Newsletter for MS Tanzania

For MS Partners and development workers in Tanzania

October 2005

Editor: Information worker Lisbeth Jensen
Editor-in-chief: Director Flemming Winther Olsen

Elections coming up

This and the coming month will put focus on democracy and civil participation here in Tanzania. The general election on the 30^th of October and the formation of a new government will be the steppingstone for further development in Tanzania.

But democracy and politics is not only to put your mark on the ballot paper once every five year. Civil society defined as every Tanzanian and all the non governmental organizations have a big role to play. Everyone has to give their contribution to development of good governance, progress and democracy.

Many of the MS partners have done a good job conducting civil education to their members and surroundings. The issues have been the rights of the electorate and the constitution of Tanzania and democracy in general.

Everybody wants the election to be peaceful, free and fair. This is not only the responsibility of the government, but also of every one of us. We should always focus on political ideas and argument and prevent violence. At Election Day we should all act as observers to see, that the rules of privacy and the transparency in the counting process are followed.

Many observers from Africa, USA and Europe have arrived to watch the election, but it is also important, the Tanzanian themselves at each and every polling station report all irregularities.

News from the director

As already mentioned by the Editor the coming week’s election and formation of a new government will be important milestones on the road towards a transparent and dynamic democratic system of governance in Tanzania. Tanzanians don’t need to look far beyond their boarders to be reminded that democracy is not a given thing but has to be developed with determination and consistency and must be defended by civil society and its organisations at all time. The frequent reports of vote-buying and voter manipulation/intimidation in the up-coming elections in Tanzania clearly demonstrates, that the house of democracy is not yet finally constructed. I am, however, confident that all our partners are solid builders when it comes to constructing the house of democracy and I wish to ensure you the full support of MS Tanzania in this important task.

On domestic matters I regret to inform you that I together with our administrator Ms. Birgitte Mygind have concluded that this was not the right job for her. Birgitte will hence terminate her employment with MS Tanzania by the end of 2005. Consequently all administrative matters should be referred to the Director with immediate effect.

Finally let me just remind you that 2005 is rapidly coming to an end. In practical terms it implies annual reporting and closing of the financial year. To facilitate smooth reporting and accounting I appeal to all partners to strive towards timely return of financial reporting to allow the Country Office to close its books within the stipulated timeframe. That will also greatly facilitate our planning and preparation for 2006.

Code of Conduct

On the PAB meeting in October the Code of Conduct was discussed as agreed on the MShikamano meeting. Several problems were left for solving by PAB. Especially the monitoring and the sanction were heavily debated at the Mshikamano meeting.

The PAB agreed that

• The Sanction part of the Code of Conduct should be left out
• The internalization of the Code of Conduct had to be done by the partners, not by MS TanzaniaThe self assessment evaluation should be done by the partners themselves, not by the POs
• The partner and MS will sign the Code of Conduct will at an individual level.
• No special group or task force under PAB on Code of Conduct
• The CO programme section will make short reports on the implementation of the Code of Conduct to the PAB.
• PAB will report to Annual meeting

Civic education

Knowing about rights of the individual is an important part of living in a democracy. But who will teach you?

One of the ways is through theater plays, meetings and workshops. When the Ngoma’s start calling, the people in the village gather together and the trainers can deliver their message.

With this year general election coming up, there was a widespread need to inform about voters rights.  

MS and its partners talked about the idea on the annual meeting in February and in March PAB gave the go ahead.

Six of the MS partners have conducted civic education based on UNDP’s material and with support from MS country office. They were TMWDO, UVIMTA, JEBA, Naramatisho, Mapambano Centre and TYC.  Some partners have also done civic education as part of their normal work without support from MS.

At Mapambano Centre 30 village trainers were trained. After that they conducted the civic education in their villages. They also engaged theater groups and they had good discussions with the villagers.

UVIMTA chose another approach. They trained all the local leaders. Democracy is not only about electing the right person for president, but also to have good local governance with help from the people. And democracy and elected leaders are more easily understand if it is your local council and your neighbor elected.

All in all the campaign succeeded in the main goal: To provide the partners and their stakeholders with information on democratic governance and people’s participation, the constitution, rule of law and civic rights and obligation and elections procedures. This all to enforce good governance and help people make informed election of their leaders.

Invitation to editorial group

This is an offer to all persons in MS Tanzania with interest in journalism and information.

On the latest PAB meeting it was decided, that the Habari za Tanzania should have an editorial group instead of a board.

The idea is to copy the model from MS Uganda. Here the editorial group discuss, write and edit the Newsletter. In and during the process the group members get qualified training in writing, storytelling and prioritizing of news and information. A qualification they can use also in their daily work.

I call representatives from partners, DW’s and CO staff members to participate. The workload will be four meetings a year. The sharing of ideas and articles can be done over the Internet in between.

We are planning to have a Tanzanian journalist attached to the group, so partners who are not comfortable with writing in English can write in Swahili. And the coaching and training can also be in Swahili.

The objective of this new editorial group is to capacity build partners, staff and DW’s in journalism and information. When the group is well established the Habari za Tanzania will be published all year round no matter if the actual infoDW ends her contract and go home to Denmark.

This is actually taking place in Uganda just now. The info DW Mai Rasmussen ended her contract, but the process of producing the coming number of MShikamano is in the hands of the subeditor, the partner representative James Kimbowa.

Interested persons can join in by answering this mail. I hope we could have the first group meeting and training in the last weeks of November.

Danish prime minister in Tanzania

On his state visit in Tanzania the Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen pledged the Tanzanians go through elections without violence. He met with both government and opposition on the mainland and in Zanzibar. To the Tanzanian media he praised the development Tanzania has gone through the last years, and promised that the Danish government would continue to support a development based on good governance, liberalisation of economy and openness to globalization.

Danish journalists on tour

Three young journalists have visited some of the MS partners and made interviews for the coming MShikamano magazine. Now they have left for Uganda to visits partners there. By the end of the year we will all read the result. The whole number of MShikamano is the Millennium Development Goals 2015, seen from an East African perspective.

DW leaving

Jesper Bosse Jonsson has left as a DW with MS partner CORTS after nearly two years of employment.

For contributions to the newsletter or further information please contact lisbeth@mstan.or.tz

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