LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

The climate is changing in Tanzania! Not only the weather, but also the political climate.

The political events over the last few weeks have certainly had an impact on the way many Tanzanians feel about politics. Newspapers are being read more vigorously and many more people seem to feel part of the processes – that is a very significant democratic development.

The feeling of being able to make a difference – the feeling of being able to influence the political processes through popular pressure, through actively demonstrating dissatisfaction with the way things are being done.

At MS Tanzania’s recent Annual Meeting this new found confidence was clearly demonstrated. The urge to enter into dialogue with government institutions was clearly expressed. The understanding of the importance of challenging authorities in a constructive and participatory way is growing as is the perception of government institutions being there to serve citizens – and not the other way round!

The political developments over the last weeks and the impact it most certainly will have on citizens’ engagement in public affairs put into the right perspective the focus of MS Tanzania on building local democracy. Democracy in Tanzania cannot and shall not be build by MS or any other organisation - we can support the processes and we can bring in valuable experiences and ideas. Building democracy will at the end of the day have to be done by the citizens of this country. Over the last few weeks Tanzanians have demonstrated that they are getting serious about that project!

Flemming Winther Olsen
Country Director

CALENDAR

Monday, March 3, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm at the Country Office:
Land Rights Working Group. Kristian Sloth from MS Denmark will participate and the group is to constitute itself in this meeting.

Tuesday, March 4, 9:00 am at the Country Office:
Training in ‘Groove’ (a notice has been sent to relevant participants).

Wednesday, March 5, Seperate TT meetings:
TT1 in the guesthouse, TT2 in Flemming’s Office and TT3 in the Resource Centre.

The Agricultural Working Group will meet in the Board Room

Thursday, March 6, at the Country Office:
Joint TT meeting. 9:00 am to 1:00 pm

DW Day on Education in Tanzania, Status and Challenges. Facilitated by TRC Coalition, from 2;00 pm.

DW Day has originally been planned to take place on Friday, March 7, but we will try to see if we can deal with current issues after the Groove training on Tuesday, hence avoiding a meeting Friday. (To be decided when DWs meet on Tuesday.)

March 10 to 14, at the Country Office:
Training in web management. Nine organisations are invited to participate in a five day course conducted by Jesper Mogensen. The invited organisations will receive a programme by email.

DW-Days and Topic Team Meetings in 2008
Week 23 - June 2-6, 2008
Week 39 - September 22-26, 2008
Week 49 - December 1-5, 2008

CONTACT

MS Tanzania
463 Charambe Street, Upanga
P.O.Box 2519, Dar es Salaam
Tanzania.

Tel: +255-22-2117945/8
Fax: +255-22-2115913

mstan@mstan.or.tz
www.ms.dk/tanzania

MS TANZANIA

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.

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 can unsubscribe here, too.

ANNUAL MEETING
The annual meeting took place at MS TCDC in Arusha from February 18-20, 2008. Find here the annual reports in English and in Kiswahili.

English (PDF 168KB)

Kiswahili (PDF 162KB)

THE AGRICULTURAL WORKING GROUP (AGW)
The group had a planning meeting in Morogoro from February 4 to 6, 2008. Some of the key issues in the meeting were the work plan for 2008, review of the objectives of the AWG, and defining the mission. The issues prioritized were DADPs (how members of the AWG with their partners strategizing to take advantage of the opportunities provided for by the Districts Agricultural Development Plans (DADPs) and AWG engagement in EU/ Non-State Actors projects, thus the AWG needs to work around those two focus areas for 2008 for knowledge sharing and brokering and advocacy. A learning event on DADPs issues is tentatively set to be by end of September 2008.
 

Read more about the Agricultural Working Group here: http://www.bestpractices.or.tz/

THE MTV-PROGRAMME

On March 1, 2008 MS Tanzania will receive 13 volunteers (10 girls and 3 boys). Seven 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 March-June 2008.The volunteers will participate in 5 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:

• Marie Wiberg and Christina Vega – Friends of Don Bosco - DSM
• David Peter and Christian Bernth: Transcend School - DSM
• Sanne Marie and Nine Troelsen: St. Anne School- KIBAHA
• Nina Askou Hansen & Elisabeth Tanni: Mkuza Youth Association - Kibaha
• Pernile Hoj and Rasmus Sobaek Magelund: St. Francisca - Kibaha
• Maja Klostergaard and Stina Ildor: Good Samaritan center - DSM
• Kamila Jensen: Bahari School - DSM

THE RESOURCE CENTRE

We would like to encourage you to use the Resource Centre primarily after 12 noon. The reasons are that the Resource Centre is used frequently for training of MS partners in web management – and that the use of the computers in the Resource Centre, in particular for up-loading photos, has an impact on the general Internet capacity.

It simply makes it difficult to work with the MS website, Intranet and web management in general. Training of partners in web management will be planned in order to mainly take place before 12 noon - to the extent this is possible.

We are aware that this might not always suit you, and therefore this is not a rule, but a polite notice to plan according to this, and to respect if the Resource Centre needs to be used for the above mentioned activities.

If you have any questions, please ask the Information Officer.

ACTION AID INTERNATIONAL AND MS TANZANIA

You are encouraged to follow the process and give your comments here on the blog

http://www.msblogs.dk/actionaid

PEOPLE

Newly elected members for the Policy Advisory Council (PAC):

• DW Representatives: Marianne Soerensen, Vagn Hansen, Christoph Lodemann
• 1st Substitute, DW Representative: Tina Hansen,
• 2nd Substitute, DW Representative: Webster Miyenda
• 1st Substitute, Partner Representative: Nalongwa Shani
• 2nd Substitute, Partner Representative: Haika Mcharo      

Other:

• DW Representative: Merete Holm
• DW Representative, Substitute: Christoph Lodemann
• Guesthouse Representative: Anders P. Pedersen
  

A new trainee, Florence Mathew, has started in the reception of the MS Tanzania Country Office, and will be with us for the next six months.

You can contact Florence on florence@mstan.or.tz

Katja Rasmussen, our new intern has also arrived from Denmark on February 6, 2008.

You can contact Katja on katja@mstan.or.tz.

CONTACTS ON MS TANZANIA STAFF

Contacts (e-mail and mobile) on all MS CO Staff and DWs are available here: http://www.ms.dk/sw2155.asp.

CONTACT

MS Tanzania
463 Charambe Street, Upanga
P.O.Box 2519, Dar es Salaam
Tanzania.

Tel: +255-22-2117945/8
Fax: +255-22-2115913

mstan@mstan.or.tz

www.ms.dk/tanzania