Sections:
DFID in Africa: Secretary of State visits Tanzania
10 December 2007
Last month, around the
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM)
in Kampala, Uganda, the Secretary of State for International Development,
Douglas Alexander, visited DFID projects in Tanzania and Kenya as well as Uganda.
In Tanzania, he found out how the taxation system has been improved, how DFID is
helping in the major trading port of Dar-es-Salaam, and met a women's group
which is doing important work to improve standards in local schools.
Making trade work for Tanzania
The Secretary of State arrived in Dar-es-Salaam to begin his day and a half
visit to Tanzania. After a welcome from the Deputy Minister of Finance and the
Permanent Secretaries of Finance and Infrastructure, a police escort whizzed the
entourage through Dar’s dense afternoon traffic.
The first stop was the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) where the Director
General explained their modernisation programme. This programme has delivered
real results, with taxes being collected more efficiently, and accounting for
17% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2006/7. The modernisation
effort is supported by DFID and others, and continues to build the policies,
people and systems to collect more tax, more smartly.
Back
to top
Dar Port: A major source of growth
Next up was a tour of Dar-es-Salaam's port. Handling 90% of Tanzania’s
trade, the port is vital for sustaining growth and reducing poverty in the
country. It is also
plays a key role in the region's trade, with 100% of Zambia’s oil imports and
75% of its copper exports passing through it. In recent years, DFID backing has
helped to increase the number of containers the port can handle.
However, the port needs to modernize to keep pace with the increased
traffic. Currently it is choking with containers, and becoming slower and more
costly. Shipping to Dar is now almost twice as expensive as shipping to
the best ports in other developing countries. These costs are passed on to
farmers and business throughout the region.
Douglas Alexander saw the challenges first hand. Drawing on his extensive
experience as Transport Secretary, he made suggestions and offered advice to
local officials, commending the progress made to date and candidly stressing the
need for urgent improvements in port efficiency in the short term. He also
emphasised how critical it was that the Government either
expanded the port or built a new one.
Sharing UK experience
Later in his visit, the Secretary of State had dinner with a small
group of Tanzanian civil servants and NGO leaders. The hot topic was how better information and analysis can
improve decision-making, make government more accountable and achieve bigger
results. Government spending in Tanzania has increased dramatically in
recent years through both domestic revenues and aid. For example, spending on
education has quadrupled since 2000, while on health it has tripled.
This has led to a growing expectation that politicians and Government
officials demonstrate what progress is being made and whether public spending is
delivering value for money. Mr Alexander shared the UK Government’s experience
of enhancing value for money and accountability, for example through the public service agreements and the establishment of the
Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit. He also highlighted the
importance of sharing information with citizens and the media.
Back
to top
Finding facts to improve schools
The following day, Mr Alexander saw how DFID Tanzania is
supporting a more responsive state when he visited a DFID-backed women’s group
that collects information on local education
services. This has enabled a comparison of the resources at local schools with
the Government's commitments.
The women spoke of how neighbouring schools are receiving quite different levels of support, with Mwananyamala Kisiwani school getting more than £5.60 per pupil each year from the government grant, while Mchangani receives barely £1.40. This translates into smaller class sizes and more qualified teachers in the first school, and, in the second school, almost 60 pupils for each teacher, and five out of 35 teachers lacking appropriate qualifications. The information collected also sheds light on drop out rates, exam passes, teachers' qualifications, and the availability of basic facilities such as latrines, power and water.
Although it’s not immediately obvious why the variation is there, the women are now able to challenge local government officials with the facts close to hand. Speaking to Mr Alexander, local leaders, teachers and district officials agreed on the importance of the women's fact-finding as they all work together to push for improvements to local education.
"I'm very impressed by the important work that you do here," the Secretary of State told the community members. He urged them to continue to collect this kind of information and use it to advocate for better services. "The work that (the group) is doing will lead to better education opportunities for children in this area."