MUAFAKA Negotiations

THE MUAFAKA NEGOTIATIONS.

INTRODUCTION.

MUAFAKA is a Swahili word which means ACCORD in English.Muafaka is the term which was commonly used to refer to the commonwealth brokered accord. The Muafaka Negotiation followed increased tension in Zanzibar on parties, CUF and CCM that had resulted from domestic and international aftermath of the 1995 elections in the awake of the state brutality and repression against the opposition. The first muafaka was signed on June 9^th, 1999 while the second was signed on the October 10^th, 2001.

The negotiations was in essence an agreement to cooperate in the spirit of reconciliation, democratization, the promotion of human rights and the quest for good Governonce.The dialogue that eventually resulted in the accord was formally initiated by among others Brigadier General Hashim Mbita, Ambassador Abbas Syskes, Ambassador Sued and Hon Joseph Warioba in their individual capacities in 1996 out of concern for the stalemate that followed the 1995 elections.

The secretary general of Commonwealth at that time Chief Emeka Anyoaku joined in the mediation in February 1998.Dr Moses Anafu from the Commonwealth was assigned the specific task of mediating the tensions between the two parties. This papers content will continue giving out the strength and weaknesses of negotiations since its establishment and finally I will give recommendations on the way forward for peaceful transfer of power in Tanzania.

STRENGTH OF THE MUAFAKA NEGOTIATION.

•The Negotiations led to reform of the electoral laws.

The introduction of two important constitutional amendments, namely the 8^th and 9^th these provided for review of the electoral laws and a reform of the composition of ZEC that is Zanzibar Electoral Commission , hence generating more confidence in the process by the opposition. In amending the electoral laws Muafaka 2 made the following stipulations:

(a)The powers of the Director of Elections were reduced, such that the directorate was made to work upon the instructions of the ZEC.

(b)The previously absolute powers of the sheha (village leader) over voter registration were reduced. The importance of this reform lies in the fact that shehas are political appointees and as such staunch ruling party supporters.

(c)The residence requirements law enabling a person to participate in elections after moving into a new area was reduced from 5 to 3 years, thus enabling more Zanzibaris who changed residence to participate in the elections.

•Reform of Zanzibar electoral commission (ZEC).

One of the most important reforms introduced by Muafaka negotiation was the reconstruction of ZEC from its original composition. Thus, ZEC was reconstituted to provide the following:

(i)The inclusion of two members appointed upon the advice of the official opposition.

(ii)Two members were to be appointed upon the advice of the leader of government business in the house.

(iii)The Director of Elections was to be appointed by the president on the advice of the ZEC.

(iv)The ZEC was empowered to appoint its own returning officers.

•Establishment of the office of Director of prosecutions (DPP).

This appointment was informed by the need to separate the government and the ruling party from the DPPs office, as well as to improve upon the expeditious and fair administration of the system criminal justice. The DPPs office was removed from the Attorneys Generals chambers and established an independent department, under the ministry of constitutional affairs and Good Governance. In this case the DPP can execute his assignment with competence and impartiality.

•The leadership of two parties has developed a cordial relationship through the mechanism of the inter-party commission. This ensures that any grievances between the parties are amicably resolved.

•Muafaka negotiation stimulated a spirit of good neighborliness among zanzibaris.This minimizes the hatred that was developed between political affiliation members.eg before negations talking to person from different party was deemed treacherous, to such extent that a brother could not attend a social cultural gathering, such as the wedding of another if he belonged to a different party affiliation. The interaction between the parties has certainly resulted in decreased political tension, evidenced by the minimization of clashes between the different party members and the reduction of political cases in court.

Other strengths are:-

•The compilation of a credible voters register.

•The institution of a program of civic education as well as a review of the constitution.

•Recruitment procedures and training of the police has commenced.

WEAKNESSES OF MUAFAKA NEGOTIATIONS.

