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SAFE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT SCHEME PROJECT REPORT

YOUNG WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT IN AGRICULTURE

PROJECT IN PAWAGA DIVISION, IRINGA REGION

September – November

2014

Sponsored by the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

SAFE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT SCHEME

P.O BOX 78261|DAR ES SALAAM| TANZANIA

TANZANIA STREET|BOKO BEACH|KINONDONI

Tel: +255 732 924 788 / cell: +255 769 444 669

info@sydstanzania.org | www.sydstanzania.org

www.twitter.com/sydstanzania

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To complete the project to empower women in agriculture Safe Youth Development Scheme

(SYDS) received invaluable support and commitment from various institutions and individuals.

We offer our sincere gratitude to the Federal Government of the United States of America

through its Embassy in Tanzania; this project represented a great opportunity for America’s

development assistance, our citizens and for the recognition of the importance of the role of

women and agriculture in the development of this nation.

Also, we give thanks to the leadership of Iringa district council for receiving this project and

contributing to the great effort to complete this project. In particular we thank the DAICO office

in Iringa district council for their efforts in assisting us to empower women in agriculture.

SYDS also recognizes the effort made by the responsible authorities at the local level for their

cooperation in social responsibility.

Finally, we would like to offer our sincere thanks to our local staffs, including Mr. Peter Kirangi,

Mr. Cretus Luvanga, Ms. Innochensia kidunye and Ms. Patricia Mhulilo. These people have been

with us throughout; assisting in various roles until the completion of this project.

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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APC: Assistance Project Coordinator

DAICO: District Agricultural Irrigation and Cooperatives.

GDP: Gross Domestic Product

GL: Group Leaders.

LPO: Limited Purchase Order

LS: Local Staffs

M&E: Monitoring and Evaluation

PC: Project Coordinator

SACCOS: Savings and Credit Co-operative

SYDS: Safe Youth Development Scheme

USA: United State of America

USAID: United States Agency for International Development

VEO: Village Executive Officer

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

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Contents

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................................................ ii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................................................................... iii

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................................... v

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 1

ABOUT SYDS. ......................................................................................................................................................... 1

OUR MISSION STATEMENT ................................................................................................................................ 1

OUR VISION ............................................................................................................................................................ 1

YOUNG WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT IN AGRICULTURE PROJECT ................................................................. 1

PROJECT TEAM ...................................................................................................................................................... 3

CHAPTER TWO: PROJECT PERFORMANCE .......................................................................................................... 4

COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION ............................................................................................................................ 4

GROUPS REGISTRATION ..................................................................................................................................... 4

GROUP WORKSHOP .............................................................................................................................................. 5

REHEARSALS & SKITS DEVELOPMENT ........................................................................................................... 7

CLOSING CEREMONY .......................................................................................................................................... 9

CHAPTER THREE: PROJECT ANALYSIS .............................................................................................................. 13

COMMUNITY ISSUES ......................................................................................................................................... 13

CAPACITY ENHANCEMENT.............................................................................................................................. 13

Training and Participation ................................................................................................................................... 13

Monitoring and Evaluation ................................................................................................................................. 13

FINANCIAL ASPECTS ......................................................................................................................................... 14

Source of Funds .................................................................................................................................................. 14

ORGANIZATIONAL AND MANAGEMENT ASPECTS .................................................................................... 14

SYDS Project Committee ................................................................................................................................... 14

CHALLENGES: ..................................................................................................................................................... 15

Challenge faced SYDS ....................................................................................................................................... 15

Challenge to the community: .............................................................................................................................. 16

CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ........................................................................... 18

CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................................................... 18

RECOMMENDATION: ......................................................................................................................................... 19

REFFERENCES: ......................................................................................................................................................... 20

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The determination of SYDS to take this project in Pawaga, Iringa region was a consequence of

the huge potential in this division, for a project focused on female involvement in agricultural

activities. This project sought to address the challenges women have been facing in this activity

particularly in accessing capital. They have problems securing loans from financial institutions

due to the need for collateral; the main form of which property is usually owned by their

husbands and/ or fathers and other male members of the family.

This has been a great challenge for women who live in a patriarchal culture, where men make all

decisions regarding ownership and management of family property. This means many women

farmers are not given the opportunity to make modern agriculture choices instead undertaking

poor farming practices resulting in only small yields.

