Kigoma is the poorest region in Tanzania and is one of only two regions in the country where poverty rates increased between 2001 and 20121.

To work to reverse the trend, UNCDF Tanzania has been implementing a programme since 2017 to improve agricultural livelihoods, provide access to finance, and build financial and digital literacy in the region.

In the region, UNCDF is working with a number of international and local NGOs to develop and deliver financial education. While UNCDF has been working with the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) and Good Neighbors Tanzania (GNTZ), we have recently begun working with two new local organizations to reach more farmers and members of the Tanzanian community.

One of the new local organizations is the Kigoma Youth Agricultural Development Organization (KIYADO), a local non-profit humanitarian organization that plans, implements, and raises funds for implementing livelihood projects. Another is the Ministry of Agriculture Training Institute (MATI), a government institution under the Ministry of Agriculture of Tanzania that provides educational programs in agricultural, environmental, and applied technologies.

To train the two new partners on the UNCDF package of financial education materials and to work together to create a plan on disseminating materials and continuing financial education activities, UNCDF held a one-day Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop on 5th March in Kibondo, a town in the Kigoma Region. 19 participants from KIYADO and MATI attended the training.

Participants learned about the content and delivery mechanisms used by UNCDF to build financial and digital literacy, including tablet-based applications, videos, podcasts, magazines, and face-to-face financial education. They were introduced to the content and had the opportunity to interact with it, testing out the application “Jijenge” and watching videos from KhangaRue Media, Ltd. (KRM) and Shamba Shape-Up.

One of the highlights of the financial education package, and of great interest to participants, was learning through videos. UNCDF is currently offering a set of videos on each of the tablets that serve as the main delivery mechanism for our tools, including Noa Ubongo, a set of 12 videos produced by KhangaRue Media (KRM) that teach about entrepreneurship and business. "Savings is Love is also a set of short videos showcasing savings, planning for the future, and using mobile money.

A set of videos on agricultural techniques, finance, and financial education called Shamba Shape Up are also included on the tablets. In addition to the existing videos, UNCDF Tanzania is working with Mediae Kenya to produce new videos specific to the Kigoma Region to add to the toolkit.

The final session was “Creating Your Dissemination Plan”. Before discussing the action plan, Robert Munisi, the livelihood officer of the Danish Refugee Council, shared his rich experience in financial education with participants. Inspired by Robert, both MATI and KIYADO proposed their practical plan on how to identify potential users among farmers, train the farmer leaders, distribute and collect tablets, and analyze the utilization and accessibility of tablets.

At the end of the workshop, UNCDF Financial Capability Specialist, remarked the great effort paid by MATI and KIYADO on the financial education training, mentioned future consideration for UNCDF to add interactive voice response (IRV) to the toolkit, and awarded ToT workshop certificates to each participant.
Participants left the ToT with a solid plan for going back to their offices and organizations, replicating the trainings, and creating plans for the tablets to be circulated to programme beneficiaries in the Kigoma Region. While the current situation of COVID-19 will surely push back some plans, UNCDF and partners are ready to go out into the field once normal operations begin again.

1. United Nations (2017). UN Delivering as One, UN Joint Programme for the Region of Kigoma 2017-2021.