•There was articulated opinion that the agreement has not substantially addressed the bitterness amongst the people accrued from the history of political hostilities that led to the signing of the agreement. In other words, MUAFAKA has remained so exclusive that it has not been effectively translated down to the Grassroots communities.

•The grassroots have not been sufficiently involved in the debates about reconciliation, nor in the progress towards its achievement. In other words while the authority of the political elite was useful to stop the many tensions that existed in Zanzibar society at the time the process of reconciliation was commenced. There is no institutional framework to ensure the involvement of the people. Neither was ZEC given the mandate to disseminate the essential principles and understandings that make up MUAFAKA. Since Muafaka is not embedded in the minds and hearts of the people, it is easy for the principles of the agreement to be abandoned, at best, or even for an incitement to violence, at worst.

•The non involvement of other political actors.

While it is appreciated that initially MUAFAKA had to mainly target CCM and CUF being the two parties that had contribute most to the existing political crisis, the agreement should have embraced the other parties that operate on the Zanzibar political scene. This would have broadened the debate to embrace different point of view, as well as to expand the political arrangement beyond the two most important actors.

•Personalization of MUAFAKA.

On the other hand the commitment of the two secretariats General CUF (Seif Sharif Hamad) and of CCM (Yusuf Makamba) was commended as an illustration of the topmost commitment of the party. Process should be institutionalized in order to involve the party organs and demonopolise the control of the process by the two main actors, rather than continuing to depend on the goodwill of only a few prominent personalities in the party bureaucracies. In sum, the process, the impression that has been created is that without them, the process would come to naught.

•CCM participation in the accord.

CCM is much more visible as government, than it is as party. According to this point of view, the fact that CCM representatives are busy elsewhere (especially in government) has affected their participation in the MUAFAKA.e.g The co chairperson of CCM is also CCM general secretary, member of Parliament as well as member of the National executive committee of the ruling party. It is also recognized that the CO- chair from the CUF is the leader of the opposition.

Other weaknesses are:-

•Lack of popular participation in the process, being restricted to CUF and CCM.

•With the exception of the political party branch levels, there is no institutional framework to ensure the involvement of the people in the debates about reconciliation, nor in the progress towards its achievement.

•MUAFAKA is specifically tied to the electoral process and its outcome.

•No provision was made for monitoring the agreement.

•There was no mechanism for the implementation of the compact; instead the agreement largely depended on the good will of the parties, with the interparty, committee having only an advisory status.

•Commonwealth was merely a moral guarantor of the accord; nothing was done from the organ to enforce the implementation of the agreement as an external agent.

•Thus the accord remains dead letter due to lack of political commitment.

WAY FORWARD TOWARDS PEACEFUL TRANSFER OF POWER IN TANZANIA.

•There is the need to address those historical questions that continue to affect the political situation in Zanzibar and particularly the fundamental issues of the union, democracy, human rights and the relationship between Unguja and Pemba.

•Mechanisms for civic and political education and especially for the promotion of greater citizenship participation/multiparty democracy need to be put in place in Zanzibar.

•The independence of the judiciary should be entrenched in the constitution, through ensuring security of tenure and the creation of a credible and independent of judicial service commission.

•CUF and CCM need to be more tolerant and appreciative of each other as political competitors. There is an acute need in Zanzibar to move away from “the winners take all” attitude.

•It is essential to have a frank, candid and comprehensive discussion of all aspects of the union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar with a focus not only on what the union was intended to be, but also on what it has actually evolved into and in which direction the peoples of Tanzania and Zanzibar want it to develop.

•There should be stern strategies to develop the extreme underdevelopment in certain areas especially Pemba and remove selfish interest.

•Competent forum for political parties should be initiated to discuss and solve their problems through dialogue.

CONCLUSION.

•Muafaka is not well constituted as a forum for wide constitutional public debate. There is particular problem with MUAFAKA regarding its representative ness and inclusiveness. In short, there is a need to establish amore embracing mechanism that covers a wider spectrum of opinion and interest.

