Let's not waste chance on smart partnership

 

In Summary

• This implies that the government has not managed yet to translate the growing economy into better standards of living for ordinary Tanzanians. Even when people are employed, the majority fall in the category of the so-called working poor.

Since Friday, Tanzania has been hosting the 2013 Global Smart Partnership Dialogue, a national and international consultative forum in which governments engage all sectors of the economy to find solutions to perennial development problems.

The idea is to share information, knowledge and expertise. We hope the government and local participants will take this opportunity to learn from expert contributions and bring about desired changes to our fledgling economy as we envisage making our country a middle class economy by 2025.

But two questions arise: How serious are we, as a nation, about such national and international events? What have we ever tried to implement? This is not to suggest that we are sceptical about the outcome. We are just concerned that there will be little or no follow-up after the big event.

We have in mind the problem of poverty, which remains a major hindrance to development. Despite being endowed with abundant natural and human resources, Tanzania still wallows among the poorest and donor-dependent countries. Still, there are improvements in infrastructure: Impressive buildings are coming up every day and roads are being improved. Yet the majority of people are still poor and social services fall short of requirements.

This implies that the government has not managed yet to translate the growing economy into better standards of living for ordinary Tanzanians. Even when people are employed, the majority fall in the category of the so-called working poor.

They could be earning a decent salary but when it is distributed among their dependants, the average income per day is hardly $2. Many workers in both the public and private sectors belong to this category.

That is why we have a legitimate expectation to suppose that this forum will teach us something new that we can readily implement at home. It will be a betrayal of Tanzanians if nothing tangible comes out of this Smart Partnership Dialogue.

Too much politicking

Let the government take a leaf from national and international experts and bring about changes in our country. Let us pull out all the stops and address our problems more effectively.

To get to that point, we will have to identify our weaknesses and turn them into stepping stones. We have many experts who can help us do this, but we have the impression that the government is not using them properly. There is too much politicking even in issues that need expertise. As a result, we often lose the opportunity to make things move from the grassroots.

While opening the Smart Partnership Dialogue on Friday, President Jakaya Kikwete stressed the need for African governments to invest in home-grown technologies--innovation--since imported ones are too costly for us.

This was a brilliant idea. But we can do this only if we invest adequately in education for this is the only way to keep Tanzanians abreast with global developments and address emerging challenges for knowledge is power. It is the only way to think big and transform our fledgling economy into a middle class one