Jobs | Press | Contact

Newsletter for MS Tanzania

Letter from the Director

The new Democracy focus of MS has now finally been defined at a Board Meeting in MS Denmark in January 2007. The main theme will be “Building Local Democracy” with two sub-themes; a) holding local government accountable and b) political empowerment. In addition we have had the option to choose a second theme from within four given themes: anti-corruption, fair trade, land rights and conflict resolution. For MS Tanzania the likely choice will be land rights as the second theme.
As you are all aware MS Tanzania has for more than a year now been focusing on Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) as one of our focus areas. Fortunately this theme and the work we have been doing within this theme are almost identical with the intentions in the Local Democracy theme. We have now some very valuable experiences with PPP in relation to Local Government Authorities (LGA) and we have proven that the way forward for building local democracy is indeed PPP where also civil society organisations play an active role.

At this years annual MS Tanzania meeting we spend a full day on discussing this issue and we had the valuable participation of a few representatives from LGAs and from elected Rural Councils. The very short conclusion of the day’s deliberations was that PPP holds a whole new set of opportunities just waiting to be explored and exploited.

The Local Government Reform Program has come a long way in defining the new role of government in a liberalized and market oriented economy. There is real scope for local democracy and popular participation at many levels – but the frame work is far from being fully utilized! There are many reasons why achievements and results are not up to expectations according to various reviews of the Local Government Reform Program. One reason is that we are working with changing mind sets – and that doesn’t happen overnight. Another reason is that all the players under this new framework will have to know and understand their roles and responsibilities and will have to learn to operate in an atmosphere of understanding, trust and common direction.

It is always easy to complain about poor capacity of LGAs and it is always easy to blame LGA staff for not making progress. But is it really only the responsibility of LGA staff to secure success? No, it is not! Local democracy is about sharing of responsibility for progress and development. Of course each player have their specific roles towards which they have to be held accountable and responsible but the core of the Local Government Reform Program is that all sections of society have to play an active role and contribute to success.
For Civil Society Organisations (CSO) this means pro-active engagement with LGAs and the elected political leadership. It is not enough for CSO to criticize and bring forward poorly researched ideas and sentiments about what is being and what should be done at Local Government level. CSOs must build capacity to actively engage in the planning processes that leads up the District Development Plans. CSOs must develop capacity to formulate projects and programmes and must develop capacity to implement and monitor projects – with or without direct participation of LGAs. The task of improving rural livelihood – the focus of MS Tanzania – is so enormous that LGAs cannot do it alone and on their own. The entire community must participate in an organized manner and that organisation must be provided by CSOs in the many forms in which they come. Farmer Organisations, Cooperatives, SACCOs, Parents Unions around schools, Youth Groups, Faith based organisations, Commercial Associations, Women’s Groups, Farmer Field Schools, Traders Associations and many more.

For MS Tanzania the challenge of supporting Building Local Democracy is one we are very keen at ever being better at. We consider the Local Government Reform Program a key instrument for building democracy in Tanzania. But the Reform is also fighting poverty as it brings the fight closer to the very people that are key to the fight and that are going to benefit from the victory over poverty. CSOs must take upon them to lead the organizing of people required to fight in a structured way. Poverty is a very stubborn enemy and only a well coordinated war with full participation by all players will secure victory.
Flemming Winther Olsen

Country Program Strategy

MS Tanzania has to produce a new Country Program Strategy (CPS). The MS Board has promised Danida that all countries will have up-dated CPSs by October 2007. A draft hence has to be ready by June 25^th. That is a very short notice but that is life.

Fortunately MS Tanzania has gone a very long way in formulating the main theme on “Building Local Democracy” through our PPP program. What remains is to translate that program into verifiable objectives and select some regions and districts for special intervention. The district focus is needed to enable us to demonstrate results after the 5-year CPS period expires.
At the annual meeting it was announced that we had to choose two sub-themes and land rights and anti-corruption were discussed. It now occurs that we only need one sub-theme. It is not possible to work with good governance and local democracy without addressing the issue of corruption. We will hence regard anti-corruption as cross cutting and only have ‘land rights’ as a theme in its own right.

At the Country Office we will do our best to involve as many as practically possible in the process of formulating the CPS. The PAC will meet on April 4^th to discuss the formulation strategy and thereafter we will announce the way forward. The Topic Teams will obviously be key to this process and only where we feel that partners are not sufficiently represented through the Topic Teams will we request further partner participation. We are well aware that a lot of time was spent last year on the new focus and we will limit the meeting activities to the absolute minimum in order not to put unnecessary stains on our partner organisations.

Topic Teams update

Topic Team 1 members have started a tour to partners to discuss and assess the needs in the partner organisations of the support offered by the team.
Topic Team 3 has started the work on web pages in eight partner organisations, and has just called for the first joint workshop on writing skills and other important skills in communication. Partner staffs working with information and communication are invited. The workshop will consist of input from invited guests, training conducted by team members and exercises during three days.

Annual meeting and new PAC

The annual meeting conducted at TCDC on the 22^nd and 23^rd of February at TCDC, Arusha was once again a wonderful opportunity for all to network and learn from each other. On the 21^st partner representatives had the opportunity to debate among themselves as had the DW group.
The first day of the Annual Meeting was devoted to MS Denmark strategy and focus presentation combined with discussion of the MS Tanzania Annual Report and focusing process. The second day was a thematic day on Public-Private-Partnership. Topic Team 2 presented their results together with partners on the new main focus in MS “Building Local Democracy”. Invited guests from local government in Kiteto and Kibaha districts shared views with us on their partnerships with MS partners and other civil society organisations in the district.
Many partners used the opportunity to exhibit their work in the market place to share experiences on working methods with others. The exhibition from Envirocare won the first price followed by the new partner HakiKazi.
UVUKI from Kibaha sold the first product from the cashew nut processing factory, and had many visitors.
The Policy Advisory Board has changed its name to Policy Advisory Council.