•MUAFAKA deals mainly with political (especially the electoral) dimensions, but there are many issues that are the cause of tensions on the island.However, it is limited to the two main parties who certainly cannot be viewed as representative of all Zanzibar’s, whether politically or otherwise. In other words the constitutional dialogue should encompass varied interests and be conducted in an open environment to stimulate free discussion over the controversial and emotional issues.

REFERENCE.

Joseph Oloka Onyango&Maria Nassali (2003): Constitutionalism and Political Stability in Zanzibar: The Search for a New Vision. A report of the fact finding mission organized under the Auspices of Kituo Cha Katiba.

Causes and impact of political economic and social conflict in Africa

Introduction.

Conflict in Africa is one of the problems affecting the real development of African people. It had taken enormous lives from the Biafran war that consumed over a million lives to the Rwandan genocide that liquidated over 800, 000 lives in just 100 days of ethnic rampage. This ugly inhumane phenomenon continues in Africa. Millions of people are currently displaced in Africa as a result of conflicts. These victims are miserably living as refugees in places other than their native homes. It is estimated that over 9 million Africans are currently living as refugees as a result of wars, and regional conflicts. Causes of conflicts in Africa can be summarized as follows;- Political corruption, lack of respect for the rule of law, human rights violations, others are tribalism or tribal polarism, religious polarism, artificially established boarders by colonial masters,poverty,competition for economic resources and regionalism. All these factors are inter-related, and manipulated by the first factor which is bad leadership. Few countries in Africa with good leadership have been very stable. African leaders are hereby called upon to stand up to the task of good governance, or pave way for the right leaders. Africans in general are called upon to vote out corrupt and inept leaders, and usher in a people's oriented leadership. African Union is called to task to ensure good governance in Africa. Let the guns implode, the wooden barrels decompose to fertilize a vibrant agriculture, and the metallic barrels and structures melted for industrialization. Let the ensuing abundance fill up the greedy, for the complete healing of Africa. This paper will eloquently analyze the major causes and impacts of political, economic and social conflict in Africa and Tanzania in general. And finally give recommendation of measures towards healing process.

Theoretical literature review.

Recent years have seen many regions of Africa involved in war being caused by internal or external conflict, from democratic republic of Congo (DRC) to the Sierra Leone crisis and the war in the Ethiopia/Eritrea and the various other civil wars. It is estimated that not less than 28 sub Saharan African states have been at the war since 1980.From this wars there have been over 9.5 million refugees and hundreds and thousands of people have been slaughtered, according to the US committee for refugees 2001.

Causes of Conflict in Africa is as follows;-

First, conflict in Africa is inextricably related to poverty, particularly the lack of human capital which influences the probability of civil war. Poverty means that young men have no stake in staying where they are. Joining a rebel army becomes a viable employment opportunity where job markets do not incorporate youth note NRA-Uganda, Liberia and Somalia.

Second, conflict in Africa is caused by inequitable sharing of valuable natural resources. This failure was led to a number of conflicts and exacerbated many others. And whenever territories rich in natural resources are captured by marauding militias, these resources are most often looted providing the private funding to continue conflict, as it happening in Angola and DRC (Democratic republic of Congo).Angola has seen an estimated 500,000 people killed since 1989 and an estimated 3 million refugees. It is also being torn apart due to resources such as diamonds and offshore oil, with various factions fighting for these prices supported by multinational corporations and other governments.

Third, conflicts in Africa are facilitated by dysfunctional governments characterized by weak, undemocratic economic and political institution. There are many cases where the failure by governments to address national grievances has led to conflict and war. Clearly civil conflict is less probable in a full democracy. The more democratic the society, the more it has outlets for frustration and ways to seek solutions. The more governments responds to the issues people have the lower risk of civil wars.

