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Zanzibar poverty reduction strategies given shot in the arm
2006-05-10 08:54:50
By Issa Yussuf, Zanzibar
Hope for achievement in poverty reduction strategies increased on Monday in Zanzibar, after representatives from the small scale entrepreneurs witnessed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Zanzibar Fund for Self Reliance (ZFSR) and Swisscontact, aiming at promoting coconut-based products made by small scale women entrepreneurs.
The audience at the signing ceremony held in Zanzibar’s Stone Town, heard the regional director for SwissContact Dr Ralph Engelmann say: ’Our project activities in East Africa aim at helping particularly small businessmen and women and make in this way a contribution to poverty reduction.’
He added: ’We believe the project has a great potential to increase income and employment for rural women in Zanzibar.
While we are now happy to start this project and aiming at good and positive results we are already thinking of other project ideas, like the improvement of beekeeping in Pemba.’
He said Swisscontact is a private foundation for development, established 50 years ago, and has been supporting small scale developmental projects in about 40 countries around the world including Tanzania mainland for 30 years, but it is the first time to operate in Zanzibar.
He said their focus in Africa has been on vocational education in West Africa (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Benin), on small business promotion in East and South Africa, and promotion of financial services in east Africa.
’In collaboration with ZFSR we intend to identify new products opportunities, organize study visits for women to Mombassa and Sri Lanka, introduce new technologies to the women, promote the products and organise marketing,’ he said.
In her welcoming note, ZFSR’s Executive Director, Asha Khalfani Mohammed acknowledged Swisscontact’s support of 155.4m/- for the project that is to cost 178.5m/-. Part of the money (23.1m/-) will be contributed by the ZFSR.
’We believe at the end of the project, the targeted small scale women entrepreneurs will be able to produce qualitative coconut-based products of high standard.
Women are the agents of change and change is development,’ Khalfani said.
According to the Asya Mohamed, the project coordinator, three groups from South Unguja — Siri Moyoni, Mezea, and Tusibabaishwe would benefit first from the project before moving to other parts of Unguja and Pemba Island.
She said in the first phase of the project 15 (ten in Unguja) small scale groups with at least 35 members each would be supported.
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