However, the purpose of her visit was not only to discuss strategic matters, Ms Skogen was very interested in talking to people who are benefitting directly on the ground from Norwegian support. She therefore visited the Arusha Technical College to experience firsthand vocational and technical training making an impact on the lives of Tanzanians, a biogas project set to benefit local communities with big ambitions to commercialise biogas across Tanzania, and a successful avocado project exporting the high quality fruit to world class supermarkets in the West.Dr Richard Masika, Rector of Arusha Technical College welcomed the Norwegian delegation and gave a presentation where he said, “Through Norwegian support we have been carrying out a feasibility study to develop Kikuletwa Power Station. Built by the Germans in the 1930s it lacked maintenance through nationalisation and ground to a complete halt in the late 1980s.
If reconstructed, the power station will not only provide electricity for the surrounding community but will also become the site of a hydropower training centre.” Norwegian senior advisor to the power station study, Vegard Kristiansen added, “Many Tanzanians rely on diesel power, which is expensive and not sustainable.
The challenge now is to secure funds from a cross section of investors from both the public and private sector in the region of 6.5 million USD. These funds will go towards implementing the rehabilitation of the power station to enhance living standards and provide a reliable and environmentally sustainable power supply to Tanzania.”
“The development of hydro-power is what makes Norway the industrialised power it is today,” said Ms Skogen, who is keen to forge a connection between young people being trained and entering the workplace.
The Kikuletwa Power Station project could provide the opportunity for hands-on training for the students. Ms Skogen was then shown around the college and met with female student entrepreneurs who make unique jewellery using colourful beads.
The students have received support from the college in developing their businesses. The Deputy Minister also visited a number of laboratories, where students were practically studying mechanical and civil engineering.
“I’m studying engineering as I want to fill a gap in developing infrastructure in Tanzania, “said Ellen Mndima, (23), who is studying for a Bachelor of Civil and Industrial Engineering, and showed the delegation a variety of rocks being explored as potential construction materials for roads and buildings.
A highlight of the college tour was being shown various student projects including a blood warming device for delivering more efficient blood transfusions and a design for a baby’s incubator.
Currently Tanzania’s national hospital, the Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH), in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, has no individual incubators for premature children and has to heat an entire room to recreate the warm temperatures needed for these tiny newborns. These innovations being developed at the Arusha Technical College are much needed in a developing country like Tanzania.
An agreement was signed in 2014 for Norway to pledge up to NOK 29 million (approximately USD 3.4 million). To date, approximately NOK 5 million (approximately USD 587,803) has been disbursed to the college.
The next stop on the delegation’s agenda was six kilometres west of Arusha town, where Tanzania’s Domestic Biogas Programme is taking shape. Run by the Tanzania Domestic Biogas Programme with Norwegian support channelled through the Rural Energy Agency, Tanzania, the project aims to establish a market by encouraging rural households to cook using biogas extracted from cow’s waste, which is cost efficient, instead of firewood, which poses a threat to the environment.
Using biogas also improves the health of mainly women and children who are often traditionally subjected to wood smoke in kitchens. In the long run it is hoped the programme will be rolled out on a commercial scale across Tanzania.
A biogas digester, which resembles a simple concrete structure with channels and a chamber is constructed next to the family animal shed and converts dung from livestock into biogas, which is used for cooking and lighting.
The liquid left-over from this process-bio-slurry-is used as an organic fertiliser for the soil, so households are expected to realise higher crop yields as well as saving time and energy searching for firewood, which has become a contentious issue in the area.
“This is a much welcome solution in Olango village where women traditionally collect firewood for cooking fuel, thus putting pressure on forest resources where firewood extraction from forests is the main driver of deforestation in Tanzania,” said Justina Uisso-Rusali, Projects Appraisal and Supervision manager from the Rural Energy Agency.
The biogas digester costs 1.2 million Tanzanian shillings (approximately 600 USD) to install. Villagers have to find 1 million Tanzanian shillings (500 USD) and Norwegian support tops up the rest, amounting to a 25 per cent discount, implemented through the Rural Energy Agency. Since January 2016, the Norwegian Government has been supporting the biogas market development through Tanzania’s Rural Energy Agency (REA).