Through our Young Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture project, SYDS strongly opposed

this situation and provided education for both women and men on the role of women in the

various decisions in the family, using development seminars and Community Theater to illustrate

the challenge. The project also managed to meet with financial institutions and talk about how it

was possible for female farmers to access small loans on concessional terms. As a consequence,

Kimande SACCOS is ready and is working to be more receptive of female clients.

Other financial institutions, including banks, usually offer these loans through available

SACCOS in a zone. Therefore, the groups of women and men reached by SYDS were provided

with education about SACCOS while some continue to complete the registration procedures for

the state level.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

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ABOUT SYDS:

SYDS is a youth led, not for profit registered company. It was founded on May 2012 and

formerly established in 1st October 2013 by a group of professional young people. We target the

development of youth by targeting good health, education, infrastructure development and

empowerment of young women, through working on social-economic issues, poverty alleviation

strategies and the management of risks facing youth. SYDS activities are focused on supporting

Tanzania’s National Development Policy - Vision 2025.

OUR MISSION STATEMENT

Promote better health, life skills education, self-awareness among youth through training, sports

and entertainment programs, coalition building and advocacy.

OUR VISION

A young generation with better reproductive health, life skills education and self-awareness

YOUNG WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT IN AGRICULTURE PROJECT

Follow a seminar that SYDS conducted on March 6th

, 2014 and sponsored by the Public Affairs

Office at the US Embassy in Tanzania, SYDS organized a project to combat the challenges that

women face in agricultural activities including access to credit. In this regard, SYDS, under full

sponsorship of American Federal Government, conducted the project Young Women’s

Empowerment in Agriculture – “Access to Finance”.

SYDS in conducting the Young Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture project received the

support from the United States Embassy Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

On November 25th

, 2014 we were able to reach the peak of all activities when hundreds of

people joined with us in the closing ceremony of the project. Some of them were leaders from

the district and municipal level, public agencies, private organizations, the media, the village

level officials, representatives of the country level, and community members and their groups,

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

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also Mr. David Feldmann (Deputy Public Affairs Officer) and Mr. Ignatius Nyoni (Social Media

Coordinator) from the US Embassy joined us on that great and memorable day.

It was really pleasing, that the villagers through their agricultural groups could be mobilized so

significantly, this was a great indicator of the success of our project.

In our plan, the project expected to reach a target audience of 200 people, 100 women and 100

men aged 18 – 35 years, in 12 groups already registered following the seminar on March 6th

,

2014. This number increased on the day of the project launch where we registered seventeen (17)

more groups, making a total of 29 groups. This increased the targeted project audiences to 339

people, 216 women and 123 men.

Following the decision to proceed with the 29 groups others were motivated and requested to

join. However it was not possible to include them directly due to the resources available. This is

another opportunity for SYDS to extend or come with a new program to reach more farmers.

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PROJECT TEAM

After received a grant from the US Embassy, SYDS made preparations for the journey to Iringa.

The following is the project management structure of the implementation team for the Young

Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture project.

Project Coordinator

Accounts and Administration

Logistics & Procurement

Monitoring and Evaluation

External Relations

Figure: Project organizing structure

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The main focus of the Young Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture project comes from the

challenges that young women face in accessing finance/capital. SYDS, under the sponsorship of

American Federal Government via its embassy in Dar Es Salaam, has focused on combating

these challenges through this project.

SYDS played a supervisory role and provided technical support to this project. We started our

activities with a pilot in Pawaga in early October 2014 which included 12 groups from different

villages. Implementation of the project involved the activities outlined in the following sections;

COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION

Community mobilization involved SYDS meeting with community leaders in every respective

village. The purpose was to create awareness and introduce the organizational intention on the

project in Pawaga. This activity took about two weeks starting on October 17th

, 2014 with the

meeting held at Mwanaima Social Hall which involved some prospective beneficiaries and local

leaders in the village. SYDS proceeded by meeting the Village Executive Officers (VEO) for

each village involved in the project.

Community mobilization also went hand in hand with internal staff recruitment for the project.

Together we engaged with the community members and become familiar and engaged with the

women and men we were to work with.

