Tanzania Gatsby Trust (TGT) is a registered charitable Trust in Tanzania since 1992 for poverty alleviation by enabling hundreds of Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) to carry out productive and profitable enterprises through innovations.
TGT programme activities aim at empowering vulnerable groups and SMEs with entrepreneurial skills and opportunities within the various sectors value chains. TGT now welcomes new funders and partners to sustain the efforts to alleviate poverty and build a thriving private sector in Tanzania.
TGT Programmes in the SMEs Sector:
-Virtual Incubator Business Development Programme
The Tanzania Virtual Business Incubator denominated in Kiswahili language MKUBWA is program to grow entrepreneurship and women entrepreneurs.
The programme is supporting female micro-entrepreneurs, increasing their firms’ productivity, sales and profits, and improving women’s control of income, children’s outcomes, and household well-being.
It does so through a rigorous impact evaluation that measures the impact of this new model versus a more traditional training delivery model. The services provided include hands on training and a mobile SMEs training in partnership with Nokia, mentoring (at enterprise level and online), coaching, business counseling and linking women to markets and financial services.
-The Informal Economy Sector Support Programme
The major of the initiatives is to ease the access to suitable and secure business premises available to businesses operating in the informal economy in greater Dar es Salaam.
The programme is explored as a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) between Kinondoni Municipal Council (KMC)- representing the Public interests and taking a leading role to facilitate access to secured land, administer Laws and Regulations, and enforce thereof while the Private sector is represented by the VIBINDO Society as a body of beneficiaries.
TGT Programmes in the Agriculture Sector:
-The Mbogamboga (Vegetables) Women Programme
The Mbogamboga (Vegetables) Programme aims at changing the lives of small holder farmers through integrated horticulture farming and value addition to enable them to benefit from Tourism Value Chain in Zanzibar.
Overall, the programme has shown that best practice agronomy and access to irrigation are essential in order to enable a regular supply of produce, particularly in the low season to hotel and the community.
Farmers, who adopt good agronomy practices can increase income through taking loans to irrigate their land and enable them progress from subsistence to small scale commercial farming and increase their profits though value addition.
TGT operates farmer field schools to achieve these goals.
-Tanzania Cotton and Textile Development Programme (TCTDP)
The Programme aims to double the yields of Tanzania’s 400,000 plus cotton farmers who should work on their farms as a business and catalyze value-adding industries in the textile and clothing sector.
Activities include providing technical assistance to the Tanzania Cotton Board (TCB) and to Tanzania Cotton Association (TCA) members who are investing in the industry, to help them promote the necessary policy and institutional reform; providing support to ginners and farmers to ensure that contract farming is managed successfully; and developing public good solutions for the industry, including weather insurance to protect farmers who take loans, and a market database to help manage contract farming in a transparent and fair manner.
The Programme is also helping TCB to introduce improved cotton seed and is supporting Ukiriguru research institute to improve its research capacity to address new challenges facing the industry.
Finally, it is promoting conservation agriculture among farmers to improve yields, through a major Lead Farmer Training Programme (LFTP) and through a range of market development initiatives with input suppliers
TGT Programmes in the Forestry Sector:
-Tree Biotechnology Programme
TGT manages the Tree Biotechnology Programme which is implemented by Tanzania Forest Research Institute (TAFORI).
The objective is for the improvement of forest conservation and production through environmentally friendly technologies socially acceptable, economically viable and culturally compatible so as to improve the living standards of rural families in Tanzania.
TGT Current Funders are as follows:
-The Gatsby Foundation of UK supporting the Cotton and Textile Development Programme, and the Tanzania Tree Biotechnology Programme
-DFID for Co-Financing the Cotton Contract farming progrmme
-The Zambia Conservation Farming Unit supporting the Cotton Conservation Agriculture
-The Cherie Blair Foundation and Comic Relief supporting MKUBWA the Tanzania Virtual Incubator Programme for women SMEs
-DANIDA supporting the IESP (Informal Economy Sector Support Programme) a pilot programme
-Ford Foundation supporting the Horticulture Women Programme in Zanzibar.
Tanzania Gatsby Foundation now welcomes new funders and partners to sustain the efforts to alleviate poverty and build a thriving private sector in Tanzania.
For further details please contact:
The Chief Executive Officer
Tanzania Gatsby Trust
7th Floor-PPF House Samora & Morogoro Road Corner
P.O.Box 8695, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Mob: +255 75 478 1129
Tel: +255 22 211 2900
Fax: +255 22 211 2899
Email: Tgt@tanzania-gatsby.com
Website: www.tanzania-gatsby.com