A total of 184 bio digesters were installed in January and February this year. Biogas provides a sustainable opportunity for individual households with livestock to reduce dependency on firewood and fossil fuels, and to benefit from modern and clean energy. Improvement of socio economic living conditions, environmental sustainability and employment generation go hand-in-hand in this case.
The project is expected to contribute to the installation of 10,000 biogas plants in mainland Tanzania over 2 years period (2016-2017), with a total contribution from Norway of TZS 3,064,734,018 (1.5 million USD). The tour ended with a 25 kilometre drive north paying a visit to a Norwegian investment-Africado, an avocado farm covering 137 hectares, employing 140 full-time staff, an additional 200 seasonal workers, and over 2,000 out-growers (farmers who supply avocadoes to the farm for export).
The farm was originally a coffee plantation, which was abandoned, and has been rehabilitated into an avocado farm, producing 2,600 tonnes of Hass avocados every year. Hass avocados are characterised by their green bumpy skin and are hailed as a ‘superfood’ in the West, coming second to the much coveted blueberry in terms of super nutritional value to health.
The farm started operations in 2007 and in 2010 Norfund, the Norwegian government’s investment fund for developing countries, invested approximately 4 million USD in the business, allowing the company to invest in irrigation, expand planting and develop the out growers scheme. In essence, the farm provides local jobs and grows world class avocados.
Avocados are in increasing demand in the West and the farm wants to expand its premises and employ even more people in the area. Africado also has plans to expand its nursery, which produces high quality avocado seeds. Currently there is only one other commercial avocado farm operating in Tanzania.
(Ms Joanna Martin is a Media Consultant on behalf of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Dar es Salaam, dailynews)
On Tuesday, Norway began sending refugees and migrants who battled temperatures approaching 30 degrees below zero to cross the country’s Arctic border. The UN criticized Norway’s treatment toward migrants stating this move might send people freezing to death.Mashable reported that 13 people boarded a bus to cross the Russian border after leaving a reception facility in Kirkenes, Norway. Immigration officers confirmed this report and said that the bus left at around 6 pm and eight men had volunteered to go. Sylvi Listhaug, one of the immigration minister, said that the migrants would be taken to Nikel and Murmansk, in Russia.
The United Nations’ top climate change official, Christiana Figueres, welcomed the confirmation today of Norwegian Erik Solheim as Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and applauded the work of the programme’s outgoing head.
‘Transatlantic ties are more important than ever as we navigate today’s security policy landscape. Few countries have more in common than Norway and Canada – geographically, in terms of resources, and in what we believe to be important.
‘We were horrified and deeply saddened to receive the news of Wednesday’s terrorist attacks in Baghdad. I would like to convey my deepest condolences to the Iraqi people, who are so often the target of terrorist attacks. The attacks are a clear demonstration of ISIL’s contempt for human life and norms of human decency,’ said Minister of Foreign Affairs Børge Brende.
Norway announced Monday that it would deploy 60 soldiers to train Syrians fighting ISIS, boosting its involvement in the international coalition against the extremists.
Norway is the world´s largest producer of farmed salmon. Tremendous amount of Norwegian salmon is flown daily to the markets in Asia, Middle East and US. The number of intercontinental flights from Norway is increasing to take part of the shipping of Norwegian fish. Today there are direct flights out of Europe from Oslo to New York, Moscow, Istanbul, Dubai, Doha and Bangkok.
The Norwegian government has taken actions to give more Investment opportunities to Sri Lanka in their fish market with the lifting of the ban imposed by the European Union on exports of Sri Lankan fish and fishery products, the Finance Ministry said.
A Norwegian politician has spoken of how how he felt guilty that the Somali asylum seeker who raped him was deported. Karsten Nordal Hauken, from Ås, Akershus, was raped in his home and the perpetrator was subsequently caught and jailed for 4.5 years. However, when Nordal Hauken found out that the man was to be deported back to Somalia after serving his time, he reveals he felt guilt that the man would possibly face hardship in his old country.Nordal Hauken has told his story as part of a television series on Norwegian state broadcaster NRK called Jeg mot Meg [Me against Myself] about mental illness and psychological struggles.