GROUPS REGISTRATION

Group registration week was concluded on October 26th

, 2014 by the launch of the project to the

targeted group, SYDS held a ceremony which was attended by a local journalist. It was in this

ceremony that we introduced the project to the community and assessed and registered the

agricultural groups including; Muungano Rice, Leke Valonge, Nuru Vikoba, Muungano Vijana,

Muungano, Azimio, Kaza mwendo, Makubaliano, Mkakimwi, Tuondoe Umaskini, Twanukile,

Majaribio Vijana,Mshikamano, Isele Vijana and Tyiyendage.

CHAPTER TWO: PROJECT PERFORMANCE

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GROUP WORKSHOP

Group workshop was also carried out which was attended by registered groups. The Workshop

was facilitated by Mr. E. F. Samile from the Department of Cooperatives, Iringa District

Council, who was engaged by SYDS to provide the seminars and training sessions for the

groups. These activities gave the opportunity for all group members to acquire knowledge and

skills on how to practice agribusiness rather than purely subsistence farming and how to prepare

an effective business plan for accessing loans.

Mr. Pangani (left) The External Relation Manager at SYDS speaking to the crowd on opening ceremony

which included targeted audiences registration.

At right are Ms. Kampira and Mr. Valerian facilitating games and sports session on the same opening

ceremony day.

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Group picture taken at the end of one of the workshop

Some of the groups at the seminars organized by SYDS

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After the workshop, which took two weeks of training for groups, SYDS had an opportunity through

Nuru FM radio station, to go introduce and provide information of the Young Women’s Empowerment in

Agriculture project. Mr. Arnold Pangani, the External Relations Manager at SYDS and Assistant

Coordinator of this project was accompanied by two members to broadcast our message to the whole

community. Mr. Pangani explained the importance of farmers to join in groups and work together in

production activities and also provided commentary on the project to empower women in agriculture.

The beneficiaries were represented by two people, one male and one female from different groups, who

gave their perspective on how they have received this project. They expressed their expectations of the

outcomes of this project. They praised SYDS particularly for the quality of our workshop. Also they

stated that; they expect to have great benefits in the next agricultural seasons as a result of SYDS’s

project.

REHEARSALS & SKITS DEVELOPMENT

The aim of this part of the project was to give the project primary target audience the opportunity

to develop and perform theatrical skits that address the challenges women face in accessing

finance or capital to start, run or improve their agricultural activities. Additionally, these skits

aimed to address misuse of loans which obstruct all plans for economic development. SYDS

involved local art groups to prepare the skits on behalf of the whole community. This activity

included taking still pictures and videos of the rehearsals and developed skits which will be

distributed to the local community leaders, members, stakeholders and other(s) to show and raise

the voice of women; regarding the challenges they are facing in accessing capital to facilitate

their agricultural activities.

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Performance of the skits involved groups with members from 10 different villages but mostly

from - Winome and Tuwe Macho from Itunundu and Kinyika villages respectively.

These skits were also performed live at the closing ceremony in front of guests from U.S.

Embassy Dar Es Salaam, Government, NGOs, private companies and financial providers.

Skits development activities at location with Winome Art group.

The skits aim to address challenges face women in access to capital

Skits development with Tuwe Macho Art Group from Kinyika

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CLOSING CEREMONY

On November 25th

, 2014 the SYDS closing ceremony commemorated the achievements of the

Young Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture project. The ceremony was held in the compound

of the primary school of Itunundu with hundreds of people attending a great ceremony.

Mr. Malick Mawere, Executive Director of SYDS and Project Coordinator opened the ceremony

by welcoming all guests and used this opportunity to give a brief report about the project and its

aim to empower young women in agriculture.

The Ceremony was attended by visitors from Iringa Rural District Council, local journalists,

private institutions and village executives. The most significant guest was the representatives

from the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania. Several speakers, including the guest of honor Mr. Muhoka,

from DAICO spoke of the impact and success of the project.

Executive Director, Mr. Malick who is a Project Coordinator, opened the ceremony by

briefly speech

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On behalf of the farmers’ groups, Mr. Julius Mposewa, gave feedback on the Young Women’s

Empowerment in Agriculture project. Mr. Mposewa gave thanks to all the institutions that

supported this project and explained the project’s positive impact. In his report, he suggested that

scaling up of this project using the lessons learnt would allow for a more sustainable means of

supporting women to take a more active role in decision making for their agricultural businesses.

Scaling up this project would also support women farmers in modern agriculture and accessing

credit schemes.

