Financial Times reviews Tanzania

In a recent article, the Financial Times gives a good overview of trends in Tanzanian development. It asks the question that many ask – why does Tanzania languish in poverty, given the natural resources and foreign aid it has received?

They note that Tanzania is

Rich in farm land, mineral resources and wildlife, it is free of tribal tensions and has experienced a series of peaceful transitions of power, thanks to a sense of unity forged by Julius Nyerere, its founding father. It also has a stable macro-economic environment and its administration is relatively well-organised: the principal achievements of Benjamin Mkapa, who ruled from 1995 to 2005.

The article notes that the current government's biggest achievement

. . . has probably been the introduction of universal primary education: more schools have been built in the past 18 months than in the previous 20 to 30 years, say officials, although there are now not enough teachers.

And they comment that

. . . In the United Nations' human development index, which measures standards of living and health as well as education, Tanzania has barely moved.

The following statistics reveal the depth of Tanzanian poverty.

According to the last national household survey, conducted in 2000-01, almost one in five people was receiving less than the minimum calorie requirements. More recent government research showed two-thirds of mainland households did not have access to piped water and 89 per cent were without electricity. The country's adult HIV/Aids infection rate is 6.5 per cent and in some regions hits 15 to 20 per cent.

In her 2007-08 budget speech, Zakia Hamdani, the finance minister, said the resources needed for the implementation of the previous administration's growth and poverty reduction strategy - known as Mkukuta - "were immensely large compared with the resources available".

Zakia Hamdani

One explanation for the lack of economic development is the culture of corruption that affects all levels of life in Tanzania. Gemma's book, St Jude's, describes some of her encounters with corrupt practices.

The Financial Times report notes that

Critics contend that Tanzania lacks political accountability, which means people in power are isolated from the masses. One manifestation of the problem is corruption. Suspicions of high-level graft were stoked by several multimillion-dollar projects that pre-dated the Kikwete era: the acquisition of a presidential jet; the building of a new Bank of Tanzania headquarters; and the purchase of a military radar system from BAE Systems. No wrongdoing, however, has been proved.

The current government seems to be ready to tackle corruption to some extent, and several high-ranking members of the dominant political party, CCM, have been arrested on corruption charges Mr Kikwete says: "If people want to get into leadership through corrupt practices, through corrupt means, I think that's detestable. We have to take action."

A bright spot is the increasing force shown by Tanzanian newspapers, which have become increasingly aggressive in their reporting. The number and prominence of civil society organisations is growing.

As I have mentioned before, donor countries are becoming tougher by tying their funds to improvements in anti-corruption practices. The Financial Times article quotes a Norwegian embassy official as noting the intent to take a firmer line on corruption.

Inch by inch, improvements are becoming evident.



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Pew Survey in NYT Interactive Graph

Tanzanians are more likely to think that their children will be worse off in the future than think they will be better off. They are twice as likely to hold this view compared with people in West African countries like Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast.

This is one of the sobering findings from a large scale survey carried out in ten sub-Saharan countries earlier this year by the New York Times and Pew Global Attitudes Project.
There’s a fantastic interactive graph on the New York Times website. To access it, you may need to register on the NYT site, but its worth it. The NYT also has an article about the poll.

Click the questions and watch the graphs on each country change. It’s worth spending some time looking and comparing the views of the different countries. This is one of the ways that we can step out of our familiar world and try to see the world through the eyes of others.

Through Tanzanian eyes, the world looks corrupt (two-thirds say corrupt political leaders are a big problem), hungry (half had times in the past year when they didn’t have money to buy necessary food) and uneducated (three-quarters say poor schools are a problem).

On the other hand, more than 90% say that President Kikwete is a good influence. This is outstandingly better than any of the other countries in the survey. This is great news because Kikwete was democratically elected and the survey is thorough and independent. So, the findings are not the propaganda of a dictator, instead it is clear that Tanzanians have great confidence in their President.

Here’s hoping that Tanzania can maintain its strong economic growth under good leadership, so its children are, in fact, better off than their parents and grandparents.

