Zanzibar First Vice President and USAID/Tanzania Mission Director Hand Over Grants to Zanzibar Youth Organizations

The US government is committed to supporting Tanzania’s youth and both the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar and the Government of Tanzania to achieve Vision 2020 and Vision 2025

Implemented in the Iringa, Mbeya, and Zanzibar regions, USAID Advancing Youth supports rural youth, aged 15-35, to engage in agribusiness and other rural value chains and increase their economic opportunities while promoting leadership and healthy lifestyles.

USAID Mission Director, V. Kate Somvongsiri, noted that “the U.S. government is committed to supporting Tanzania’s youth and both the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar and the Government of Tanzania to achieve Vision 2020 and Vision 2025, which aim to uplift Tanzanian lives.”

Zanzibar’s First Vice President and USAID Mission Director met 45 Advancing Youth beneficiaries who demonstrated how they process their products including yogurt, fruit jams, honey, foods, and moringa powder.

Background Information on Grantees:

1. Cube Zanzibar: Cube Zanzibar provides business incubation services and financing and business acceleration support to start-ups and small businesses in Zanzibar. Their focus is on bringing ideas to life and getting businesses to excel. The organization works in a growing private sector space in Zanzibar and its choice of model and service provision comes from their conviction that execution focus is needed to let business ideas, aspiring entrepreneurs and new start-ups thrive. Its aim is to stimulate innovation and creative disruption, as it believes those are the critical characteristics of a successful society that manages to sustain long term economic growth.
2. Aatif Aquaponics Limited: Aatif Aquaponics Limited is a for-profit smart agriculture company registered in Zanzibar in June 2018. The company produces organic and healthy food products with added agricultural value using smart farming agricultural techniques. It also promotes awareness of and advocates for smart farming agricultural practices in Zanzibar. Aatif Aquaponics Limited has expertise and consultants in hydroponics and aquaponics farming, smart mushroom farming, renewable coconut husk charcoal production, seaweed farming, value-added seaweed products manufacturing, sea cucumber farming, post-harvest loss management and cold-room usage, information communication technology in agribusiness, skills development, agri-entrepreneurship, market linkages, and agri-entrepreneurship investor-ready programs.
3. Empowerment of Marginalized Communities (E-MAC Tanzania): E-MAC Tanzania is a registered non-governmental organization operating in Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar. E-MAC envisions an empowered community with sustainable well-being. Its mission is to empower marginalized communities, including youth, for well-being by promoting sustainable initiatives and networking with other like-minded partners.
4. The Pemba Island Relief Organization (PIRO): PIRO was registered in 1997 to improve the lives and welfare of the people of Zanzibar by joining with and supplementing government efforts towards development. The main aim of the organization is to contribute to the realization of young people’s rights to develop in Zanzibar through empowerment, protection, and enhancement of quality of life. PIRO envisions equitable economic and social justice in Zanzibar for all. Its mission is to advocate for and support comprehensive social protection through well-built accountable governance. PIRO’s expertise and commitment are focused on supporting communities, groups, and individuals to develop, plan, implement, and monitor projects that will lead to healthy, well-informed, self-sufficient, and responsible citizens. PIRO supports social protection activities that provide inclusion and capacity building through skills building, business counselling, and support to women and young men entering the business market. (Note: This organization is receiving two separate grants.)
5. Zanzibar National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC): ZNCC is an umbrella private sector association in Zanzibar, whose main function is to advocate and lobby on behalf of its members at various national and sub-national platforms. ZNCC seeks to promote business growth in Zanzibar by articulating well-developed proposals to remove constraints facing the business community; promoting unity of stakeholders within the private sector; enabling Zanzibar enterprises, especially start-ups, to access skills, markets, partnerships, investment opportunities, and financial resources; and collaborating closely with the government to make Zanzibar more attractive to investors. ZNCC collaborates with different stakeholders with similar visions to address the impediments to doing business. For example, BEST- Dialogue, Trademark East Africa, USAID’s ENGINE program, and GIZ were or have been long-time partners for ZNCC.
