency Development Fund: What are the benefits to common youth and citizens? How will the funds be managed?
Israel Illunde from YPC explained: ‘In recent weeks we have noted an ongoing debate within the parliament, the media and large networks on whether we need the CDF or not. The proposal is being made by parliamentarians to make a law for the functioning of the CDF, it is not a bottom up proposal but a top down one. No matter how useful or useless it will be, Kibaha youth and other residents need to air their views and influence such a public decicion. About 50 participants from youth groups, secondary schools, other CSOs and the local government authorities attenced. MS Tanzania supports partners, i.e. Jeba and YPC, to carry out civic information on the CDF, and will deal with it in Topic 2 in relation to our Building Local Democracy theme. More information will come.

TMWDO opens office in Arusha town
Tanzania Mineworkers Development Organisation, TMWDO, opened an office in Arusha town in June 2008.The intention with the office is to have a coordination centre working with research, advocacy and administration. ‘It is easier for us to work with advocacy from here, as we are closer to the world around us’, says Amani Mustafa Mhinda, Director of TMWDO. He ads that the initiative is part of TMWDO's strategic plan for 2008-2013 which focuses on strengthening mining advocacy and research while retaining grassroots work. Besides Amani, the office in Arusha will be staffed with a Financial & Administration Officer, an Advocacy & Litigation Officer, a Secretary and 1-2 volunteers. The job of the volunteers will be to establish a research and information centre. The programme operations will remain in Mererani and the plan is to open a similar office in Mwanza in March 2009. Programme Officer for livelihood, Victoria Masao, has married and moved to the United Kingdom, thus she no longer works with TMWDO.

Morogoro Paralegal Centre continues its way forward
Morogoro Paralegal Centre (MPLC) has managed to get major funding (a strategic grant) from the Foundation for Civil Society focusing on women’s access to land in Mvomero District. Read more here.

NEWS

News from the Foundation for Civil Society: www.thefoundation-tz.org/foundation-news.php

Information for Donor Funding: www.civilsocietysupport.net

The Role of Small Businesses in Poverty Alleviation: The Case of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Read more here: www.repoa.or.tz

The Tanzania Development Information Centre (administered by the Tanzania Global Development Learning Centre (TGDLC) at IFM) which claims to be a ‘one-stop shop’ on information center on development information regarding Tanzania established by the World Bank and other development partners. Read more here:www.tdic.or.tz.

What is the Africa Commission doing? First newsletter from the Africa Commission is available here: www.africacommission.um.dk

What is the status of corruption in Tanzania, the Danish Embassy asks on their website. On behalf of the donor community in Tanzania, Danida and The Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) have engaged the organisation The Front Against Corrupt Elements In Tanzania (FACEIT) to uncover the extent of corruption in Tanzania. Read more here.

Four MDG3 Champion Torches were handed out to representatives from the private sector, civil society, media and young artists here in Tanzania. Commitments to ‘Do Something Extra’ in support of MDG3 on Gender Equality and Empowerment of women were made by each Torch bearer. Read more here. President Kikwete received a Millennium Development Goal 3 (MDG3) Champion Torch at a ceremony in the State House on 24 July as part of the Global Call to Action Campaign that was initiated by the Danish Government in March 2008. The aim of the campaign is to put focus on Millennium Development Goal 3 (MDG3) on gender equality and empowerment of women. The commitments made by the President on this occasion centre on the importance of providing political commitment and leadership to enable and support the economic empowerment of Tanzanian women. Read more here.

On November 3, 2008 Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and His Royal Highness the Prince Consort will pay an official visit to Tanzania. The State Visit is followed by an unofficial visit to Northern Tanzania until 9th November, 2008. Read more here.

Check MS TCDCs Course Calendar here: www.mstcdc.or.tz

Do also check these links for cultural events in and around Dar es Salaam:
Alliance Francaise: www.ambafrance-tz.org
The British Council: www.britishcouncil.org/tanzania
Cultural events: www.tupite.com/ and www.dar-es-salaam.wantedinafrica.com
The Makutano Fair: www.makutanotz.com
The European Film Festival: http://www.britishcouncil.org/film_programme_-3.pdf
Sauti za Busara – the best music festival in East Africa: www.busaramusic.org

PEOPLE
Jonas Olsen (left) has arrived to Dar es Salaam and has joined the Community Forest Management Network as a Participatory Forest Management Adviser.Rakel Felekech Larsen (middle) has arrived on September 2, 2008, and is going to work with MS Tanzania’s Land Rights theme as a roving adviser, based at TAPHGO in Arusha.Jeppe Budolphsen (right) arrived on September 1, 2008, and is now based in Dar es Salaam, working from the Country Office as an IT Adviser.Kristian Fevejle and his wife Christel and their one year old child, Hannah, has joined MS-Tanzania. Kristian was originally working for MS-Zimbabwe, but has not got his work permit extended - he is to be working with MS-Tanzania amongst others on Monitoring & Evaluation. Anja Christiansen Sakaly will be working as a Youth Development Adviser based at the Tanzanian Youth Coalition in Dar es Salaam. She will begin working on November 1, 2008. Anja comes from a previous job as a development worker with MS Uganda. Vagn Hansen who is working for Teachers' Resource Centre Coalition will end his contract by November 15 and will be accompanied by his wife, Anette Nordfred Eriksen, who lately has been assiting MS Tanzania with administration duties.

Due to health conditions Anne Marie Kjerulff will not be able to continue as the administrator for MS Tanzania. MS Tanzania is in the process of finding a replacement, and the administrator’s duties are temporarily covered by Liisa Riihimaki, MS-Tanzania’s Financial Adviser, and Anette Nordfred Eriksen.

Lea Wermelin has joined MS Tanzania as an intern in late August. She is about to finish her bachelors degree in Social Studies at the University of Copenhagen, and already familiar with MS, as she is cooperating with MS Denmark on her bachelor thesis.

MS Tanzania's previousIT Adviser Jesper and his wife (photo left) left Tanzania in August. Not the regular way, but overland. Follow their journey home to Denmark here: www.hukunahuko.dk

GLOBAL CONTACT
On August 29th and 30th, 2008 MS Tanzania will receive 12 volunteers. Six of the volunteers have participated in the Global Platform in Zanzibar for one month just before the arrival, and six are coming straight from Denmark. The volunteers will be working in schools and youth organisations for the three months period September-December 2008.The volunteers will participate in five days orientation course where they will be introduced to Tanzanian culture, behavior, dress code, security and gender relations, working and living with the hosting families. The following are the volunteers and their respective placements: Julie Moeller, Ida Madsen, Mie Christensen and Lotte Jorgensen – TAYODEA: Tanga/ Anne Louise and Cecilie Goral – Edeyane School: DSM/ Laerke Bruun Hansen and Pernille Larsen – Transcend School: DSM/ Nanna Kirkergaard and Dominique Adamsen – East Coast Secondary School: Kibaha/ Anika Nora and Sara Kristine Gronborg - Mkuza Youth: Kwa Mathias Kibaha.

IN AND OUT THE OFFICE
The Information Officer, Pernille Baerendtsen is out of office from October 25 - November 17, 2008 - and participating in the Information Workers' Meeting in Copenhagen.

MS TANZANIA'S PARTNER ORGANISATIONS
Find a complete overview of our partner organisations here. Do note that the database is to be up-dated soon.

CONTACTS ON MS TANZANIA STAFF
Contacts (e-mail and mobile) on all MS CO Staff and DWs are available here, however not updated since July 2008, due to technical problems.