-          Honourable Guest of Honour

-          Honourable Ministers

-          Honourable Members of Parliament

-          Your Excellencies the Ambassadors & members of Diplomatic Corps

-          Government officials

-          My colleagues in the NSAs Family Ladies and Gentlemen

 

First of all I must express my very sincere gratitude to the government and especially the organizers of this Consultative Forum for giving the NSA a chance to make a brief statement on MKUKUTA.

 

My statement will be brief and will focus on mainly three things. These are as follows:

 

1)       To invite participants to go through the report on the contribution of NSAs at local level on the progress in terms of their understanding and participation in the implementation of MKUKUTA Key Clusters. As per the survey conducted commissioned by PMFU of NSA-SP the achievements and challenges on the part of NSAs, and the Government to ensure effective implementation of MKUKUTA are addressed. Although there are many achievements mentioned, our emphasis is that the challenges are still many.

 

2)       To express special gratitude that this time the MAIR includes a chapter on the contribution of NSAs in MKUKUTA implementation. However, it is also true that what is reported is more on the qualitative side than quantitative. The report is based on some interviews, visits on the sport and testimonies given by NSA groups. The survey is the first of its kind using the eight zonal focal points as the bases for information collection. The result of the survey covers views of the NSAs visited and those who responded to the questions. Two main questions asked were in what the NSAs considered to be issues their organizations have dealt with which had impact to the communities, and the achievements resulting from their organizations interventions in past three years.

 

In general, the report from the surveys includes a number of achievements mostly qualitative ones but with also a few quantitative figures. With or without awareness of MKUKUTA strategy; NSAs have made some progress on implementing MKUKUTA’s main goals as per the three clusters. Among them are increased training in entrepreneurship; especially for women, youth and some people with disability and those living in difficult situations. Several projects have been initiated, some of which have been successful in changing the standard and quality of life, creation of sustainable employment e.g. in Morogoro economic growth have reached more people. There have been increased economic cooperation groups and SACCOS, e.g. in Tanga groups increased from 10 – 78 in the three years with shares of more than 160 million shillings. In Kigoma a total of 1,500 groups have a revolving fund loan worth 5.0 million shillings for improving their business.

 

On Food security NSAs contribution to community groups is huge and has increased production of food crops and animal husbandry. 

 

As for reducing the income poverty of rural women and men achievements include training of women; youths and people with disability in cultivation of crops for commercial purposes. These include paprika, sunflower and tick logs. Some of the farmers who have acquired loans have improved the farming technology hiring tractors hence increasing productivity.

 

On the part of people living in urban sectors there are recognizable efforts in skills building training and soft loans for SMEs and entrepreneur groups. Support has been mainly in terms of getting machines and equipments for improved production capacity.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, I have deliberately given few details of examples of NSAs and community contribution in cluster I. For Cluster II; it is easy to highlight their contribution since most NSAs especially NGOs/CSOs are more involved in it. In addition Government and NSAs collaboration is more appreciated in the areas of education, health, HIV AIDS protection of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups etc.  

 

Objectives under Cluster II include equal opportunities in education for girls and boys, improving the well being of communities especially children, women and vulnerable groups, clean and safe water for all, and sustainable environment, social protection and ensuring quality services at  affordable costs. In the past four years; NSAs and communities have been able to make some achievements in fighting for equal opportunities and quality education especially at primary level (Hakiellimu – Tenmet). Faith based organizations have been good examples of active action. Most pre-primary schools are owned by NSAs or FBOs. There have been efforts to have special programmes for children requiring special attention e.g. the children with disabilities to support them. NSAs have also formed coalitions and networks to demand for quality services, improved social well being, quality education, health, sanitation and water and relevant services. Organizations like Hakiafya, Hakielimu, networks of people living with HIV/AIDS and those supporting the war against the pandemic – some NSAs like Christian Social Services Commission and AMREF have also been recipients of funds and have been working towards promotion and provision of care services. Details of what exactly has been achieved can also be on governance and accountability.

