For my third week of rotations for MDP fieldwork in the Mbola Millennium Village, I I shadowed Agriculture and Environment Facilitator, Francis Missana, as he conducted trainings in post harvest practices and encouraged famers to pay back the input subsidy loans given out by the project in the 2008/2009 season. I was impressed that the trainings emphasized environmental concerns and intrigued by the implications of tobacco growing in the region.
For my second week of rotations in the Mbola Millennium Village, I was with the Community Development and Education Team. The way the project engages the local government and village structures, as well as what it does to bolster up the educational systems means everything in terms of sustainability and community acceptance of MVP initiatives.
For the first week of rotations I went out with the Water and Sanitation team in the Mbola Millennium Village. My interest slowly peaked, as the challenges of providing improved water points to the village coincided with our own struggles for water supply at the Tabora MDP student house.
The MDP Tanzania Team finished our first week here in Tabora town and the Mbola Millennium Village. After spending an orientation day with the Business Enterprise and Development Coordinator and learning about The Mbola Millennium Savings & Credit Cooperative Society (SACCOS) as well as the MVP input credit scheme I am left with both questions and perhaps some answers about future financing prospects beyond MVP.
State of the Planet is a forum for discussion on varying viewpoints. The opinions expressed by the authors and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Earth Institute or Columbia University.