If you’re not on a learning curve, you’re going nowhere.

Dairy industry is booming

Brookside Dairy, in Arusha, has launched a dairy farmers program that will boost the company’s daily milk sales in the country to 60,000 litres in the next two years.

Brookside plans to invest up to $20 million in new machinery at its recently acquired Arusha milk processing plant while it works to sign up more dairy farmers. The dairy has already forged partnership with over 2,000 dairy farmers in the three years since starting in Arusha.

Dairy farm in Tanzania

From a start of 1,000 litres per day, Brookside now processes 13,000 litres a day and has set the target of 60,000 by 2009. The Dairy plans to add a new UHT processing facility at a cost of $2 million.

The company has urged the Tanzanian government to remove taxes on animal feeds and farm inputs, improve infrastructure in milk growing areas and provide the farmers with micro-financing to enable growth in the sector.

Brookside Dairy is based in Kenya and has drawn on its experience to provide expertise to local Tanzanian dairy farmers to help them maximize milk production through practicing better animal husbandry.

The Tanzanian District Commissioner, Ms Anna Rose Nyamubi, is working with Brookside Dairy to help farmers improve. She said the Government was working to stamp out the practice of keeping children out of school in order to watch over animals.

My government will punish parents who instead of looking after the animals themselves, give the responsibility to the school going children, especially girls. The Tanzanian government is working towards making every child attend at least primary school.

Perhaps some of the St Jude's families are dairy farmers – we know their kids are at school every day and enjoying it!

This news of investment in the dairying industry in Arusha is one of the many signs of economic improvement in the area. This is the kind of investment that will lift Tanzania out of deep poverty and create a better future for the hard-working kids at the School of St Jude.




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No news day

Why is it so hard to find out what's going on in Tanzania? A trawl through international news sites like the New York Times, BBC, Guardian and Reuters rarely turns up any news about Tanzania.

That's because in Tanzania there is no Darfur genocide, no Zimbabwe inflation, no Nigerian murders of Colombian oilmen, no Congolese Ebola. I guess that Tanzania is a quiet corner of the world that is getting on with improving the way things are run.

I did discover that there was a regional trade forum in Tanzania last weekend where Donald Kaberuka, the president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) noted that many African economies are booming, with growth rates of 7%.

Donald Kaberuka

He said that 60% of AfDB's current loan portfolio goes to the core of the productive sector – energy, roads, irrigation, water and sanitation projects.

In the next loan period, the AfDB will have twice the internal funds to lend at low interest rates to support African development. International donors will add to this, giving countries even greater access to funds.

Donald Kaberuka is a very upbeat guy –

I'm very bullish about African economies over the next couple of years. What is important is for African countries to build on the current boom.

As usual, the good news doesn't make the headlines.

The School of St Jude is full of good news and solid achievement. So, when you tire of the attention-grabbing bad news headlines, come and check out the energetic, active high achievers at the School of St Jude.

Where is East Africa?

Sometimes it is not quite what you may think it is. Usually Tanzania is counted as East Africa, but for some purposes, it it counted as part of a bloc of countries in Southern Africa.




Perhaps this kind of ambiguity will diminish with the latest steps towards the formation of the offical East African Community (EAC). This community is intended to become a political federation, including a common market for the region's combined population of 110 million, a monetary union and a common president and parliament by 2010.

Three countries at the core of the EAC are Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda which joined in 2005 to establish a common tariff zone. Last week they were joined by Rwanda and Burundi, and the five countries are working towards a shared future with a common East African court of justice, customs union and an EAC anthem.

Rwanda is rebuilding an economy shattered after a 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people were butchered, while Burundi is still in talks with rebels to end an insurgency that has killed some 300,000 of its citizens since 1993.

Their inclusion in the EAC is vital to their future development because both are land locked countries. Land locked countries are severely disadvantaged in world trade because of the transport barriers that cut them off from access to world markets.

