IT is high time we called on government and academia to actively engage in the process of finding sustainable development models for reindustrialisation and economic growth.
The “current period of expedition to reindustrialize and make substantial value-addition to the United Republic of Tanzania raw materials” requires dynamic, innovative and creative Tanzanian researchers who understood that the quest for economic transformation is premised on socioeconomic justice.
The new generation of Tanzanian researchers must understand that inclusive growth and development is critical in our march towards achieving the objectives of the national democratic revolution.
Increased participation of researchers and academia is important in the crafting and development of various iterations of the industrial development policy in the country. Without these, our people will forever toil in poverty and underdevelopment.
Meanwhile, we describe research as a critical enabler within the Tanzanian economy. The country needs the best minds, working in the right direction, to produce the best economic intelligence possible.
Development is a hopeful concept that provides a vision for a better future. Development indicators and indexes are useful tools for measuring progress and identifying areas for improvement.
Regardless of definitions and statistics, our country can embrace the charge of developing countries by taking action to expand opportunities, eliminate inequities and enhance well-being for everyone.
A typical example is India and Indian civilisation has played a major part in human development, world history and international relations. With roughly 1.2 billion people, India is the world’s largest democracy and second largest country by population.
In recent decades, rapid economic growth and globalisation have led to higher living standards and greater integration with the world economy. From 1980 to 2010, “India’s Human Development Index (HDI) rose by 62 percent, and life expectancy at birth in India increased from 42.4 to 63.7 years from 1960 to 2008.”
India’s rapid economic growth and development is accompanied by the dramatic rise and growth of so-called mega-cities. People across India and other developing countries flock to cities and urban areas in search of greater opportunity and higher living standards. The fruits of their labours and the economic advantages of cities’ financial, human and social capital help fuel India’s development and urbanization.
We start with a fundamental question—how can work enhance human development? It takes a broad view of work, going beyond jobs and taking into account such activities as unpaid care work, voluntary work and creative work—all of which contribute to the richness of human lives.
We highlight impressive progress on human development over the past quarter century. Today people are living longer, more children are in school and more people have access to clean water and basic sanitation.
Per capita income in the world has gone up, and poverty has gone down, resulting in a better standard of living for many people. The digital revolution has connected people across countries and societies.
Work has contributed to this progress by building people’s capabilities. Decent work has provided people with a sense of dignity and an opportunity to engage fully in society
The UN’s development work has played a key role in raising standards of living around the world. The Human Development Report has helped to identify and quantify the important factors in development.
More importantly, it has done so by providing reliable, consistent indicators over an extended period of time. It has become valuable benchmarks to motivate and measure effective policy-making and good governance.
It has also served as useful tools for keeping political leaders honest by showing how a country’s progress stacks up against the performance of other nations, be they neighbours, peers, allies, or inspirational models.
After all we have to dwell on the proper meaning of ‘development’ in this context -- defined development concisely as a process of “enlarging people’s choices,” while emphasizing that this objective depends on the freedom to be healthy, educated, and enjoy a decent standard of living.
It also stresses that “human development and well-being go far beyond these dimensions to encompass a much broader range of capabilities, including political freedoms [and] human rights ….”
For the earlier Human Development Report proposed an evolved vision of human development as the “expansion of people’s freedoms to live long, healthy and creative lives; to advance other goals they have reason to value; and to engage actively in shaping development equitably and sustainably on a shared planet.
People are both the beneficiaries and the drivers of human development, as individuals and in groups. “Struggle to survive in this difficult, stressful state; in other countries such as Myanmar, Philippines and Vietnam,” the intensity of poverty is even greater than the substantial poor headcount might suggest.
The Legatum index is based on eight “foundations for national development,” including: economy, entrepreneurship and opportunity, governance, education, health, safety and security, personal freedom, and social capital.
So why is Norway No.1? In addition to scoring near the top on the fundamental indicators of health, education, and per capita income, Norway also ranks highly on social capital as well as entrepreneurial opportunity and appetite for risk.
On a more subjective note, “85 percent of Norwegians live within sight of a coastline and many have second houses on lakes.”It’s worth pointing out that Norway’s ranking may also relate to several characteristics that make the country different from many other advanced western nations.
