This September, the Embassy of Sweden launched the Sunflower Oil Market Assessment in preparation of activities under the Agricultural Markets Development Trust (AMDT).
A team of consultants, accompanied by Jwani Jube, Program Officer for Private Sector Development at the Embassy, visited stakeholders in the sunflower value chain in Arusha, Morogoro, Iringa, Dodoma, Singida and Dar es Salaam regions. Groups of stakeholders consulted include large, medium and small scale processors; producers; associations; research and academic institutions; private sector input suppliers; government ministries; financial institutions; NGOs and development partners engaged in the value chain.
Despite the challenges observed in the sunflower value chain, the subsector is growing with increased engagement from the private sector and emerging collaborations between different stakeholders. The subsector has a high potential for income generation and job creation among Tanzanian smallholder farmers and SMEs.
Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer for the World Bank Group, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, will visit Tanzania from September 11 – 14, 2014.
Indrawati is expected to hold high level discussions with President Jakaya Kikwete, President Ali Mohammed Shein of Zanzibar, Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda, and other top Government officials including the Minister of Finance, Saada Mkuya Salum. She will also have meetings with representatives of the private sector, civil society, academia and the media, and she will visit projects financed by the World Bank Group.
Indrawati will be making her first official visit to Tanzania since she was appointed the Bank’s Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer in June 2010.
The World Bank’s current commitment to the Government of Tanzania amounts to $ 3 billion for 23 projects in different sectors, with transport, energy, urban services, education and agriculture taking the lion’s share. Tanzania also benefits from an additional $221 million in World Bank financing for six regional, multi-country projects.
“Tanzania has maintained a strong growth rate over the past decade, in addition to making significant strides in addressing key development needs, for example, in transport infrastructure” says Philippe Dongier, the Country Director for Tanzania, Burundi and Uganda. “The challenge is to make growth more inclusive and to accelerate reduction of poverty. The visit of Sri MulyaniIndrawati is an opportunity to deepen our engagement to help Tanzania address its most pressing needs.”
Before her appointment to her senior leadership role at the World Bank Group, Indrawati was Minister of Finance for Indonesia, one of Asia’s largest economies. Prior to that, as head of the Indonesian National Development Planning Agency, she coordinated government and international reconstruction efforts following its devastating 2004 tsunami.
Neven Mimica (left) will replace Andris Piebalgs as the European Commissioner for Development while Christos Stylianides (right) will replace Kristalina Georgieva as the European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. Photos by: European Commission andOSCE Parliamentary Assembly / CC BY-NC-SA
After months of negotiations with European Union member states over the composition of the bloc’s executive branch following May’s parliamentary elections, European Commission President-elect Jean-Claude Juncker finally confirmed Wednesday the two new faces of EU aid.
Croatian Neven Mimica will become international cooperation and development commissioner, replacing Andris Piebalgs. Christos Stylianides from Cyprus, meanwhile, will take over the humanitarian aid and crisis management portfolio from Kristalina Georgieva, who becomes the new Commission vice president for budget and human resources.
The twin appointments of Mimica and Stylianides — who will shape EU development cooperation and humanitarian aid policy for the next five year Commission term — follow last week’s designation of Federica Mogherini, Italy's recently appointed foreign affairs minister, to succeed Catherine Ashton as high representative and head of the EU External Action Service.
According to a draft roster of new commissioners leaked Sept. 2, Corina Creţu from Romania was poised to secure the humanitarian aid office, while development was set to go to Slovakia’s Maroš Šefčovič, a current Commission vice president and commissioner for interinstitutional relations and administration. However, well-placed sources told Devex that Šefčovič's “perceived demotion” to development “didn't go down well” in Bratislava.
‘Great opportunity’ to strengthen EU aid policy Priorities Ending extreme poverty
So what do we know about the new leaders?
Mimica is a social democrat who has served as European commissioner for consumer protection since July 2013. After studying economics in Zagreb, he began a diplomatic career in Cairo and Ankara, before becoming Croatia’s deputy prime minister for foreign affairs and European integration in 2001. A year before that, the diplomat received his first EU-related post as chief negotiator for the Stabilization and Association Agreement and led his country’s efforts to join the World Trade Organization. In 2004, he was elected as a member of parliament as part of the Social Democratic Party of Croatia, where he has chaired the European Integration Committee.
Both commissioners are expected to coordinate very closely with EU foreign policy chief Mogherini. Mimica in particular “has a big responsibility to make sure that development does not become second best to foreign policy interests,” noted Sabine Terlecki, head of policy and advocacy at CONCORD, the confederation of European relief and development NGOs.Meanwhile, Stylianides belongs to the conservative European People’s Party as a member of the European Parliament. A former MP in his native Cyprus from 2006 to 2013 and government spokesman, as an MEP he sits on two committees: budget; and industry, research and energy. Stylianides is also part of the EU delegations for relations with the United States and Israel.