6. Zanzibar Youth Care Organization (ZYCO): ZYCO, registered in February 2018, focuses on empowering young women and men of Zanzibar to be resilient, capable, and informed to face the social and inclusion challenges in all spheres of life. ZYCO was founded by beneficiaries and graduates of the FTFT-AY program. The main aim of the organization is to contribute to the realization of young people’s leadership and economic prosperity.
7. IMED Foundations: Entrepreneurship, Management, and Development (IMED) Foundation is a non-profit organization specializing in building individuals, organizations, and communities to realize their full potential, especially in life skills, entrepreneurship, youth employability, and women’s economic empowerment. The foundation operates throughout Tanzania working closely with partners from both the public and private sectors. IMED Foundation’s primary focus areas are competence development through training, boot camps, innovation and start-up challenges, coaching, internships, business incubation, and inclusive policy advocacy. IMED Foundations has previously been funded by various donors such as Mott Foundation, Danish International Development Agency, Norwegian Agency for International Development, and other USAID activities.
8. The Launchpad Limited: The Launchpad is a not-for-profit human capital development organization in operation for the past 3 years. The Launchpad’s vision and mission is anchored in skills development and lifelong learning, underpinned by equitable inclusion, whereby, the focus is on marginalized groups in society (youth, women, and persons living with disability). The organization specializes in providing 21st-century skills training for employability and entrepreneurship, coaching and mentoring youth to support pathways to employment, through apprenticeships and internships, and establishing and sustaining micro-enterprises and small and medium enterprises. The Launchpad also works with private entities and other NGOs to support youth-led enterprises through internship, employability, and entrepreneurship training.
9. University of Iringa, Centre for Entrepreneurship, and Innovation (CEI) and its Kiota Innovation Hub: The University of Iringa, through CEI and its Kiota Hub, has been spearheading efforts to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in Tanzania’s Southern Highlands. To better serve youth inside and outside the University, CEI started the Kiota Innovation Hub, which is an open space for nurturing ideas, mindset transformation, networking, and co-creation for community empowerment. Kiota Hub catalyzed the creation of 160 startups with an additional 40 new startups currently being mentored. The Hub has reached over 1,000 youth through more than 50 events and workshops including “Life After University”, hackathons, “Iringa Sparks,” inspirational events, and a bi-annual event called Start Your Start-Up. In 2019, Kiota Hub partnered with Sahara Ventures to promote female-owned start-ups through the Inspire 100 Girls Project. As an outcome of the project, all 100 girls succeeded in starting and running their own businesses.
10. CV People Tanzania: CV People Tanzania provides recruitment and talent acquisition services. The company has existing and developing networks across Tanzania and the African continent and links job seekers with employers through its database of available employers and jobs in Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, and South Africa, with over 2,000 employers in its Tanzania network alone. They also share the skills sets required by employers in the mentioned countries with universities so that the trainers and educators can better prepare youth for the market and improve the curriculum and training modules. CV People Tanzania is a corporate member of bodies such as the Association of Tanzania Employers, the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation, and the Network of Women in Management in Tanzania. In recognition of its work, CV People Tanzania recently received three awards from the Africa Employer Brands Awards, Global HR Excellence Awards, and 1st Runner Up in East Africa Business Excellence Awards in the Service Sector. CV People Tanzania was selected as one of the Top 100 Women-Led Businesses in East Africa by Invest2 Impact.