Fourth, polarized societies risk fracture. Contrary to what so many analysts have said about how Africa can never be stable with so many ethinicities, the evidence is that ethnic and religious diversity is a stabilizing force. There is a higher risk of civil wars in polarized societies (even if they are ethnically more homogeneous) than in more diverse societies. Diversity makes societies safer by reducing the probability of ethnic conflicts, as it is simply more expensive and complicated to foment trouble in diverse societies. Even if conflicts do break out in pluralistic societies, they tend to last for shorter periods, as it is harder for rebels to be cohesive.

We know the results when poverty is high, natural resources endowments are managed inequitably, governments are undemocratic and societies are polarized. The results are conflicts and the costs are terrible. War is undoubtedly the destroyer of economic development on our continent. As we saw tragically in Rwanda, Liberia and Sierra Leone, civil war not only devastates the lives of civilians; it damages the environment, it wreaks havoc on social, education and health services, it traumatizes whole generations of youth, and it forces people to abandon homes and farming land, engulfing once stable family units in flood of refugees. Statistically enormous lives from the Biafran war consumed over a million lives to the Rwandan genocide that liquidated over 800, 000 lives in just 100 days of ethnic rampage. The price of Liberia’s conflict: 200,000 Liberians were murdered and over one and a half million displaced. Many of the most educated Liberians now live out of the country, most with no apparent plans to return. While the active conflict has ended, ethnic enmity simmers, and continues to be exploited by ambitious persons in and out of Liberia. Some observers point out that even the present government is not immune from using ethnic tensions to its own end.

J.Brian Atwood, former head of the US foreign aid agency, USAID commented that “failed states” (which included a number of African countries suffering from conflict), threaten our nation, they cost us too much, they create diseases that impact on us, they destabilize other nations, they stymie economic growth and they deny us economic opportunity in the largest new market place-the developing world (Esman and Herring 2001).

Empirical literature review.

Zanzibar consists of two main islands, Unguja and Pemba that together comprise 2,332 square km. with the former making up 67% and the later 37% of the total land sea. The islands had a population of 979,637 people according to the 2002 census. Zanzibar is united by a common language Kiswahili which is spoken by all and is both the lingua franca and the language of official business on the island. The Island together joined with Tanganyika in 26^th April 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania.

These islands are faced with conflicts which exist among them and impart dichotomy as will be diagnosed from political, economic and social perspectives. In political dimensions, many of the Zanzibar political problems have witnessed their most intense expression during the periods of electoral competition, particularly following the introduction of multiparty politics to the country. It is apparent from the beginning that many politicians in Zanzibar particularly those who had benefited from the monopoly of the single party were not keen to open up to multiparty. A good number of Zanzibar’s electoral problems were attributed to politicians for their unwillingness to submit themselves to the people’s choice. The intense struggle is between CUF and CCM parties.

During the pre independence period there was an equal representation of ministers from Pemba and Unguja.However, there is also a submission that even the British had an administrative policy of not giving leadership positions to wapemba.The political cleaverage worsened after the revolution, with the wapemba victimized for their perceived lack of participation in the 1964 revolution. Accordingly, there were only few wapemba in the revolutionary council. The relationship was aggravated with CCM having lost all the 21 seats of Pemba in the 1995 elections and winning only 5 seats in the 2000 elections, which in any event, was seriously contested result.

This enhanced the perception of all Wapemba being seen as opposition. There is claim made that there has never been a president, chief Justice or speaker of the house from Pemba.Additionally,the army, police, Jeshi la Kujenga uchumi(JKU),prison service and kikosi maalum cha kuzuia magendo(KMKM) are allegedly hesitant to employ a person of “Arab origin”. In fact since the assassination of Karume, no person of Arab, Goan, Indian, or commorian origin have been appointed to any of the above institutions.

