Newsletter for MS-Tanzania

September 2004

Editor: Information worker Michael Bech
Editor-in-chief: Coordinator Finn Petersen

Operation Visibility Vol. II

The pressure is mounting on development in general – and Tanzania in particular. As mentioned last month, the donors are demanding more ‘value for money’, which means that each partner has to create more visibility, show results, measure their achievements and document the impact of the work done to reduce poverty.

MS has already felt the heat – and more cut-backs are in the horizon. The new Danish minister for development, Bertel Haarder, on his appointment in August announced that more support will go to the refugee camps, and the new minister also stated that relief in conflict areas will be considered development aid.

I was sent to the refugee camps between Kigoma and Bukoba last week to write an article from the area in order to get a view on the life of the refugees and the assistance for the camps and the nearby villages. The prospects for the refugees are bleak, but it seems that the support from the donors are giving them a tolerable life and the aid is lifting the local societies around the camps – even though there is still a hostile approach in the villages towards the refugees.

The information trip for Tina Loevbom Petersen and me to the northern partnerships went well. Visits to Mugumu, Mwanza, Missungwi and Ukerewe brought us interesting new information and personal stories to disseminate through articles. So we are now back with a lot of material that now needs to be written. The first two stories have already been accepted by Danish media and are on their way to the Danish readers, donors and taxpayers.

News from the director

Let me start with a happy announcement: MS-Tanzania's Policy Paper 2004-2008 has finally been approved by the MS board. We will start the translation to Kiswahili and get it printed soon, so that it can be used as a guiding tool out and about in the partnerships.

All the DW’s are in town for meeting with the CO. We will all continue Monday to the MShikamano meeting and personally I'm looking very much forward to discuss the topic Good Governance and meet with all of you.

MShikamano meeting

The new thematic meeting for all the partners will take place in Morogoro at Tanesco Training Centre next week from 7^th September to 9^th September. The partners have taken a lot of interest in the meeting and the theme of ‘good governance’ and nearly all the partners will participate.

News from UVIMTA

UVIMTA has been quite busy the last two months or so. In the end of June, leaders and committee members from UVIMTA, as well as representatives from its ten UVIM-members (26 people in total) participated in a four day long seminar in Njombe. The seminar was taught by the local CaBAP (Masejo Nyabigeso) and the DW (Andreas Salomonsen), and it was about/concerning a planning tool called ‘Logical Framework Approach’ (LFA), how to use knowledge in general, and how to teach their fellow colleagues and villagers, when passing on what they have learnt.

In early August, UVIMTA was for the first time participating at the annual Nane-Nane in Mbeya. UVIMTA has been invited as one of the many NGO’s working in Njombe District, to represent the Njombe District together with a few other organisations. Five people from UVIMTA and the CaBAP was thus promoting UVIMTA for eight days (1^st to 8^th August), showing the public visiting Nane-Nane what kind of activities UVIMTA is involved in. As part of the exhibition, UVIMTA had brought a solar drier, locally produced and dried fruits and vegetables (carrots, tomatoes, mangoes, pineapple, bananas and oranges), information about the farming and selling of paprika (e.g. pictures, seeds and paprika plants) and new weeding tools for small gardens. UVIMTA was also selling t-shirts with UVIMTA’s logo and handing out a brochure explaining about UVIMTA in general.

Last week, UVIMTA was visited by programme officer Maselle Maziku, who had come to visit UVIMTA and the various projects UVIMTA and the UVIM’s have received funds for last year. Besides visiting the different projects on the sites, representatives from respectively UVIMTA and UVIM’s had also some fruitful and challenging discussions with Maselle Maziku about how to continue and the importance of having an efficient monitoring and evaluation system in place.

Among other (new) activities at UVIMTA is the ongoing teaching of one person from each UVIM in how to use the computer at UVIMTA’s office. The aim of this computer training is to build each UVIM’s capacity to write and create official documents for internal as well as external use.

In the coming two months, 30 farmers in total from six different UVIM’s (Sakalenga, Ikwega, Itulahumba, Isindagosi, Itambo and Chalowe) will be testing some new weeding tools for vegetable gardens. The goal of introducing these ‘new’ weeding tools, which are common in Denmark and other European countries, is to reduce the work load and make the whole weeding process easier, due to the use of a lighter and different type of tool than the normal hand-hoe. However, whether the weeding tools are suitable in a Tanzanian context or environment is still an open question, so that’s what the six UVIM’s are going to test in practice. UVIMTA hopes that it, in a few months from now, can bring some interesting news/results about how the tools have been received by the farmers in Mdandu Division. 

 New development workers

Two new development workers are right now having their introduction at the country office in Dar es Salaam after four weeks at TCDC. Pernille Cordes is the new DW at the TRC-Coalition in Dar, and she and her two daughters of 11 and 14 years are now settling in at their house. Rune Jacobsen is the DW at Naramatisho in Bagamoyo, and he will be living in Mlandizi. Welcome to all of you!

 Out and around at CO

The programme officers have all been traveling recently. It is the time of the yearly reviews. Simon Lugandu visited CUKK, UVUKI, JEBA and Ilaramatak for the reviews. Joan Lohay are starting her reviews in late September, but have been to Bagamoyo for monitoring visits and in Mkuranga south of Dar es Salaam for new partner identification surveys. Maselle Maziku has been on a monitoring visit to UVIMTA in Njombe and is now on leave.

Contact for the Newsletter: michael_bech@net.dialog.dk – mobile 0744 - 87 40 80