11. Pamoja Youth Initiative (PYI): PYI is a youth-led non-governmental and nonprofit organization based in Zanzibar officially registered in 2015. PYI was established with the mission of strengthening Zanzibari youth involvement and participation in bringing positive social changes while realizing their potential and contributing to the development of society. Under its 2018-2023 Strategic Plan, PYI is focused on youth leadership development, livelihood and youth civic engagement, and democracy. Under the youth leadership development component PYI is designing and facilitating leadership training and mentorship programs to increase the chance of youth participation and engagement in decision making spaces. PYI conducted several pieces of training on leadership development, through initiatives such as the Zanzibar Youth Prosperity Project, Leadership and Branding Training, and Zanzibar Secondary Students Mentorship Program. Also, through its partners PYI supported 9 youth to attend different international leadership programs that empowered them to take up leadership roles in their personal lives and transform their organizations. Furthermore, through the Strengthening Women and Youth Voices in Climate Action in Tanzania, Pamoja Voice Project, PYI created and is currently mentoring a leadership network that connects 10 youth and women to share their challenges and experiences in decision making in their respective local organizations.
12. Seedspace: Seedspace Company Limited, registered in Tanzania in 2018, is a global group with a mission to impact people’s lives through technology and entrepreneurship in emerging markets. Seedspace’s mission is achieved by conducting different programs, events, and projects in the agriculture, health, education, clean energy, and financial inclusion sectors. Seedspace connects stakeholders within ecosystems, builds companies from scratch and invests in high growth companies through a range of initiatives, including startup scouting, company building, co-working hubs, and acceleration programs. Seedspace has a network of thousands of entrepreneurs, investors, incubators, corporations, and government organizations from 80+ countries. Since its establishment, Seedspace has been working with different entrepreneurs in different sectors to add value to their businesses and make them ready for bigger markets. Recently, Seedspace worked with six startups through their acceleration program and trained them and invested up to USD 250,000 in their businesses. The businesses included: Yamee Africa who is making the mobile commerce technology ecosystem more inclusive and accessible in Africa; Kilimo Fresh, an E-commerce, produce distribution platform linking smallholder farmers and produce buyers in Tanzania to a fair and reliable market; and Agripoa, climate-smart agriculture and data-driven farm management system that helps a farmer manage their farm by making the right decisions at the right time.
13. Zanzibar Fighting Against Youth Challenges Organization (ZAFAYCO): ZAFAYCO envisions seeing Zanzibari youth capable of handling current economic, political, and social challenges. To achieve this, ZAFAYCO works in three key areas: youth civic engagement, economic empowerment, and health. In civic engagement, the organization focuses on increasing youth participation in decision making bodies and enhancing leadership skills, advocacy, human rights promotion and protection, and peacebuilding initiatives; and increasing voter participation in the various periods of elections in Zanzibar. The organization has vast experience and expertise in implementing initiatives that address poor youth participation in decision making bodies. In Pemba for example, they implemented various projects and programs with long-term impact including empowering 315 youth and local government leaders to set a joint task force to increase youth participation and push a youth agenda at the local government level. The organization prepared various initiatives and dialogues to increase youth participation and shape the national development agenda including Zanzibar youth development policy, Zanzibar youth employment work plan revision, and Tanzania youth manifesto 2015 to 2020. ZAFAYCO also conducted various assessments that showed a need for youth engagement in the development process, including the Zanzibar young entrepreneurs ecosystem, funded by the World Bank in 2017; a Zanzibar youth civil society mapping in 2018, funded by the European Union; and developing a Zanzibar youth database and a landscape assessment on the status of youth and adolescents sexual reproductive health in Zanzibar in 2018 to 2019, under the support of the Tanzania Youth and Adolescents Reproductive Health Coalition.
14. Zanzibar Technology and Business Incubator (ZBTI): Zanzibar Technology and Business Incubator Limited is a not-for-profit organization in Zanzibar, Tanzania. ZTBI is a unique initiative to nurture innovation and entrepreneurship among start-up youth between 15-35 years in Zanzibar. ZTBI’s mission is to stimulate business startup and growth of startup enterprises into successful, well structured, well-managed and fully productive enterprises for the benefits of all people in Zanzibar.