In economic dimension the conflicts emerge in the fact that Pemba contributes 85% of the Zanzibar’s cloves and constitutes about 40% of the population, thus there is an inequitable distribution of infrastructure, power and opportunities, such as state scholarship. This has made the wapemba believe that the waunguja simply dislike. As such, the sudden deflation of the cost of cloves from shs 3,000/- to 1000/- within six months of political elections in 2000 is perceived as punishment for the pembas lack of political support to the CCM government. The counter point to this argument is that the deflation of the clove prices is attributed to the world trade, and the clove boom in Indonesia. Furthermore, the claim of economic marginalization is also a sham, given that Pemba is agriculturally richer has more university graduates than Unguja and has a large population of successful migrants in the business sector on the mainland.

In social perspectives there are religious tensions that are further compounded by the allegations from the western countries of growing Islamic fundamentalism in Zanzibar, particularly Pemba. The extreme poverty and oppression make Pemba a potential breeding ground for terrorism.

Impacts of Zanzibar conflicts.

-The travel advisories issued by the USA and the Britain have adversely affected the tourism industry.

-Women face gender specific violence during elections, for example the Mbita commission reported that 22 women claimed to have been raped and eighteen were harassed and subjected to attempted rape, the tearing of cloths and touching of the private parts. This impact led to in 1998, the Zanzibar government pass the sexual offenses (special provisions ACT) aimed at protecting the dignity of women and children.

-The same time Hashim Mbita report on 4^th November 2002 established that 31 people were killed, 48 suffered permanent disability and 243 people suffered injuries. Over 2000 Tanzanian fled to shimoni on the Kenyan coast as refugees. The reprisal was followed with at least two weeks of beatings, mass arrests and various forms of harassment and intimidation meted out against populace.

-The phenomena lead to social economic destruction and stagnation of the economy since during the violence economic activities do not operate smoothly.

Policy literature review.

The TANZANIA Development Vision of 2025 focuses on building a sold foundation for a competitive and dynamic economy with high productivity in the country by looking on five main attributes which are high quality livelihood,peace,stability and unity, Good Governance, A well educated and learning society and a competitive economy capable of producing sustainable growth and shared benefits. Although Tanzania has enjoyed national unity, peace and stability for long time these attributes must continue to be cultivated, nurtured and sustained as important pillar. For the nation to reach this level there is a need to create an open and democratic society that provides equal opportunity to every person. This entails creation of an active and participatory civil society in the articulation of its needs and in taking pride to fulfill its societal responsibilities.

The Mkukuta which is five years strategic plan strives to meet the nation vision through achieving structures and systems of governance as well as the rule of law that are democratic, participatory, representative, accountable and inclusive. The policy also address the need for equitable allocation of public resources and effective control of corruption, promote effective public service frame work in place to provide foundation for service delivery improvements and poverty reduction and finally the rights of the poor and vulnerable groups are protected and promoted in the justice system.

Recommendation.

The right to life and security is the most basic of human rights. Without increased investment in conflict prevention, Africa will not make the rapid acceleration in development that its people seek. Responsibility for resolving conflict in Africa should lie primarily with Africans, but there is much more the developed world can do to strengthen conflict prevention. Investing in development is itself an investment in peace and security.

The African societies need to be sensitized to use the democratic election mechanism at its disposal to elect good incorruptible and responsible leaders with personal integrity, committed to the development of society and to the pursuit of the interests and welfare of the whole society.

Election committees should be selected by the independent body such as judiciary or parliament and not with the president to make the committee operate smoothly without interferences.eg in Tanzania Zanzibar election committee and National electoral agency (NEC), its members are elected by the president.

African Government should reduce the political and social exclusion as well as cultivate the culture of tolerance. This can be done through development of political and social systems as well as institutions that allow for full participation of all citizens, including poor and vulnerable groups. Dialogue on human rights, reduction of poverty and peace will be promoted among political leaders.

The international community must also adopt more effective and legally binding agreements on territorial and exterritorial arms brokering, and common standards on monitoring and enforcement. This agreement could be integrated into a comprehensive Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).

