Community-Based Organizations

Learning to organize

With the end of nearly 30 years of state socialism in Zanzibar, Tanzania, responsibility for the planning and financing of social and economic development has shifted from the government to communities themselves. However, people remain dependent on the government for the provision of many services. Community organizations have little experience in critical areas such as drawing up effective development plans and proposals, fundraising privately, and lobbying the government for desperately needed projects, including schools, water pumping stations and roads. Now the NGO Resource Centre - Zanzibar has increased grassroots involvement in community development planning. Through its training programs, the centre has improved the effectiveness of community and non-governmental organizations. It provides advice, material and links between organizations locally, regionally and globally.