Dar es Salaam boosts education for Sustainability
2012/09/19

The Mikocheni Post Primary Vocational School in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, is educating citizens on sustainable urban food production and how to make a living in sustainability.

The school is now a learning centre for urban farming, waste separation and composting among other things. Masonry students make the composting chambers, while the other students contribute organic waste for the compost and take turns tending the gardens. Free training seminars are also offered to the surrounding local communities.

Dar es Salaam, an ICLEI member and a pioneering city of ICLEI Africa's 5 City Adaptation Network, has an important role in Tanzania's development. It is the country's commercial capital, with a disproportionately large portion of the country's unemployed. The practice of urban gardening however, has been shown to significantly reduce poverty for the city's residents, according to studies by the Tanzanian Department of Rural Development and Regional Planning.

Last year, a majority of residents were recorded as growing food or tending livestock in the city, with most of the city's milk and vegetable supplies being produced locally.