Conclusion.

Most of African causes of conflict come out as the impact of political monopoly and poverty. Political monopoly led to poor governance and undemocratic principles compounded by human rights violations, lack of respect for the rule of law and political corruption. Poor governance has caused Africans poverty, but also according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), economic conditions imposed by the IMF and the World Banks were the dominant influence on the economic policy in the two decades to 2000, a period in which Africans income per head fell by 10% and income of the poorest 20% of people fell by 2%per year. Hence as well as looking into the urgent and critical issues of corruption, mismanaged leadership and governance in Africa, external factors resulting from geopolitical power play must be considered. African countries should preach different from those of greed, individualism, economic injustice and violence and emphasis to African concept of UTU OR UBUNTU OR MUNDU reflecting needs of social collectivism, self reliance, peace, love and forgiveness. As the African winner of the Nobel Peace Price, Wangari Maathai, said in her acceptance speech in December 2004:

Let us------intensify our commitment to our people, to reduce conflicts and poverty and thereby improve their quality of life. Let us embrace democratic governance, protect human rights and protect our environment. I am confident we shall rise to the occasion. I have always believed that solutions to most of our problems must come from us.

References.

Agenda participation in Tanzania 2001: A manual on the ten principles for a

democratic culture for conflict reduction in Tanzania, FES, Tanzania.

Dr SINDA (2004): The role of the late Mwalimu Nyerere in the conflict

resolution in the great African lake region, Institute of development

studies, UDSM.

Esman and Herring (2001): Carrots, Sticks and Ethnic conflicts, rethinking

Development Assistance-University of Michigan Press. Chapter 3

USAID and Ethnic Conflict: Epiphany? By Heather S.McHugh, P 54

KCK-Zanzibar constitutionalism and political stability-Muafaka and the search

for a new Vision.

(URT- June2005)National strategy for growth and reduction of Poverty

(NSGRP)-Vice presidents Office.

The Tanzania Development Vision 2025.

Global Witness (December 1998): A rough Trade; The role of Companies and

Governments in the Angolan Conflict.

The Zambian Connection: Ukranian plane came to deliver UNITA diamonds?

from the monitor for Human Rights and Development, issue 101, April

7-13, 2000 also reports on the Diamond and Zambia connection.

Bob Geldof (2005): Our common interest-an argument, commission for Africa,

Clays ltd, st Ives plc.www.penguin .com

Challenges facing community development organizations

Introduction.

These days, there are myriad problems that affect, and sometimes paralyze us. We often feel powerless to change a system that seems too vast to navigate and too bureaucratic to care. We don’t think that we have the power to make a difference. Many have found hope in a process called ‘Community Organizing’, which helps people transform that feeling of powerlessness into action. This paper explains the concept of community organizing in a society and to what extent it imparts changes in a given area. The paper is focusing on portraying the activities of Non Governmental organization named Community development and relief trust in Geita district (CODERT) and its objective of organizing the marginalized people towards economic empowerment, and will observe challenges it faces and what measures to be taken to strengthen the organizing towards poverty eradication.

Theoretical literature review.

Community Organizing.

Community organizing is a process by which people are brought together to act in common self interest to recognize and honor their individual and collective voices by working to transform their communities. While organizing describes any activity involving people interacting with one another in a formal manner. In short community organizing refers to organized individuals in pursuit of a common agenda. Community organizers create social movements by building a base of concerned people, mobilizing these community members to act, and developing leadership from and relationship among the people involved.

Community organizing explicitly seeks to build the power base of the poor so that they can affect and change the public policies and private market forces that create and sustain social and economic inequality (Henry Allen yams foundation).

Community organizing is usually more focused on more than just resolving specific issues. Organizing is empowering all community members, often with the end goal of distributing the power equally throughout the community. The history of community organizing is intertwined with the settlement house movement of the 19^th c as they are with the protest movements of the 1960s.

