Unguja. A project expert from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Tanzania, Mr Abass Kitonga, says for Zanzibar to succeed in its blue economy endeavours, it must step up
environmental protection.Mr Kitonga made the comment yesterday at the launch of a special report on Human Development for the year 2020.
UNDP issues the report annually as its launch took place at Madibat Bahri in Mbweni, on the outskirts of Unguja Town.
He stressed that for Zanzibar to attain its goal of embarking on different projects through the blue economy, there was a need for it to work on environmental protection because Climate Change was currently gaining ground in Tanzania.
He said Tanzania and Zanzibar need to work together to stamp out the problem of climate change that was largely contributed by the felling of trees for charcoal making, firewood, mining and human economic activities.
He said generally the situation of human development in Tanzania was still not bad, but some issues were needed to be worked on so that Tanzania could succeed in the improvement of social welfare.
“For example, there are some issues to observe for Tanzania to make development including increasing production that should go shoulder on shoulder with meeting people’s demands.
“For example, electricity tariff is high because of low production. This is one of the things that need to be addressed,” said Mr Kitonga.
Launching the report, the minister of State in the Second Vice President’s Office (Policy, Procedures and Zanzibar House of Reps), Dr Khalid Salum Mohamed, said such a report was one of the key standard upon which a country can evaluate itself and take a step to address the shortcomings.
He said despite the world being at war with the Coronavirus pandemic, it appeared that Tanzania, including Zanzibar, had currently made huge strides of development unlike in the 1990s.
Giving an example, he said in the 1990s, jobs were scarce, but in 2020 there were more jobs due to massive industrial investments.
“Also, the mother and child mortality rate has now dwindled as the number of deaths that occurred in 2020, cannot be compared to the huge number of deaths that occurred in 1990.
“So, it appears that we have done well in that area, but we need to keep maintaining our unity so that we can do much better,” said the minister.
The areas that were looked at for the growth of human development for the year 2020 include education, health, social services, tourism and other issues which are the basics for development.
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