“There’s a great opportunity to improve coherence and coordination between the different institutions and directorates in the new Commission,” Terlecki added.
In the new commissioners' mission letters, sent Wednesday, Juncker highlighted a number of priorities for each of them to focus on during their mandate.
For EU international cooperation and development policy, the priorities include negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda and for a revised Cotonou Agreement, respect for human rights, good governance and gender equality in the dialogue and assistance programs.
Mimica and Stylianides have also been tasked with enhancing the bloc’s contribution to international cooperation and development; to further coordinate policies, strengthen the EU’s strategic partnership with Africa; and to work closely with commissioners responsible for other cross-cutting policies to ensure that policies are consistent with development goals.
Furthermore, Juncker wants Stylianides to maximize the impact of EU humanitarian aid efforts and collaborate with his predecessor Georgieva to ensure that any commitments made can be financed. He also wants to ensure sound and performance-based management of the budget for humanitarian aid and crisis management.
“Mimica has a golden opportunity to … help developing countries to lift themselves out of poverty,” Tamira Gunzburg, acting director at the ONE Campaign in Brussels, said in a statement welcoming the appointments. “2015, the European Year for Development, is a great occasion for the future commissioner to show the EU’s commitment to end the injustice of extreme poverty,” she stressed.
The new EU development chief himself reacted to his designation on social media.
“I am honored to be nominated commissioner for international cooperation and development in the Juncker team and I am looking forward to the challenges ahead,” Mimica wrote on Twitter a few minutes after his appointment.
If confirmed following parliamentary hustings in October, the new European Commission will take office on Nov. 1.
Meneja wa Kitengo cha Huduma kwa Jamii wa Airtel, Hawa Bayumi(kulia), akikabidhi vitabu vya masomo ya sayansi vyenye thamani yashilingi milioni 4.5/-, kupitia Mradi wa ‘Airtel Shule Yetu’ kwaMwakilishi wa Afisa Elimu ya Sekondari Manispaa ya Temeke, YasinthaKayoza kwa niaba ya shule tatu za sekondari za Mbagala, Mvuti naKambangwa katika hafla iliyofanyika kwenye Shule ya Sekondari yaMbagala jijini Dar es Salaam jana. Kushoto ni Mkuu wa Shule yaSekondari ya Mbagala, Mwalimu Marcelina Kimario.Meneja wa Kitengo cha Huduma kwa Jamii wa Airtel, Hawa Bayumi(mwenye miwani), akiangalia moja ya vitabu vya masomo ya sayansi baadaya kuvikabidhi vitabu vyenye thamani ya milioni 4.5/-, kupitia Mradiwa ‘Airtel Shule Yetu’ kwa shule tatu za sekondari za Mbagala, Mvutina Kambangwa katika hafla iliyofanyika kwenye Shule ya Sekondari yaMbagala jijini Dar es Salaam jana.
A total of 115 home-based care volunteers for Iringa
Mercy Organisation (IMO) in Iringa Region have received bicycles valued at
Sh17.25 million from Tunajali Programme.
The bicycles were
handled over to the volunteers by the acting Iringa regional administrative
secretary (Ras), Mr Nuhu Mwasumile, at the regional commissioner’s office
yesterday.
While handing over the
bicycles, the secretary said that they would increase their efficiency in
providing services to HIV victims in Kilolo District.
Mr Mwasumile urged
volunteers to use the given transport means as intended in pursuit to realise
the programme goals instead of using them for their personal gains.
Senior grant officer
for Tunajali programme in Iringa Region, Ms Leah Lubago, said the bicycles had
been donated under the sponsorship of the American people through United States
Agency for International Development (USaid).
A volunteer from Ruaha
Mbuyuni Ward, Ms Revina Mofuga, said that the bicycles would enable them to
extend services to areas that were not previously covered due to lack of
transport, saying some patients live very far from where the volunteers stay.
“The bikes will
improve service delivery to our clients as will could be able to attend more
HIV victims than how the situation was in the previous time,” said Claud
Kindole from Ilula Sokoni
Thousands of land owned by government primary and secondary schools and even colleges may end up being invaded by untrustworthy persons because there are no demarcations and title deeds that guard them.
Speaking during the School Inspection Week in Kisarawe District, Coast Region on Tuesday, Eastern Zone (Coast and Morogoro) Chief School Inspector Vidajoyce Makunda, said most government schools and colleges are constructed on un-surveyed land and hence unscrupulous people may use this vacuum to put up individual structures.