Over the decades, community organizing has increased its sophistication and networking for greater impact and wider results. Today community organizing fields encompasses varied philosophies, approaches, organizational arrangements, actors, priorities issues and constituencies. Community organizing has taken root in both urban and rural settings. It enables ordinary people to work effectively together for change often with significant impact at the block, neighbourhood, community, city and the country as well as the regional. Various racial, ethinic groups and other disadvantaged or disenfranchised groups use community organizing to fight for fairness and equity.

Types of community organizing.

(i)Grassroots organizing.

It is a value based process where people are brought together to act in the interests of their communities and common goal. It is a strategy that revitalizes communities and allows the individuals to participate and incite social change. In this organizing the community groups are built from the scratch, develop new leadership where none existed and organize the unorganized.

(ii)Faith based community organizing.

Refers to a deliberate methodology of developing the power and relationships throughout a community of institutions such as congregations, unions and associations. The work of Saul Alinsky, the founder of industrial areas foundation, spurred new thought and new blood into community movement.Alinsky promoted greater awareness of community organizing in academic cycles in the mid 1900.There are now 180 FBCO in the US as well as in the south Africa and other nations. Local organizations are often linked through organizing networks such as industrial areas foundations.

(iii)Coalition building.

Efforts seeking to unite existing groups such as churches, civic associations and social clubs, to a more effective pursuit of a common agenda. Community organizing is not solely the domain of the progressive politics, as dozens of fundamentalist organizations has sprung up, such as Christian coalition. Additionally political campaigns often claim that their door to door operations are in fact an effort to organize the community, often these operations are focused exclusively on voter identification and turn out. Currently there is increasing community organizing in terms of financial capital to fight against poverty and have alternatives in terms of income.

Principles those are common to most organizing practice.

Power is in the relationship.

Community organizing attempts to reweave the social fabric and rebuild trust within our neighborhoods by bringing people into relationship so that they may better understand their collective concerns and then learn how to act together to transform their communities. Community organizing finds its power in numbers.

Self interest moves people.

‘We are most motivated to act when what we value most is threatened.’ The community’s collective self-interest is what provides the bases for action. In community organizing, residents are considered masters of their experience.Typically, community member’s partner with a paid community organizer from a local nonprofit organization to teach the community organizing process in order to meet their philosophy that forces organize themselves.i.e increase level of productivity, have access to loans and fight social exclusion

Empirical literature review.

CODERT is an acronym for community Development and Relief Trust.CODERT is a non governmental, non religious, non partisan and non profit making organization (NGO).The organization is registered by the ministry of home affairs in Tanzania under the society’s ordinance 1954, with registration number (so.13191).

The organization was formed by fourteen young people with varying professional background and experience; of these 8 are males and 6 females. These young professionals were motivated to assist in the struggle for human centric sustainable development through improvement of social economic conditions of the vulnerable, marginalized and deprived communities in Tanzania, especially the lake zone area with special emphasis to women. Community organized had its philosophy that facilitates people organize themselves in order to increase the level of productivity alternatively by having access to credits.

CODERT Vision.

Capacitate communities to fully utilize available resources towards socio economic improvement of rural and urban poor households in the Lake Victoria zone of Tanzania by the year 2025.

CODERT Mission statement.

Grassroots communities know what they want and shall be fully involved as communities in planning their own lives and activities at the development programs and process.

Project goal.

To strengthen rural household and live hood security in Geita district.

The project objective.

Create a permanent and self replicating system of savings and credit associations in rural areas of Geita District by;

- Establishing self sustaining community based saving and credit groups emphasizing female membership and able to organize, monitor and maintaining savings and credit activities after technical support ceases.

- Training of community trainers-giving appropriate weight to female trainers-to promote the formation of these self sustaining saving and credit groups.

Project strategy.

Group mobilization.

