Organising and training in the hotel and restaurant sector in Tanzania and Zambia

Background

The programme was initiated by the Norwegian Hotel and Restaurant Workers'
Union who wanted to assist their sister union in Tanzania. Through IUF,
Zambia also participated in the programme. The needs for membership recruitment and training on organising and collective bargaining were already identified by discussions between LO and the hotel unions in Tanzania and Zambia.

Purpose/objective

The objective has been to increase the membership of the two unions. To
increase the capacity of the unions, shop stewards were trainined in organizing and collective bargaining. In addition women seminars were organized.

Methodology

The external consultant has conducted interviews with persons directly
involved in the programme in Geneva, Nairobi, Zambia and Tanzania.
Some participants have been interviewed. Documents including activity reports
and audited accounts have been carefully studied.

Key findings

The overall findings of this evaluation are that more members have been
recruited, more collective agreements signed, the project has been relevant to the needs of the two unions, the unions have been able to finance key
activities, the regional structure of the organisations has been strengthened,
more local unions have been formed and the membership service has
increased. HCWUZ has achieved better results than Chodawu.
The weakness of the programme has been lack of capacity, weak financial
management and late transfers of funds from IUF to the two unions. Another
weakness is that there has been no written agreement between LO-Norway and IUF and no cooperation between the two unions.

The evaluation report is generally positive.

Recommendations

The report proposes a two year
continuation of the programme based on a detailed strategy document. The
report also proposes a closer co-operation between the two unions and more
focus on the international or regional hotel chains.