“Garden City Drewitz goes Kikwajuni Zanzibar” ASA Municipal project

During the “Garden City Drewitz goes Kikwajuni Zanzibar” project, the two municipalities, Potsdam and Zanzibar Town, specified the guidelines for the four ASA participants within which they themselves were able to determine the specific procedures. Over the course of six months, the German participants, Michael Swiacki and Linda Schneider, spent three months in Potsdam (Drewitz) and three months in Zanzibar (Kikwajuni) with their Zanzibari colleagues, Ali Haji Ali and Khamis Mwalim Khamis, during which the similarities and differences between the two districts were considered. They were then able to come up with ideas and proposals for the future development of Kikwajuni that were aimed at the needs and wishes of the inhabitants. Among the similarities was the fact that both districts were part of growing cities and exhibited similar building structures. In their years of origin, both districts had a high standard of living that has now dramatically reduced due to a lack of modernisation measures. Through successful measures of participative urban development with the involvement of inhabitants, Drewitz is now an example of best practice for participative and sustainable urban development. Kikwajuni is also well on its way.

The ASA programme offers participants development-related learning, qualification and involvement opportunities to better understand global interdependencies and to pose critical questions. The focus lies on joint learning for sharing and responsible, social action for sustainable development. The two German participants stated: “Through living locally and getting to know various ways of life, (…) stereotypes often reach their limits. It shows that despite the differences that are so often focused on, similarities prevail above all. This has the potential to help us understand the partner country and the people there much better and to use this new knowledge to act as multipliers in our home country. In this way, a more differentiated and comprehensive picture of these, no longer so far removed, regions can be drawn.”

The participation of both municipalities in ASA Municipal provided the possibility for mutual exchange, through which both sides got to know one another in many different respects. The participants gained insights into the workings, structures and hierarchies of both municipalities. From this, they gained knowledge of the limits and possibilities of various practices. For future partnership projects between the two municipalities, better understanding and knowledge can be built upon mutually. In this way, projects and project proposals, for example, can be better initiated and implemented in collaborations since the requirements and hurdles of each side are better understood.