The project is mobilizing self funding groups of between 25 to 30 members giving priority to women in 33 wards of Geita district. The expected number of groups is 525 which will directly benefit 10,500 household members. Currently a total of 126 HISA(Household income and Saving Associations) groups have been formed with assistance of expertise from CODERT, and the organization in now operating in seven wards of kalangalala,Kagu,Mtakuja,katoro,ihanamilo,kasamwa and Nyarugusu with a total membership of 3578 (1098 male and 2420 females).

Achievements.

-Total of 83 Village saving and loan association groups have been formed, most of the formed VS&LAs groups are of mixed(male&female)membership with 69.6% women membership and 60% of leadership is women. All the formed Village Saving and Loans Associations groups are active and operational. Members are competitively depositing their shares and getting loans out of their savings with reasonable interest rate of 10%.

-Through organized groups participants, particularly women, improve their social and

economic well being.

-Members make more efficient use of their economic resources.

-Women access and control over household resources is enhanced.

-Members indicate that their vulnerability to seasonal and unpredictable shocks is reduced because of their village saving &loan association membership.

-Members succeed to pay school fees and health services and improve their children’s

diet.

-Members are now able to purchase household and productive assets with savings

accumulated in the village saving & loan association groups and from enterprise effort.

-Members engage in and expand, their income generating activities as a result of savings and credit obtained through the VS&LA group.

Challenges facing the operation of codert.

-The organization is facing shortage of funds, groups formed depends on shares bought by members. Community organization has no alternative to increase the capital.

-The district is wide and communities are spersed, these create the communication problems and service delivering to group members inadequate.

-Poverty in rural areas hinders community members not to join groups, because they lack money to buy Shares. Many rural residents depends on agriculture which is mostly affected by weather conditions.

-Increase of micro credit institutions raises competition to the activities of CODERT due to emerging of culprits who join the groups and at the same time have credits from other credit institutions.

Policy Review.

Tanzania Government is working perpendicular with the Millennium Development Goals towards eradication of extreme poverty and hunger this is through reduction by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger and the proportion of people living on less than one US dollar a day by raising income. Tanzania vision of 2025 starts with emphasis on the attainment of Gender equality and empowerment of women in all socio economic and political relations and cultures. That is why community organized and its philosophy gives 70% of the member in the group to be women.The vision needs to develop a culture and habit of saving and investment investing productively to generate wealth for individuals, households, communities as well as a nation. A culture of wealth creation and accumulation for development must be reinforced by culture of maintenance to prevent unnecessary loss of capital stock. The MKUKUTA which translate the Tanzania development vision 2025 also emphasis the increasing access to rural/the need urban poor with macro financial services for subsistence farmers particularly targeting youth and women by promoting and sustain community based savings and credit schemes such as SACCOS and Revolving Funds.

Recommendation.

-The Government should put much effort in investing in rural infrastructure to facilitate marketing of the rural produce.

-Supporting of production of crops with high returns.

-Communities and members in village saving and loan association should have training s on enhancing life skills and entrepreneurships.

-Promoting off farm activities and value addition scheme to primary agricultural, fishing, forest, wildlife and livestock products through agro processing and cooperatives.

Conclusion.

The purpose of community organizing is to fight poverty especially in rural areas/the urban poor. A single person cannot fight poverty

Reference:

The Geita VS&LA Project (July to September, 2007); Quarterly Progress Report.

National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP) –June 2005.

Tanzania Development Vision 2025.

Robert Fisher and Peter Romanofsky (1981), Community Organizing for Urban Social

Change: A Historical Perspective (Greenwood Press).

ISBN 978-0313214271

Robert Fisher, Let the People Decide: Neighborhood Organizing in America (1984;

Twayne Publishers, 1997). ISBN 978-0805738599

Neil Betten and Michael J. Austin (1990), The Roots of Community Organizing, 1917-

1939 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press). ISBN 0-87722-662-8