12 small villages inspire each other

UVIMTA train in good governance and project planning

Village chair Fatuma Mpinga and UVIM chair Alatwikika Mvega work closely together for better development in Palangawanu village

There are two happy chairpersons in the village of Palangawu. One is the village chair; the other is the chair of the village UVIM (Umoja wa Vikundi vya Maendeleo). Both are women and dedicated to development, and they work closely together.
One of the good projects in the village is the running of an oil mill doing the hard work of the women to transform sunflower seeds to cooking oil. The surplus from the mill is being used as capital in their SACCOS (Savings and credits project).
In one division in Njombe district the serious working Wabenas have joined in village development groups called UVIMs. Their umbrella organisation UVIMTA helps with training, planning and monitoring, and the 12 villages with these groups stand out from the other Njombe villages. More houses built of bricks and with corrugated iron roofs is a visible difference.
The district officer for village development comes in all villages of the district and he confirms the difference, which also makes his job easier. In the UVIM villages the villagers are used to discuss development, prioritize and make plans. And they start implementing with their own forces and only ask for help to technical problems and funding of the expensive parts of the projects, like machines, cement and tools.
- I have participated in making of many plans with fine words, but when it came to implementations nothing happened. But the Wabenas are different. They believe in their projects, tells the District Executive Director (DED), Mohamed J. Mkupete.
The policy in both District Council’s and District Commissioner’s offices is that the Government can’t cope with everything alone; they need the active participation of citizens and local development organisations.

Uhuru Torch

And others can also see the difference. In this years passing of the Uhuru Torch three UVIMTA projects were inaugurated, and Njombe District were elected the best in the regional contest to promote development.
One of the projects is a vocational training centre for the leavers of Standard Seven. The villagers built a house with two rooms and found a voluntary teacher. Then they asked for funds to buy tools and secure the building. The first 15 young boys from Itambo can now employ themselves as carpenters and masons.

Itulahumba Village Chair Ben Mvugi is also member of UVIMTA and proud of the big water system the villagers, UVIMTA and the District have constructed together.

Empowerment

- Actually, the project itself is not the most important thing. That is the empowerment of the villagers. Now they know their rights, they know how to plan and monitor, they know where and how to ask for help in local government and donors, says John Wihala, chair of UVIMTA.
But UVIMTA is not only training the members, but also the officials from Local Government Authorities.
- We have seen village chairs and councilors being surprised about their responsibilities towards their constituency. Some even stepped down and were not elected again. And we have talked a lot about taking bribes to elect a councilor. If a family of six gets TSH 30.000 for their vote, everybody started laughing when we calculated the amount the family have per year for each member in the family to develop their livelihood. And in the same five years the ward has to endure a councilor, who is not doing anything to get development to the village or ward, Wihala tells.

Transparent

UVIMTA also show the way forward in good governance. All UVIMTA plans and budgets, and later the grant and accounts are openly known to all, both members and non-members and the village authorities.
- We also always ask for the advice of the technical officers in the district and very often it is not only the technical help, but also financial, we end up receiving, he says.

One example is the water project in Itulahumba. The first system to collect and pump water up to the village stopped working after last year’s drought. In stead of despairing the villagers talked to the Local Government. Now the district is stepping in with a stronger pump and a double system of pipes. And after the rains the village hopefully has running water in the taps again.