In time, the EAC has the potential to help this group of countries that share geography, history and culture to share economic development in mutual harmony with their neighbours and to reap the dividends of living at peace.

UPDATE 7 July: The enlarged East African Community has attracted investors from the Indian sub-continent barely a month after its was launched in Kampala.

The Confederation of Indian Industrialists is visiting the region to explore opportunities for investing in the new trading block that now has a population of about 115 million.

Kenya's Minister for Regional Co-operation, John Koech, took the opportunity to announce that a joint East African energy master plan and other forms of infrastructure were being worked on to boost industrialisation.

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Pulling up stumps

In the ICC World Cricket League Division Three competition just completed in Darwin, Tanzania lifted its ranking from 7th to 6th in the Division of eight teams.

Tanzania's captain, Hamisi Abdallah, bowling in Darwin

That’s a good effort! And what a great experience for these cricketers to have the opportunity to travel and play against seven other countries from around the world, including Argentina and Italy as well as smaller nations like Fiji and Cayman Islands.

I hope that the kids at St Jude’s get the chance to learn cricket. Perhaps cricket is one of the many opportunities that will develop as the school becomes more established and the children grow into the high school years.

It seems to me that things are changing rapidly in Africa because so many countries are on the path of economic growth. A recent OECD report, African Economic Outlook 2006/2007, indicated that GDP growth rate in Africa has averaged about 5 percent annually in the past six years, rising to 5.5 percent in 2006, and is expected to reach 6 percent in 2007.
The report noted that sound macroeconomic policies in most African countries has increased business confidence leading to a pickup in private sector investment.

The Chief Economist of the African Development Bank, Dr. Louis Kasekende pointed out that,

Yet, the continent still needs to accelerate and sustain growth to the level of 7 to 8 percent to be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) annual report on sub-Saharan Africa said,

Optimism over sub-Saharan Africa has grown in recent years, thanks to debt relief, global economic expansion, high prices for commodities such as oil and a general improvement in policy-making.

The IMF said it was too early to assess whether the higher growth rates were helping poverty but noted governments had been using the proceeds of debt relief to provide key services.

With these gains, it is likely that when the kids of St Jude’s graduate, they will be poised to step into the professional roles needed by their growing economy. Perhaps they will also get to play cricket and travel the world!



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It is all coming together

I get the sense that things are finally coming together for many African countries. This ‘coming together’ is the result of incremental changes across the spectrum. Two news items in the past week show an aspect of this.

One is the news about the new road to be built from Arusha north into Kenya (my blog yesterday). The other news item is that Prof Maghembe, Tanzania’s Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, led a delegation to the US in February to represent Tanzania at the New York Times Travel Show and then visit Dallas and San Diego. The report noted that tourism to Tanzania is booming with arrivals increasing by 12% in the past year. The UK and US are prime tourism markets.

Rumit Mehta (L) and Dr. Jumanne Abdallah Maghembe

Rumit Mehta, Director of Business Development, Safari Ventures, a co-sponsor of the trip, said:

It is important that Tanzania is represented by such high-level of delegates led by the Honarable Minister. It allows the American public to meet face-to-face and discuss the destination with their hosts- including the Minister himself. It infuses confidence in the tour operators such as Safari Ventures that Tanzania is a serious contender in promoting tourism and investment.

Tanzanian tourism has been helped by increased focus in the media on Tanzania’s unique natural attractions, including USA Today naming the Serengeti National Park as the new ‘7th Wonder of the World’, (blogged here).

To change the system, we have to work on the whole system. Increased tourism helps to justify investment in better infrastructure like roads, and better roads help tourism. We need to work on both the roads and the tourism.

Of course, the School of St Jude is a mini-tourism event in itself. It attracts hundreds of visitors a year to Arusha. These visitors come to see the school, visit friends who are volunteering there, or they come help out (see my post about Rotary volunteers).

A Minister visits the US and jobs are created in Arusha, the centre for Tanzanian safari tourism. This means better job prospects for poor families in the Arusha district and future job/business opportunities for the children at St Judes.



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