In this ceremony, the farmers had another opportunity to hear from the DAICO representative,

and learn more about SACCOs when General Secretary from Kimande SACCOs provided

information on the system of credit availability to farmers through the organization.

MR. JULIUS MPOSEWA

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Mr. David Feldmann, in the picture below; explained the good intentions of the U.S.

Government in attempting different approaches to development in developing countries,

including Tanzania.

The ceremony continued with various activities including drama which demonstrated the

challenges that women face in accessing capital.

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ENTERTAINMENT TIME

Acrobat playing with python in front of the audiences

Closing ceremony group picture; SYDS staff, guests and project participants.

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COMMUNITY ISSUES

In implementing of the Young Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture project, community

interaction was our first engagement measure before starting the project activities. This

engagement significantly supported SYDS in gaining community support and understanding and

for SYDS project members to become an accepted part of a community. Through our community

engagement we achieved the following;

- Become closely engaged with and accepted by the community

- Understood the social and cultural customs of the area

- Understood the various administrative procedures within the division and engaged local

leaders and government officials

- Easy availability of essential goods and supplies such as; stationeries and equipment

- Effective delivery of the message to the people about the project

CAPACITY ENHANCEMENT

Training and Participation

SYDS provided continued support to Local Staff (LS) and Group Leaders (GL) who work with

us in areas of capacity building including ensuring the correct delivery of project message and

information and methods of community mobilization.

Monitoring and Evaluation

Supervision, monitoring and evaluation were done throughout the implementation of the project.

The supervision team consisted of the Project Coordinator, Assistant Project Coordinator and

M&E; they have provided the information which has been included in the report for the Donor

and for any other relevant projects beneficiaries.

CHAPTER THREE: PROJECT ANALYSIS

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FINANCIAL ASPECTS

Source of Funds

SYDS received a grant from the U.S. Federal Government through its Embassy in Tanzania.

The total funds received stands at USD 46,725 for project financing and services in accordance

to the project budget submitted by SYDS.

ORGANIZATIONAL AND MANAGEMENT ASPECTS

SYDS Project Committee

The final draft of this report for the Young Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture project was

presented and discussed by the SYDS Project Committee. The Committee concluded that

strenuous efforts should be made to ensure the project is continued into another phase to reach

more people/farmers for better results and to further support and enhance the outcomes already

achieved through the original project.

The SYDS Project Committee discussed strategies to enhance accountability and transparency of

the organization to enable the completion of services to the additional groups should SYDS

receive further funding following verification of completion.

Finally, the Project Committee has resolved that SYDS should work with the public and private

sectors to seek their steady and consistent technical support to the community projects through

cost sharing as well as material support.

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CHALLENGES:

Challenge faced SYDS

The main challenge that SYDS encountered included the lack of awareness of the women and

men farmers at the beginning of the project of the issue that we were seeking to address during

the project. The strength of our engagement process was demonstrated by the number of

community members who wished to join the program.

Another significant challenge was the difficulty of some women found in attending sessions due

to the patriarchal nature of their families. This situation eased day after day as the project

progress as a result of the effectiveness of SYDS’s community engagement processes.

Transport from one place to another particularly from the host village to other villages was also a

big challenge. There are no cars so we had to use power tiller (farming machines) to travel very

long distances in high temperature which caused headaches and fatigue.

Additionally, the issue of communication, specifically regarding the internet, was problematic

and could be restrictive for our activities, due to the remoteness of the area. We were often

unable to access the communications’ network and had to travel to Iringa town for these

purposes.

Power Tiller we used for transport

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Challenge to the community:

A good percentage of villagers in Pawaga depend on rice cultivation. The big challenge that most

of farmers confront is inadequate of services from Mlenge Irrigation Scheme. The main issue is

that canal construction is not completed and does not reach all intended farmers. The trench was

excavated and constructed specifically for simplification of water delivery in the rice fields but

distant fields cannot access the channels. Also farmers complain that there is mismanagement of

the Scheme as there is no proper supervision to make sure every subsistence farmer can access

the canal.

Another challenge related to that is Mkombozi Irrigation Scheme for Itunundu and Usolange.

Farmers had decided to work together to excavate a Scheme channeled from Ruaha River. This

canal has become a major challenge though proactive measurements taken by political leaders

and members of the community to construct it. This canal would be a great savior for the farmers

of the area.

