From a solar dryer made out of a broken refrigerator to a bicycle-powered palm oil press, the spirit of local innovation in Arusha after IDDS 2014 is alive and well. The IDIN Tanzania chapter has nearly 30 members and holds meetings four times a year. During each meeting, IDIN Network members share progress on the technologies they are working on, including insights into their achievements, challenges, and possible ways forward. Each presentation is followed by discussions that focus on helping the innovator carry forward the technology. By doing this the Network members are exchanging contacts and supporting one another.

This summer, Network members organized a visit to see some of each other’s technologies in and around Arusha, including energy-saving stoves, improved latrines, and water ring irrigation to prevent runoff.

The chapter has also invited various stakeholders from nearby learning institutions and experienced government officials. By doing this, the innovators gets to know broadly about the technologies they are working on. Free access of the information and support of ideas enables the chapter members to move forward. Through this linkage also the government and scientists from high leaning institutions gets to know about the technologies that are being developed by chapter members. In the long run the linkage will likely provide scientific backup of the technologies that chapter members are developing.