She said the rate of land invasion and disputes is so high in the country and that he fears that unused land belonging to schools may end up falling in the hands of untrustworthy persons.
The Chief Inspector has therefore directed all district councils and education officers to ensure that they plant trees around the schools to act as boundaries.
She said this should be done when they are still waiting for Lands, Housing and Human Settlement Development ministry to survey the school ‘plots’.
According to her, the government took lands from individuals and promised to compensate them but until now it has not honoured its promise.
She said the government might end up paying huge sums of money as compensation since the value for land keep is appreciating.

Kwa niaba ya Msarifu wa Taasisi Mhe. Benjamin William Mkapa, Bodi ya Wadhamini, Menejimenti na wafanyakazi wa Taasisi ya Benjamin William Mkapa tunatoa shukrani za dhati kwa kuweza kufanikisha harambee ya kuchangia Mradi wa Mkapa Fellows, iliyofanyika jijini Mwanza siku ya Jumamosi, tarehe 23 Agosti 2014 katika ukumbi wa Hotel ya JB Belmont.
Harambee iliyohudhuriwa na wageni karibia 230 iliongozwa na Waziri Mkuu wa Tanzania, Mhe Mizengo Pinda ambae alikuwa mgeni rasmi akiambatana na Raisi mstaafu, Mhe. Benjamin W. Mkapa pamoja na Mama Anna Mkapa.
Harambee hii iliyofanyika na Taasisi ya Benjamin W. Mkapa ni ya mara ya kwanza kutekelezwa na Taasisi nje ya Mkoa wa Dar Es Salaam. Kwa hatua za awali tuliamua kuanzia katika Kanda ya Ziwa, na kuwashirikisha washikadau waliopo katika mikoa sita (6) ya Kanda ya Ziwa. Harambee ilifanikiwa kukusanya kiasi cha Tshs 1.38 billioni na hivyo kuvuka lengo lililowekwa la kukusanya kiasi cha Tsh 500 millioni katika Kanda hiyo.
Kiasi kilichokusanywa kitatumika kutekeleza mradi wa Mkapa Fellows unaoendeshwa na Taasisi ya Benjamin W. Mkapa kwa kushirikiana na Serikali ya Tanzania. Mradi huu wa Mkapa Fellows unatekelezwa katika mizunguko miwili; ambapo mzunguko wa kwanza ulianza Januari 2013 na utamalizika Desemba 2014 na ulifikia Halmashauri sita (6) nchini za Sumbawanga vijijini, Kalambo, Nkasi, Msalala, Kishapu na Biharamulo. Baadhi ya mafanikio ya mradi huu hadi leo, ni pamoja na tumeshaajiri na kuwapeleka katika wilaya hizo 6 wataalam wa afya 30 kati ya lengo la miaka mitano la watalaam 180, na pia ujenzi wa vyumba vya upasuaji 9 kati ya 30 umeshakamilika, na ununuzi na uwekaji wa vifaa vya kutolea huduma pia kukamilika.Fedha za utekelezaji wa mzunguko huu wa kwanza zilifanikiwa kupatikana kupitia mfadhili wa Serikali ya Ireland na wafanyabiashara zaidi ya 50, wakiwemo pia Kampuni ya African Barrick Gold.
Mzunguko wa pili wa huu mradi utaanza Januari 2015 mpaka Desemba 2017 na utafikia Halmashauri 9 za Shinyanga vijijini, Kahama, Meatu, Bariadi, Itilima, Busega, Maswa,,Chake Pemba na Mkoa wa Kati Unguja.
Foreign Affairs minister Bernard Membe (R) receives credentials of Alvaro Rodriguez (L), the new UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Representative in Tanzania at a colourful event held in Dsm.
The new UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Representative to Tanzania, Alvaro Rodriguez, officially presented his credentials to the government on Monday in Dar es Salaam.
Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation minister Bernard Membe received the credentials.
A UN statement issued said Alvaro Rodriguez assumed the post of UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in the United Republic of Tanzania on August 26, this year.
Rodriguez has had a long career with the UN system starting his work with UNDP in Africa in 1991, it said.
During the last ten years he has held senior posts in the UNDP headquarters, Pakistan, Somalia and Afghanistan, and has developed strong expertise in capacity development, electoral assistance, crisis prevention and recovery, risk management, environment and disaster management and humanitarian issues.
In his previous capacity as a Senior Country Director in Afghanistan, he was responsible for programmatic and operational activities in UNDP’s largest programme in the world.
This included support for One UN initiatives, including support for the new UNDAF, the recent election process and extensive collaboration with UNAMA, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
He repositioned UNDP through a major change management process to enhance oversight, risk management and to address conflict sensitivity in UNDP programming. He was actively engaged in the US$500m a year Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan.
