Tanzania
Global Communities is building on more than 10 years of implementing integrated school feeding projects in close collaboration with the Government of Tanzania. In 2023, with funding from the United States Department of Agriculture’s McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, we began leading the coordination of Pamoja Tuwalishe (“Together, Let’s Feed Them” in Swahili).
Over the life of the project, Pamoja Tuwalishe will support 367 schools and communities in the Dodoma and Mara regions to operationalize the country’s National School Feeding Guidelines and implement activities that can be replicated in additional schools and communities. Our approach is focused on strengthening existing capacities and systems, and enhancing collaboration between the local governments, schools and communities to improve the overall learning experience of more than 315,000 students.
In 2023, key achievements including helping 120 new schools develop their own action plans for the upcoming year, starting with the construction and upgrading of infrastructure needed to prepare quality school meals safely and consistently. We also negotiated and signed project agreements with the Mara and Dodoma Regional Governments. These agreements create a framework that ensures all stakeholders understand their roles, responsibilities and contributions, easing the collaboration required to effectively prepare for and implement school feeding together.
Another key project achievement was securing a warehouse in Dodoma that has the capacity to store 1,670 metric tons of food commodities and additional space for non-food items. We hired a team of professional to upgrade the facilities and equip it to store USDA-donated commodities for Pamoja Tuwalishe.
Finally, we developed an innovative Digital Information & Learning System that provides local governments and schools with on-demand access to information, guidance, training materials and tools that will help them implement and monitor their school feeding activities.