From Mwanza City Council to Igoma School (First two days)

 Here I am, in Mwanza! I arrived on Sunday after a long and tiresome journey to a warm and friendly welcome in Mwanza! As all of you, who have visited Mwanza, know, the Mwanza airport is really tiny. It took me by surprise! The tiniest airport I have ever seen!

Mwanza City Council, Picture Ruusa Gawaza

Yesterday I had the opportunity of meeting both the Mwanza City Director as well as the Mayor. Both of them are relatively new in their posts and therefore it was a pleasure for me to bring them greetings from their sister city Tampere. The Mayor of Mwanza was also very keen to meet our newly elected Mayor in Tampere and enhance the co-operation further. All in all, both meetings were held in good spirit and hopefully they will strengthen the co-operation.

In the afternoon, I had the pleasure of taking part in the Mwanza Project Steering Team (what we call the PST) meeting. Some very important issues were raised and we managed to go through ideas and plans for the new project period. We agreed that on this project period, special attention will be paid to bringing out good and tangible results and impacts as well as improving monitoring and evaluation in both Mwanza and Tampere. Communication will be also improved between both PST’s as well as the coordinators.

Today the day started by a meeting with the Academic Officer and some teachers from project schools. We discussed the new project plan concerning guidance counselling and teacher exchange. I brought some ideas with be from our school co-operation sub group in Tampere and we managed to have a very good and thorough meeting. It was seen important that schools will emphasise monitoring and reporting which will assist in all good impacts getting thoroughly documented in the annual reports. I think all parties were satisfied with the results and plans.

Igoma Primary School, Picture Ruusa Gawaza

After the meeting I had the chance to see the lovely and lush Igoma Primary School. What a lovely environment that is! We had a good discussion and evaluation with the teachers and saw the impressive actions that they have taken in order to implement the guidance counselling action plans brought by the project. I was really happy to see the results of that activity! From the green yard and lush fruit gardens, I could clearly see, that the composting activity has been successful in Igoma.

All in all, I am so far very grateful for all the discussions I have had the opportunity to take part into. Many ideas have been developed and my head is full of new thoughts… I’m more and more convinced that the new project period will be a success!

Monitoring trip to Mwanza 2013

I have been the Project Manager of the Tampere-Mwanza Co-operation project for little over a year now and finally I have the chance to go to Mwanza in person and see what it is all about! Unfortunately I'm only there for two weeks this time but I'm happy to have the possibility to see different project activities and talk to people in the City of Mwanza who have contributed so much to this co-operation. It will be also interesting to sit down and discuss with locals on what kind of impacts has the project had on the local level.

I will be writing a few stories in this Tampere-Mwanza blog during my stay and definitely post some pictures, too. Stay tuned people!

Picture by Saara Pakaslahti

Tampere-Mwanza Local Government Co-operation

The cities of Tampere and Mwanza have joint their efforts under the North-South Local Government Cooperation Programme since the beginning, 2002. Yet the history of cooperation goes back to 1988, when Tampere and Mwanza became twin cities. The co-operation programme is coordinated by the Association of Finnish Regional and Local Authorities (AFLRA) and funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. In Mwanza the co-operation is in line with the city strategy and in Tampere it supports the Aalborg commitments.

Since 2002 the focus of the Tampere-Mwanza cooperation has been on capacity building of the city administration through training, exchanging of ideas and knowhow and colleague-to-colleague partnership. During the past 10 years the cooperation has included: school sector, environmental sector, fire service, local democracy and city councils. 

Results and impacts of co-operation 

Mwanza City view, picture Saara Pakaslahti

The Fire Brigade cooperation has mobilised Tampere Regional Rescue Services expertise for capacity development in Mwanza Fire Brigade.  Fire prevention and inspection have developed tremendously and hence the amount of fires has decreased in Mwanza. Also the preparedness and responsiveness of Mwanza Fire Brigade has improved and speeded up its service provision. The cooperation has gained commendation from the Ministry of Interior in Tanzania and was mentioned as a successful project component in the evaluation commissioned by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland in 2011.

School cooperation has developed teaching methodologies, such as learning-by-doing, child-cantered-approach, peer work and other participatory methods in class situations. Teaching methods have gradually been taken into practice in the 5 project schools in Mwanza. Teachers in both cities have noted that the exchange visits are very motivating and that they have become better teachers because of the cooperation. The 5 project schools in Mwanza are now higher in national school ranking in Tanzania than before the cooperation started.

Composting posters for awareness raising, picture Saara Pakaslahti

Environmental activities have also become everyday practices in the project schools in Mwanza. Project schools are composting bio-waste. Most project schools have established working tree nurseries, have planted hundreds of trees, have active environmental clubs and have even arranged trainings for the community about composting. Clean school environments and massive school bio waste collections have inspired the surrounding communities to practice composting.

City Councillor trainings have had an important impact especially to newly elected councillors. The trainings have given a chance for councillors to share ideas, exchange views, and learn new topics and good governance practices. It also helped strengthen the councillor’s work in the City Council. Training arranged to Ward and Mtaa Executive Officers have helped them in conducting activities and supervising the Ward development projects. In the long run these positive impacts will lead to the development of several Ward projects and will result to development of Mwanza City as a whole.

In Tampere the cooperation has increased horizontal cooperation between different departments and also between the civil servants and the city councillors. Also, the way of organizing local level citizen participation in Mwanza has affected the development of organizing citizen participation models in Tampere. The project has given international opportunities and experiences for instance to firemen, who until now have had few opportunities to increase their international experience. Also schools and teachers have gained international experience, which is reintegrated into the educational content of lessons as global education. In Tampere school co-operation has a direct link in global education activities at schools which is bound to broaden the understanding of pupils and increase tolerance. Residents of Tampere have had many opportunities in learning about the Tanzanian culture through music and workshops and meet people from Mwanza when they have been visiting Tampere on various occasions. 

New project period 2013-2014 

New funding period for the North-South Local Government Programme has been opened for 2013-2014 and the application for the continuation of the Tampere-Mwanza project has been submitted. Hopefully the co-operation will be granted another opportunity to successfully implement project activities. In the new project term the project will focus on the following objectives:

• To improve service delivery and good governance by capacity building of municipal authorities and personnel
• To create employment and reduce poverty by new models for business development and financial management
• To increase sustainability and participation in communities by raising awareness on living environment and its management.           

To meet these objectives, a variety of activities will be implemented both in Mwanza and Tampere. Training and exchange visits of different city officials continue to be in the core of the activities. Environmental management especially through school composting programme and awareness raising is an important part of the project in Mwanza.Training and creating new possibilities for small-scale entrepreneurs in Mwanza are new activities. The aim is to create linkages in the business context between Mwanza and Tampere.

Strong co-operation 

10-year anniversary booklet, picture Aino Myllyluoma

Co-operation between Mwanza and Tampere has a long history and has, hence, become very stable and sustainable. Both cities are highly committed to the long-term co-operation. During the many years of working together, many cultural barriers have been overturned and communication has become easier and more open between the two cities. The long-lasting co-operation and strong relationship between Tampere and Mwanza is a result of years of partnership building and collaboration between colleagues in both cities. The hard work of employees in Mwanza and Tampere has contributed to the success of the project during the past 10 years. Let us hope that the co-operation will continue in the future and the partnership between Tampere and Mwanza grows stronger.

Project Manager

Ruusa Gawaza 

City of Tampere