Tanzania will carry out a countrywide cities’ survey to identify their status, business opportunities and problems they face in a number of areas in order to bring about sustainable development.

The problems areas that will be of concern include infrastructure, safety, security, productivity and activities conducted in those cities.

This was revealed at the weekend by Prof Alphonce G. Kyessi, Associate Director at Institute of Human Settlements Studies, Ardhi University at the just-ended course on data collection preparation and analysis tools for state of the cities report.

So far 60 trainers from different municipalities, city councils and experts from different careers have been trained on preparation of data collection and analysis tool for state of the cities report.

Their task will among others be to train enumerators who will carry out the survey, he said.

The survey would be carried out in all regions where there are municipal councils and city councils.

It has been organised to allow for researchers to interact with members of the public, government institutions and the businesses.

He called on the people, government institutions and private sector, to cooperate with the team comprising highly skilled enumerators.

During the course the trainees were trained on how to collect data from different organizations focusing on five areas namely: governance, inclusivity, safety and security, sustainability and productivity in all cities and municipalities.

The obtained data would be used to prepare the state of the cities report in Tanzania as well as help mayors and the government to have a new outlook on the country’s urban entities.

The research would begin on August 15, this year, he said, noting that each city would be  required to prepare its own report before submit it to the university for the preparation of the cities report.

“Our main focus here is just to identify the main activities available in those urban areas so that some can learn from others and prepare a comprehensive strategy to tackle those problems,” he said.

He said the participants are from all municipalities and cities, including Dar es Salaam, Mbeya, Mwanza and Zanzibar including experts from TCCI, NGOs and other institutions.

The survey has been organised by Ardhi University in collaboration with Tanzania Cities Network to enable the cities know their status.