On the meeting for the partners, the following were elected to the PAC:

Jackson Murro, Taphgo
Amani Mistafa, Tanzania Mineworkers Development Organisation
Nestory Masswe, TANGO
Substitutes:
Josephine Mkunda, MVIWATA
Nalogwa Shani, TRC Coalition

On the meeting for the DWs the following were elected to the PAC:

Lene Godiksen, Envirocare
Marianne Buhrkal, MVIWATA
Christoph Lodemann, Morogoro Paralegal Centre
Substitute:
Tine Hansen, HakiKazi Catalyst

Resigning members are Humphrey Pole Pole, Rune Jakobsen and Maibrit Rasmussen.

Two of the independent members of PAC Josephine Kimaro and Beatrice Hezikiel have announced their resignation from PAC, so in the near future we have to appoint two new independent members. Adeardus Kilangi is the third independent member.

The outgoing members of PAC received thanks and gifts for their work in PAC.

The PAC will elect chairperson at the first ordinary meeting.
The evaluation report of the annual meeting shows an outspoken satisfaction with the meeting except from the very warm weather.

Haki Elimu case

The ban on HakiElimu has been lifted.
Through strong networks and Media support the HakiElimu Board succeeded at last to meet with Prime Minister Lowassa and other ministers and discuss the lifting of ban on the organisation in place since September 2005. The meeting resulted in giving back the constitutional right to seek, receive and impart information to HakiElimu.
The ban from September 2005 did not stop HakiElimu completely. The organisation kept on doing everything else than the specific tasks mentioned in the ban. That is a strong reaction for other NGOs to learn from. Do not give up. Never let your cause be forgotten in your network and in the public.
The case also shows, how important networks and alliances are, when engaging in advocacy.

Information bill
From January and until now a powerful campaign from civil society has changed the proposed Freedom of Information Bill from October 2006.
The bill will be postponed to the August sitting of Parliament and it will be presented with various amendments.
A number of NGOs have put together a “Coalition on the Freedom of Information and Expression” and the coalition had called a lot of meetings with different stakeholders. The coalition has now made up its own draft for a bill and submitted it to the Malelezo, the office for Tanzania Information Service.
This is good news, not only for the Media in Tanzania, but for all citizens. In the Constitution of Tanzania all have the right to seek, receive and impart information and the right to communicate without interference. But the proposed bill was giving hints of censorship and hard regulations.
Without proper rights to information, the citizens and their organisations can not participate properly in the development of their livelihood and their country, and there will be no democracy without access to information. So all MS partners should engage in and participate in the discussion on this bill.
So far the Coalition has achieved two big steps with the campaign. The bill will be parted in two: One bill on the right of access to information and another to govern the Media. The other big step is that the bill is not rushed through to Parliament, but is now being discussed with all stakeholders and they have been allowed to contribute to the content of the bill.

MS Tanzania webpage

www.ms.dk/Tanzania has got a face lift. We invite the visitors to more information and publications from MS Tanzania as the first choice. The old web page layout focused more on news articles from the programme.
We invite you all to read and comment on the page.

Partner web pages

The IT Advisor and eight partners are now in the process of setting up web pages. The partner organisation provides the content of the page that is texts, photos and publications. The IT Advisor sets up the page, and the lay out and thoughts behind it is a joint discussion.
Before starting every organisations need to buy a domain name and next a web host. MS Tanzania has negotiated a cheap prize with the British Netshinehosting.
Later there will be a joint workshop for the first eight partners on maintaining the web page.
After the first eight partners, more can be taken on board.

New partners

MS Tanzania has started negotiations with two new possible partners: TAWLAE, Tanzania Association of Women Leaders in Agriculture and Environment and TAYODEA, Tanga Youth Development Association. Both were participating in the Annual Meeting in February.
TAWLAE is based in Dar es Salaam with a national outreach.
TAYODEA is based in Tanga with a branch in Usambara.
Both organisations are working with rural livelihood, and they fit to the focus areas. We want to strengthen the partnership portfolio on especially women and youth.
HakiKazi in Arusha has started as an MS partner with its firs DW. HakiKazi with its strong national advocacy and information experiences will mostly act as a strategic partner to MS.

New Development Workers

Tine Hansen, Master in Human Geography, has started as DW in HakiKazi in Arusha. She will be working as a socio-economic research advisor.
Thorkil Green Nielsen, Journalist, will start as new Information DW at the country office first of May.
Liisa Riihimaki will start as Roving Financial Advisor at the country office 9^th of May. She has worked three years for Forum Syd in Mwanza.

Leaving Development Workers

Signe Gossmann, DW at YAV, Youth Action Volunteers will leave the programme first of May.
Lisbeth Jensen, Information DW will end the contract first of May.
Both have been in Tanzania for the last 21 months.

New Intern

From February to June this year Ditte Lauritzen Mwahalukwa is based at the country office as intern.
She is studying for her master at Centre for African Studies at University of Copenhagen.
During her stay she is attached to Topic Team 3 and does a research on Land Rights, one of the new focus areas in MS Tanzania.
For contributions to the newsletter or further information please contact lisbeth@mstan.or.tz