LVIA presence in Tanzania

The LVIA presence in Tanzania dates from 1986 when, in the wake of contacts made with the Dodoma Diocese, an integrated rural development project was initiated in Kongwa district. The action was funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and was in support of activities concerned with water (sinking wells and building aqueducts with the involvement of the local communities), health (renovating health centres, building toilets, awareness-raising campaigns), and agriculture (training in agricultural techniques and stock rearing.
Over these years the relationship which was established with the Diocese developed in such a way that the Diocese became the official opposite number to be relied upon in future initiatives. 
When the first MFA project concluded in 1993 new actions were designed to consolidate the results achieved up to that date.
In 1995 the European Union approved and funded a new LVIA integrated rural development project, also in Kongwa district. The serious food crisis caused by the drought which afflicted the region meant that it was necessary to change the type and extent of the actions from how they had originally been planned. The pressing need to acquire enough food for the families led to the recasting of the health aspect of the project and an upgrading of the agricultural side.  The outcome was that measures were adopted to increase production (the promotion of the use of draft animals, and the introduction of improved drought-resistant seed); to foster new income-generating activities (through the creation of savings and credit services); and to support farmer organisations.

At the end of the nineteen-nineties, with the European union project drawing to a close, LVIA undertook an analysis of the way in which its actions were implemented and the possibility of introducing innovatory elements. The result was the drafting of the multi-sector rural project in Dodoma region currently in progress and funded by the MFA.
A range of new elements was incorporated in comparison with the previous programmes: the action area was expanded from Kongwa district to include the whole of the Dodoma region; the action changed for goal achievement to an approach which supported the development and upgrading of local skills; agricultural actions were differentiated, to render the resources present on the ground more effective; actions which increase agricultural output were reinforced as was commercial trading. This latter approach arose from the realisation that the simple provision of services, however necessary, did not of itself give rise to a genuine process of development within a community.
The ongoing and profitable collaboration with Dodoma Diocese has been associated with the involvement of a range of contacts with other players such as local and international NGOs, local and central government authorities, and some organisations connected with African and Tanzanian companies, Mviwata (the national farmers’ network) and Pelum (the association concerned with agricultural/environmental matters of which LVIA itself is a member).

These relationships have made it possible to initiate in the Dodoma region, in the framework of the implementation of the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs project, various water-related and agricultural projects in collaboration with the Spanish NGO  INTERMON-OXFAM and microfinance projects with the French NGO FERT. All these initiatives have facilitated the reinforcement of our action in the areas we have mentioned and to found new partnerships.
The initiation of an important water-related project funded by the French cooperative organisation (AFD) in 2003 and more recently the water –related project funded by INTERMON have laid the foundations for the opening of an operational base in the Morogoro region which forms an important stage in the definition and development of the presence of LVIA in the country.