the beauty of history in Zanzibar

where are the men??????????/

ARE YOU PROUD OF YOUR CULTURE? SHARE WITH US.

This was a Village-to-Village stall held at an International Market organised at Bradford University to coincide with One World Week. It aimed to promote different countries, explore different cultures and bring people of all backgrounds together. Village-to-Village promoted their work and sold jewellery and batiks made by women in the village of Uchira. Do you think these type of events should be held more often? Do you think one week a year is enough to celebrate all the different people in the world? What else could be done to explore other cultures and learn about other people and places?

by Jen

IS SITTING ALLOWANCE A FORM OF CORRUPTION?

Anyone working for any length of time in an NGO in Tanzania can't fail to come up against the issue of sitting allowances- that is the payment of people for attending meetings. Such payments are made for a wide range of positions, from membership of school boards to attending training on HIV/AIDS. Whilst it has become common practice to pay such allowances, I believe that we need to question their use. In V2V we have a policy that sitting allowances should not be paid. The reason for this is that they are not a useful incentive, they simply reward people for passively sitting in meeting, they do not stimulate and encourage action. They destroy the concept of voluntarism- of giving skills and time for no monetary reward to achieve a higher aim.
The system of sitting allowances has been perpetuated and reinforced by the aid system and the behaviour of donors in trying to 'persuade' local stakeholders to adopt their agendas. V2V is not alone in questioning sitting allowances - see also http://www.cohred.org/goodgoverance/
We need to discuss the issue of sitting allowances openly- to be provocative- are they a form of corruption?
Anna Mdee.