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Emergence of local funds for development good - expert
2008-04-03 08:33:44
By Moris Lyimo
The emergence of numerous local development funds in Tanzania is an encouraging trend which the government and other development partners should keenly support, a foreign expert has hinted.
The UK based lecturer at the Leicester University Dr. Claire Mercer calls such funds `home associations`, linking them to sections of Tanzania`s civil society with great impact to the national development.
She made the remarks at a policy dialogue seminar organised by the Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF) at weekend.
In her presentation on `Civil Society, Development and Migrant: The case of Rungwe and Newala Districts``, she said her research in the two areas has proved that home associations can contribute to the improvement of the quality of life in rural areas.
The so called home associations are often established by diaspora—the sojourners who have left their villages for reasons of employment or trade mostly in urban areas.
They often get themselves organised as `development funds or trustees` and mobilise cash through fund raising campaigns or connections with home based or foreign donors.
Resources thus obtained are channeled to specific projects related to education, health and water supply back home.
In her two case studies, she said it was obvious that home associations were `taking on the greatest burden in education improvement by contributing household levies and providing labour.
Since mid-1990s, she said, two home associations in Rungwe District,--- the Rungwe East Development Foundation (RUEDEFO) and Rungwe West Development Foundation (RUWEDEFO) have been quite instrumental in fostering development in the area.
``These associations, both of which were the initiative of the Constituency Member of Parliament (MP), are constitutionally established and registered as trust funds with the Ministry of Home Affairs to show that these are formal associations.
They need empowering`, she insisted.
Each association has a Chairman (not the MP), a Secretary and Treasurer, all drawn from among the higher ranks from Dar es Salaam`s civil servants and business community, she added.
For instance, RUEDEFO has mobilised 1.7m/- collected for construction of form five and six at Lufilyo Girls High School.
Fundraising is normally done among friends and colleagues as well as among members, said Dr. Mercer, adding that: `in this way, `non-initiatives` contribute to the development of Rungwe, thus securing a reciprocal contribution for their own home based development obligations when they arise`.
In another instance, the Newala Development Foundation (NDF) has spent its share of local crops from cashewnuts, together with local labour and support from the Dar es Salaam based diaspora to construct seven secondary schools to form four.
NDF contributed over 14,000 desks and invested in five minibuses to provide transport to the public and for pupils. Among the constructed schools by NDP are Tandahimba Girls (1990), Mnyambe (1992), Mahuta Luagala and Kitangari (1996) Nangwanda Girls (1994).
One weakness that seems to be besetting those associations was lack development professionals who could establish links with donors.
With professional support, home associations could establish informal learning groups in the urban diasporas where ideas and information is exchanged, proposing that the Foundation for Civil Society which has already made grants to several home associations could take a lead in such an endeavour.
The government, on its part, could work with their envoys like Tanzania High Commission in London to identify and connect associations with development projects at home.
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