Towards the end of the project period

The ongoing project period 2013-2014 is coming to its end and it’s time to look back at some of the activities that took place during this time.

Tampere Bonanza in Mwanza on 5.12.2014. Pic Amin A.

As has been described before in the previous blog post, the school co-operation has become stronger and many new schools have joined in both in Tampere and in Mwanza. It has been heartwarming to see the enthusiasm of teachers and pupils when they have joined their effort under the project. The recent school concerts held both in Tampere (on 25.11.2014) and in Mwanza (on 5.12.2014) were very successful and reached a total audience of more than 1200 pupils and teachers from many of the co-operation schools in both cities. The feedback has been nothing but positive and encouraging and schools are hungry for more activities alike! The Tampere schools have also organized many activities by themselves under the Mwanza theme as part of global education.

Ward Executive Officer training, January 2014. Pic. Amin A.

The other mode of co-operation that has been successful and appreciated is the administration exchange. One might ask, what can be the impact of one administration officer travelling to Tampere or to Mwanza for a work exchange visit. Well, the impacts are many and although somewhat difficult to measure but to individual officers and their respective units, some of the newly learnt models and methods are indeed very important and built the capacity of the unit as a whole. For example, the Urban Planning Unit in Mwanza has gotten many new planning ideas and tools from Mr Kalimenze, the head of the Urban Planning Unit in Mwanza City, who visited Tampere recently. As a consequence of his work visit, the Urban Planning Unit now has a plan and a proposal for how to improve green spaces in Mwanza City and how to involve some external financing partners in the process. In Tampere Mr Kalimenze saw the importance of green spaces to the community as a recreational area and therefore took it as the key development issue for his Unit to work on. Also, reorganizing and computerizing all the city data (maps, information etc.) into a GIS system is in the process in Mwanza and is a very important tool for any future urban planning. To that note, the project found a Tampere University of Technology student, Ms Natalia Rincon, who contributed to the Mwanza Central Business District Strategy formulation as her thesis work. This work will help much the Urban Planning team in Mwanza in the planning process.

Mabatini School teachers with Tampere teachers in April 2014. Pic. Kaisa Henttinen.

One important part of the capacity building activities of the Tampere-Mwanza co-operation are the different trainings organized in Mwanza. During this project period we trained a number of different officers and stakeholders from the street level officers (Mtaa and Ward Executive Officers) to the City Councilors. These trainings dealt with environmental and good governance issues. The environmental and composting trainings to the Mtaa and Ward Officers were highly valued and appreciated since they had no prior knowledge or training on these subjects. Many Officers organized themselves after the training and mobilized the community to clean the streets and to apply composting. The City Councilors felt that the good governance training was much needed because it helped them revise all off the small tenders they have approved based on the new knowledge they had and hence were able to enhance their activities.

Visiting Waste Management Company Molok in Nokia in October 2014. Pic. Ruusa Gawaza

There are so many activities that are worth mentioning when reaching towards the end of the project phase, unfortunately the blog space is limited. However, I would like to mention one more and that is the communication about the project. The Mwanza City FM radio station has become an important voice to our project activities. Many interviews and programmes have been aired together and in Mwanza City it has up to 200 000 listeners. So indeed it is an important mode of communication about the project activities and results. A growing number of the citizens of Mwanza are aware of composting, fire prevention and other important life skills through these radio programmes. Also, the project’s Facebook page has a growing number of 253 followers and this blog has been read almost 6000 times all over the world! The rising awareness and interest towards our project activities is heartwarming and encouraging and proves that we are on the right road. Also the feedback that we receive from different stakeholders who are taking part in the project activities in Tampere and in Mwanza is positive and have a “let’s do it together” vibe on it. As our project coordinator, Mr Amin Abdallah puts it: “I try my best but I will improve more”. So, let’s improve our cities’ co-operation more and most importantly, let’s do it together!

PST members brainstorming together in Mwanza in Oct 2013. Pic. RG

For this 2013-2014 project period I would like to express my extended gratitude to all of you who have taken part to the project activities and strengthened the co-operation! Many thanks to our strong Project Steering Teams in both cities and the School co-operation group in Tampere! Let's continue walking together!

Project Steering Team in a joint meeting in June 2014. Pic. RG.

The two Mayors in Tampere in May 2014. Pic. Amin A.

Text: Ruusa Gawaza, Project Manager, Tampere