SYDS inspected the conduit and can testify to the major challenge presented by the Mkombozi

Irrigation Scheme canal, Farmers were able to prevent the collapsed edges by using sand of bags

sometimes, and however this fix fails to cope with the water stream during high volumes. Major

work needs to be undertaken to provide and maintain adequate water supply.

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Mkombozi Irrigation Scheme, drainage system of Itunundu and Usolange (Mboli-mboli)

villages connected from the great Ruaha river basin. The system needs to be improved

because it is sometimes destroyed by heavy rainfall. Scheme supplies water to the rice

fields. Tons of rice can be produced if the scheme is constructed.

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CONCLUSION

The Young Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture project has contributed to a lot of change in

the community’s mindset about the involvement of women in agriculture. This project was

conducted to address some challenges that women faces in their agricultural activities, including

lack of support from their community, lack of involvement in decision making and lack of access

to capital.

With the welcome backing received from the United States Embassy, SYDS has successfully

supported the community’s women and men to address the problems they face. SYDS support

enabled the community to understand the problems and to own the solutions, which enhanced the

sustainability and impact of the project’s outcomes. SYDS used drama which was developed and

presented by the community as the most effective medium to inform the community’s women

and men. This process was supported by the recruitment of a group which facilitated the

community’s groups’ development and presentation of the skits.

Drama also provided a means of expressing the struggles and lack of support experienced by

woman in their agricultural activities as a result of patriarchy unsupportive financial providers.

Through the Young Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture project SYDS offered training on

agribusiness to increase productivity, access to finance and inclusion in decision making. The

drama process worked in conjunction with the workshop conducted by SYDS, where community

members were given guidance on how preparing an effective business plan and the efficient

operationalization of these plans.

The project has been highly successful due to the overwhelming response and support that the

project received from the community and community leaders. In order to reach additional

community members and to enhance the sustainability of the project’s outcomes, SYDS has a

vision to implement a second phase of the Young Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture

project. This would include providing follow-up support to the participants of the original project

to ensure that the benefits are continued and enhanced.

CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

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RECOMMENDATION:

The agricultural sector in Tanzania contributes at least 27.8% of the country’s GDP. Rural

women play a significant role in domestic and socio-economic life of the society and provide

more than 54% of the agricultural labor force. There are more than 15 million smallholder

farmers in Tanzania where half of them are women with very limited access to modern

machinery and improved technologies. Additionally, the sector, community and other

stakeholders in agriculture underestimate the contribution of women and what they can produce.

It is time now for various stakeholders including the government to ensure that agricultural

projects to protect and promote the value of women in agriculture.

Policy development, and project design and implementation in the field of agriculture needs to

involve, support and consider the needs of smallholder women farmers by NGOs, Government at

all levels and other organizations/institutions.

Women must be directly involved with the development and implementation of the new

technology in production, processing and marketing. They should be included in training focused

on the use of advanced tools and methods to increase their knowledge and skills leading to

higher production, and increased household income and food security.

The legal right for women to own land; is important for women seeking to use the land as

collateral when applying for bank loans. Micro-Finance products could also be established to

support women farmers who fail to access loans. SYDS drafted a revolving fund program

(micro-finance) which aims to provide free agriculture education and give material support to the

farmers inform of loan and link with the value of money, where in advance they will have to

contribute a very small amount after harvesting period.

However, government and other donor funding programs should encourage the efficient and

sustainable use of the existing cultivable land, by investing in agricultural research, supporting

NGOs involved in the development of the sector and providing funds to support development

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activities specifically in agriculture so as to increase output and income of the household for

agribusiness, particularly for smallholder women farmers.

This project is in line with the current government efforts to empower women so as to improve

their productivity in agriculture and also in line with U.S.A aid policy for Tanzania.

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Ellis, A. (2007). Gender and Economic Growth in Tanzania. The World Bank: Washington,

D.C.

Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) (1995). A Synthesis Report of the African Region:

Women, Agriculture and Rural Development.

Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO (1994). Women, Agriculture and Rural Development:

A Synthesis Report of the Africa Region, Rome.

Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) (1998). My Talents, many Women Feed the World.

United Nations, Rome Pp 3-7.

Horenstein, N.R. (1989). Women and Food Security in Kenya-Washington DC. World Bank.

Minutes taken from different activities during the seminar.

National Bureau of Statistics (2011).

REFFERENCES: