The Liberal Democrat training team for the December 2004 Media and Communications Workshop consisted of Candy Piercy (lead trainer), Ben Rawlence (former Foreign Affairs Advisor to the Lib Dems) and Greg Simpson (Head of Research for Charles Kennedy MP). Candy had already led a WFD training workshop in Zanzibar and conducted the initial needs assessment with CUF in 1999. Ben speaks fluent Swahili and had been involved in human rights monitoring in Zanzibar.

Candy and Ben flew out to Tanzania early in order to visit acquaintances from CUF on Zanzibar. Whilst there they toured villages such as Makunduchi and Bwejuu and asked local villagers what issues they thought should be the priority if a CUF Government was elected in 2005. It emerged that the top priorities were respect for human rights, improved infrastructure such as water supply and rudimentary health service, raising education standards and tackling unemployment.

The objectives of the workshop were to better equip the CUF staff and leadership to communicate their message to the electorate, in particular the media. The participants were primarily senior members of CUF, therefore training material that had been developed for use with Lib Dem MPs was utilised.

Seven participants, including Mr Seif Sharif Hamad - CUF Presidential candidate for Zanzibar, were given one on one media training from Ben and Greg. This involved practice interviews, self-assesment and feedback from the trainers who posed as journalists. Participants also had the opportunity to put their skills into practice at a CUF election rally.

CUF now face elections in October this year. For more information on CUF please visit the Sister Partysection of this website.