 

 

NSAs have been active in conducting seminars and workshops as well as forums and debates on the theme. Dialogues among NSAs and local government authorities; and actors have increased transparency, sharing of information and improved service delivery. There is also increased adherence of laws and regulations as a result of demands from the people. There is transparency in terms of public announcement e.g. posting of budgets and other information from the Government.

 

On resources it is noted that NSAs have contributed in making people both conscious pastoralists and farmers in the land laws and the right to control land. In addition continuous civil education by some CSOs has increased awareness on the rights of citizens in participation and decision making processes. Other efforts include close follow up of expenditure and revenues including the 2002 Good Governance Laws. The establishment and maintenance of Workers Union and movements has led to improved dialogue among employees and Government

 

Examples:   Improvement of LAPP and Pension Funds

Establishment of body dealing with workers benefits

 

The achievements highlighted above however are yet not satisfactory enough due to various challenges. At this consultative meeting it is advisable to focus more on addressing the challenges than celebrating the success. Few challenges worth mentioning for each cluster include the following:

 

-          Low growth and Reduction of Income – Poverty

-          Limited knowledge in banking and entrepreneurship skills

-          Limited capital to support initiatives by communities and groups of women, youths and people with disability as well as high interest rates by lenders.

-          There is also the challenge of limited cooperation between NSA and Government at the local level

-          Limited resources and  equipments especially in improving infrastructure

-          Policy contradictions e.g. agriculture policy stresses on food storage for food security while trade policy encourages food export for increased income.

-          Another challenge is bureaucracy and in some; limited cooperation between Government and NSAs on projects requiring joint interventions e.g. buildings.

 

Ladies and gentlemen the current economic trend at global level must signal to us that the most important task is to continue working on the challenges. It is definite that the financial crisis of the global economy though so far has not affected us will have a direct effect on the efforts of making sure MKUKUTA targets are met. The NSAs therefore wish to emphasize the following

 

v     Up scaling NSAs initiatives in all the clusters and promoting Government and donor support;

 

v     Increased resource accountability and the prevention of corruption to ensure resources reach and benefit all;

 

v     Increased genuine dialogue and collaboration between government and NSAs including taking more seriously and proactively measures to end poverty rather than promoting reactive views and contribution of NSAs regarding commitment to reach the goals, targets and objectives of MKUKUTA. This means that in future there should not be some who are passive observers and others who are the active. The only difference should be division of roles and responsibilities among the actors for the same goals.

 

v     As for NSAs the summary of achievements provided in Appendix I from pages 49 to 90 needs to also be up scaled, quantified and aligned with MKUKUTA and other sectoral and macro policies.

 

Unfortunately this statement has been prepared before getting the MAIR hence it is not so much meant to comment on it. However, I wish to invite participants not to hesitate to give their comments on what is given in the report compared to what the reality on ground is. All in all; it is my sincere conviction that we have made some steps through the challenges of coordination, harmonizing what is being done, better use of the surveys and routine data reports produced under the MMS all by actors at local and central level for more successful implementation of MKUKUTA.

 

Finally, I wish to end my statement by reminding ourselves that there is still a long way to go. For common citizens and residents one of their expectation is the changes they can tangibly see in their economic, social well being and greater participation in all decision making process affecting them. Their other expectations is also that their concerns and gaps they identify in implementation of MKUKUTA targets process are heard and action taken for improving the situation given the resources available. The challenge comes when there are many speculations and in some cases evidences of pilferages and deliberate misallocation of the nations resources in favour of a few rather than the general targeted beneficiaries. It is time for all of us to reflect for example why if MKUKUTA is a priority strategy 2005 – 2010 the implementation is still behind and sometimes seems to be isolated from other sector and natural priorities.

 

Having said this I again wish the participants genuine, open and instructive deliberations in the coming three days. I hope that at the end of three days the consultative process will result in concrete implementable strategies that will involve all key players and lead towards greater cooperation and mutual respect and closer collaboration between NSAs at all levels and the Government as well as development partners.

 

I take this opportunity to share with you guest of honour some copies of the report on the views of NSAs as far as their contribution to the implementation of MKUKUTA since 2005. I thank you for the attention.