The week-long Arctic Frontiers conference kicked off on Sunday as about 1,300 delegates from around the world gathered in the northern Norwegian city of Tromso to discuss the balance between industrial and environmental interests in the Arctic.At an opening ceremony at the Fram Centre in central Tromso Sunday evening, Jan-Gunnar Winther and Harald Steen from the Norwegian Polar Institute presented the 2015 Norwegian Winter Research Expedition to the Arctic Ocean, which shows a thinning ice with dramatic consequences in the region.
General Lieutenant Morten Haga Lunde, chief of Norwegian intelligence service E-tjenesten, has publicly accused hackers affiliated with the Chinese government of conducting cyber-espionage against Norway-based firms to steal sensitive data and military state secrets.The statements were first reported by Norwegian TV station TV2 as Lunde was showcasing his agencies annual intelligence report – a detailed analysis undertaken by the defence department that highlights key cyber-threats and emerging concerns.
With a story about the spark of enthusiasm as a symbol for inspiration, passion and creativity, Norway kicked off the opening ceremony of the second Winter Youth Olympic Games in its central city here. About 15,000 spectators braved bone-chilling cold in the evening to participate in the ceremony at the Lysgardsbakkene Ski Jumping Arena on Friday, the same venue that hosted the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer in 1994, reports media.The celebration centred around the journey of a boy who dreams of becoming the best athlete in the world and trains hard to achieve his goals.
A team of scientists led by Marc Lessard of the University of New Hampshire Space Science Center launched an instrument-laden, four-stage sounding rocket from Norway’s Andøya Space Center about 280 miles above Earth to study how particles move in a region near the North Pole where Earth’s magnetic field is directly connected to the solar wind. The launch occurred Sunday, Dec. 13, at 2:34 a.m. EST.Funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the second iteration of the Rocket Experiment for Neutral Upwelling, or RENU 2, was designed to measure the complex, underlying physics behind the northern lights and heating of the very high altitude thermosphere – a process known as “upwelling” that contributes to the phenomena of “satellite drag.”
Russia’s ambassador to Norway, Viatsjeslav Alfredovitsj Pavlovskij concludes his tenure as ambassador and heads home to takeover deputy chairmanship of the Board of Directors of Russian Railways.
Norway’s Lutheran Church voted on Monday in favour of allowing same-sex marriage, becoming the latest of a small but growing number of churches worldwide to do so. Last year the French Protestant Church allowed gay marriage blessings, while the US Presbyterian Church approved a change in the wording of its constitution to include same-sex marriage.In a vote at the annual conference of the Norwegian Lutheran Church on Monday 88 delegates out of 115 in total backed same-sex marriage.
Norwegian appeals court has upheld a ruling that the former chief of Russian telecoms provider Vimpelcom, Jo Lunder, should be released from custody during an ongoing police investigation into allegations of corruption. Lunder was released from custody late on November 10 after the appeals court upheld a November 6 ruling by a lower court that he should be released.His detention on November 4 after arriving in Oslo on a flight from London came in the midst of an investigation into corruption allegations concerning Vimpelcom’s activities in Uzbekistan.
Thousands of Romanians have expressed anger at a decision by the Oslo authorities to take five children away from their Romanian-Norwegian parents over allegations of mistreatment. Over 62,000 people in Romania have signed a petition in recent days asking for a fast and fair solution in a sensitive case involving a Romanian-Norwegian family whose five children were taken into care by the Norwegian authorities because of alleged mistreatment.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has issued an update on its analysis of recoverable oil from Norway’s various offshore fields and discoveries. NPD’s goal in 2005 was to achieve growth in oil reserves of 5 BBbl over 10 years. The actual result is somewhat below that figure, although the target would have been achieved if Statoil’s development plan for Johan Sverdrup in the North Sea had been submitted before the end of 2014.“There has been substantial resource growth in many fields,” said Kirsti Veggeland, assistant director general for shelf analysis. “The most important reasons for this are more wells, extended field lifetimes and improved knowledge.”