MS TCDC Newsletter November 2007

Newsletter from MS TCDC November 2007

Welcome to the MS TCDC quarterly newsletter 2007.

A note from the Principal
Dear Friends,

Warm greetings from MS-TCDC and welcome to the last edition of our newsletter this year. It is my sincere hope, that the newsletter will answer your pertinent questions with regards to what to expect next year.

I am overall very pleased and proud of the accomplishments we have made this year. I extend my sincere appreciation to all of you because it would not have been possible without your support. Key highlights of our achievements this year include a record number of course participants and consultancies. We also hosted three major workshops and a symposium that brought together development practitioners, Government policy makers, activists from all the different parts of the world to debate and reflect on pertinent development challenges.

Next year, we shall see an increased focus on capacity building in democracy. We will conduct for the first time four new courses, namely; Pastoralism and policy options in East Africa, Training of Facilitators for Civic Education, Gender mainstreaming and human rights and Information management and research skills. MS-TCDC will also play a key role in the transformation of MS into a knowledge organisation by being part of all the International knowledge teams.

Wishing you all a merry Christmas and happy New Year.

Achievements
This year MS TCDC hosted and facilitated 4 major seminars/workshops of 1 week duration. All three with different perspectives to the changing context and modalities of the development sectors:

•The entire International MS organisation with all country directors and programme officers as well as the Danish Secretariat was here to discuss the new Democracy Strategy and its implications onwards, there were about 60 participants.

• UNDP Tanzania and the entire groups of Regional Commissioners, District Councillors and District Executive Directors from Kegara and Kisoma regions were here to be trained in Institutional Development (21 Participants)
• CIDSE, Caritas Europe and Cordaid brought together their European member Organisations, partners and selected stakeholders (East African Development Bank; EU; 3 Embassies and Government Representatives from 5 East African countries) to discuss Aid Effectiveness and the new Paris Declaration modalities, they were 70 participants from 12 countries.
•DANIDA and the National District Network Support Program in Uganda brought 60 people from 25 CSO district networks and their INGO partners to TCDC to do stratgic planning and discuss the insitutional set- up.
•Finally, MS TCDC participated in a number of local, national, regional and international conferences and seminars in order to express our experiences and viewpoints on the many important development issues and questions.

Development Training Department

Women's Rights are Human Rights
A budding work relationship between CIDA-GESP Kenya and MS-TCDC Tanzania

In October 2-4 2007, MS-TCDC undertook a consultancy for the CIDA-Gender Equity Support Project (GESP II) including an Annual Capacity Building Workshop on Gender-Responsive Programming for partner organisations. The workshop took place at the Naivasha Simba Lodge and drew 24 participants (of whom 6 were male) representing 17 Partner Organisation ranging from Government departments; women’s rights civil society organisations; human rights non-governmental organisations; community based organisations; international development NGOs and one professional association.

The goal of GESP II is to promote the full participation of women in Kenya as equal partners in the sustainable development of their society by removing the systemic impediments that prevent women from fully participating in the development of their country. The GESP II has oriented its funding around five (5) key priority areas: Women’s Human Rights and Legal Empowerment; Women’s Economic Empowerment; Women in Leadership and Decision Making; Promoting Gender Equality at National Policy and Governance Levels; Promoting Gender Equality through Research, Advocacy, Networking and Awareness Raising. Between 2001 and 2006, the GESP II extended funding to 80 small and large projects.

The GESP II facilitates annual capacity building initiatives for its partners. The training sessions have in the past focused on specific areas of need such as gender responsive programming; monitoring and evaluation and induction on the use of CIDA’s Framework for Assessing Gender Equality Results. Following a self-assessment survey of 17 past and current partners of the GESP II, three (3) broad areas of capacity gaps were identified, namely; Gender Analysis Frameworks and Gender Mainstreaming; Monitoring - Methodologies, Tools and Systems; and Institutional Strengthening with focus on gender responsive leadership styles.

It is upon this background that the GESP II sought the services of a MS-TCDC to develop a workbook comprising both conceptual and practical reference materials as well as facilitate a three-day residential training workshop for partner organisations. The CIDA-GESP Director Ms. Nyambura Ngugi, her Team and MS-TCDC are keen on cultivating this work relationship in 2008.

Break Culture of Silence

MS-TCDC recently conducted a tailor-made Child Rights Advocacy course for 13 participants from Kenya and Tanzania. The course was sponsored by Dorcas Aid Tanzania.

During the course, one among many other things that were realised during discussions was that many adults do a lot of unacceptable things to children in the name of disciplining them. For example caning children has been blessed by many parents and other adults as the most effective way in their upbringing. After the course, participants discovered that brutality and lack of dialogue with our children have caused more harm than good to our children. They suggested the following during their final evaluation:

• Parents and adults should break the culture of silence with their children. They should be more open to discuss issues together with children instead of taking short cuts in disciplining them.

• Children should be given enough time to express themselves instead of hurrying for punishments.

• Parents, adults and the society at large should look for more positive ways of helping children on discipline issues.

• Child rights should be made known to teachers, children and other care-givers so that they can be implemented more effectively for the best interest of the child.

From Marketing Department:

Upcoming courses

1. Gender Mainstreaming and Human Rights(GMHa) Dates: 28/01-01/02/2008
2. Monitoring and Evaluation course(M&Ea) Dates: 25/02-14/03/2008
3. Administration for Development Organisations(ADOa) Dates: 03-14/03/2008
4. Basic Finance for non-finance practitioners (BF) Dates: 07-11/04/2008
5. Natural Resources Management & Governance(NRMG) Dates: 14-25/04/2008

You can download our course catalogue 2008 from here

It is possible to subscribe and unsubscribe from the fontpage of our website, www.mstcdc.or.tz

MS-Training Centre for Development Cooperation
P.O.Box 254
Arusha, Tanzania.

Tel:+255 27 2553837/8/9 0r 255 27 2553472 or 0754651715
Fax: +255 27 255 3836

mstcdc@mstcdc.or.tz
www.mstcdc.or.tz

Edited by: Betty Senny