A citywide approach to youth-based philanthropy in Tanzania

TANGA, Tanzania — As cities across the world face increased population growth due to urbanization — they often fail to deliver on the promise of a better life for youth. Instead, many young people face urban poverty and inadequate infrastructure.

Switzerland-based Fondation Botnar aims to combat this with its OurCity Initiative, which works in five cities globally with a variety of partners, in harmony with the city council, on youth-focused projects across these cities.

Their goal isn’t to just help individuals — but also to take a systematic approach to improving the city to make it more liveable and equitable. In doing this, they are working to help the youth change their mindsets — imagine a life for themselves that maybe they hadn’t before.  

“A city where young people can live a decent life,” said Susanna Hausmann-Muela, cities portfolio lead at Fondation Botnar.

One of these cities is Tanga, a coastal city in northern Tanzania. The kids in Tanga are exposed to opportunities that surpass those available in some higher-resource settings — such as the ability to build their own robots and convert fuel engines to electric ones.

“Tanga is, in a way, our sandbox for all the other cities — because here we developed and tested the model,” said Zur Oren, partnerships coordinator for OurCity Initiative.

Join Devex on the ground in Tanga as we document the efforts to transform it into a city where youth can thrive.

Editor’s note: Fondation Botnar facilitated Devex’s travel and logistics for this reporting. Devex retains full editorial independence and control of the content.