A Few Details!

For those of you who are not familiar with Tanzania, I will use this time to provide you with some details, as well as details about what exactly I will be doing there for 7 months! My job description is a little more clear cut than it was in Ghana so I can actually tell you ahead of time, mind you, I am getting new details every day so things could change between now and the 20th!

Background on Tanzania:

Tanzania is located in Eastern Africa, just south of the equator, however, Zanzibar (where I will be working)  is a tiny island off the coast. According to this map, I will be working in Zanzibar Town which is the capital and largest city in Zanzibar, comprising of two main parts, one of which is called Stone Town which is where I will be living and working.


Stone Town, or Mji Mkongwe in Swahili (meaning "old town"), is a very remarkable place. It was once the center of the spice trade, as well as the slave trade in the 19th century. In 2000, Stone Town was recognized as a world heritage site by UNESCO.  

Should you feel so inclined, you can find more information and country statistics from the following websites:

CIA - The World Factbook
BBC - Country Profile
Government of Tanzania
Daily News



My Role in Stone Town:

My in country orientation will begin on Monday March 21st, during which time we have to: apply for a temporary business visa, while we wait for YCI to arrange our resident permit visas, buy a cell phone and credit (hoping to use my iphone!), exchange currency, meet the YCI staff and partner organizations, recover from jetlag and learn some Swahili! Luckily enough, I already know some very basic greetings to get me started!

My official tile is Governance Officer (sounds pretty cool, doesn't it!) and I will be working with our in country partner ZANGOC (Zanzibar NGO Cluster on HIV/AIDS). ZANGOC was established in 1996 in Zanzibar, Tanzania as a collective body of HIV/AIDS and youth organizations. ZANGOC’s members work with youth and HIV/AIDS programming, youth employment and advocacy. ZANGOC also works to strengthen the capacity of smaller member groups. ZANGOC and YCI have been working in partnership since 2005.

So what does this all mean?! 

Let me start by discussing the word "Governance," basically this the process of decision making and promoting "good" governance means helping organizations and governments make good decisions through accountability and transparency to avoid "bad" governance. When people speak about governance the attention is usually drawn to the biggest issue, corruption. Making sure to avoid corruption in bilateral and multilateral funding is especially important through the eyes of donor agencies such as CIDA - The Canadian International Development Agency (who is funding my project!), in order to ensure aid effectiveness.

As of right now, this is my project description:

• Review and identify key governance priorities within ZANGOC’s strategic plan
• Design and deliver a comprehensive good governance curriculum appropriate to the local context
• Deliver the curriculum to ZANGOC and its 40 members in Zanzibar and Pemba
• Train local volunteers/peer educators to implement the good governance curriculum
• Research and identify areas for policy development
• Support staff in proposal design and development 

As I stated earlier, things could change slightly over the course of the next 18 days or 7 months for that matter. Apparently ZANGOC is completely volunteer based meaning that the entire board of directors also have full time day jobs, so you can imagine how busy they are and how hard it will be to meet with them. But insert me into the equation and hopefully good things will happen!


Well, I've left you with enough reading material so I hope you found this entry to be useful!