On the economic front, Norway’s very high per capita income comes partly from state-controlled oil and natural gas resources that were discovered in the North Sea in 1971. “Oil and gas account for USD82.9 billion or about 67.8 percent of Norway’s USD122.1 billion of total exports.”
A century ago around the time that it declared independence from Sweden in 1905, Norway was one of the poorest countries in Europe. Hence; this is exactly what we expect to take place in the United Republic of Tanzania in not a very distant future but within our lifetime.
Considerable challenges remain in our developing countries, from persistent poverty and grinding inequalities to climate change and environmental sustainability in general, and to conflict and instability.
These all create barriers to people fully engaging in decent work, and as a result huge amounts of human potential remain untapped. This is of particular concern for young people, women, and people with disabilities and others who may be marginalised.
We argue that if the potential of all people is harnessed through appropriate strategies and proper policies, human progress would be accelerated and human development deficits would be reduced.
For example; BRIC countries label refers to a select group of four large, developing countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China). The four BRIC countries are distinguished from a host of other promising emerging markets by their demographic and economic potential to rank among the world’s largest and most influential economies in the 21st century (and by having a reasonable chance of realizing that potential).
Together, the four original BRIC countries comprise more than 2.8 billion people or 40 percent of the world’s population, cover more than a quarter of the world’s land area over three continents, and account for more than 25 percent of global GDP.
A country’s population an
d demographics, among other factors, directly affect the potential size of its economy and its capacity to function as an engine of global economic growth and development.
The BRIC countries have since gone on to meet and seek out opportunities for cooperation in trade, investment, infrastructure development and other arenas. China invited South Africa to join the group of BRIC nations in December, 2010 and hosted the third annual BRICs Summit in April, 2011.
The rapid economic growth and demographics of China and India are expected to give rise to a large middle class whose consumption would help drive the BRICs’ economic development and expansion of the global economy.
The East African Community’s countries spearheaded by Kenya and Tanzania have all announced significant commitments to infrastructure development. The success of these efforts will depend on their capacity to follow through on these commitments and a number of critical project design and implementation issues, including cross-sector cooperation.
Roads, ports, railways, electricity and information communications technology are all vital enablers of economic growth and better living standards in emerging markets and developing countries around the world in the form of public-private partnerships {PPP}.
As the example of energy poverty illustrates, infrastructure affects everything from access to education and health services to sanitation. In developing countries, lack of access to safe water and modern toilets still cause thousands of preventable fatalities every year. We describe Tanzania’s sanitation challenge as “humongous” and blamed poor hygiene and diarrhea for annual losses of some – hundred to thousands of affected persons.
Private sector participation is usually critical for supplying the funding, technical expertise and implementation capabilities that are necessary for undertaking complex infrastructure development projects. Government entities, often at the state or city level, typically act as project sponsors and bid out contracts to private companies.
The capacity and conduct of government sponsors can have a major impact on the initiation and delivery of infrastructure development projects. Governments need to be able to efficiently and competently identify and execute deals with private partners and manage projects over the course of their lifecycles.
Project design and planning must also responsibly provide for the needs of any local communities and people who are impacted by land transfers. This is particularly true in our country and regions where poor people lack land and property rights and are especially vulnerable.
To prevent this scenario and protect individuals’ rights, project feasibility and design studies represented in decision should be sure to carefully assess the needs of local communities and make sure they are -making processes.
Infrastructure development can be disconcertingly vulnerable to corruption, particularly in our country with fewer legal protections and less governments’ accountability. And where the rule of law and transparency are still weak, infrastructure deals often take place behind closed doors through uncompetitive processes. Over-priced contracts are awarded to sub-par contractors who manage to sidestep project budgets and timelines.
However, proactively publishing government contracts could be an effective, straightforward approach to countering corruption. A requirement to publicly disclose contract details could improve government decision-making and competition while reducing contract costs and corruption.
Infrastructure investments hold the great promise of accelerating economic development, expanding opportunities and improving lives. Private sector companies would do well to follow the lead of social entrepreneurs who look to these infrastructure challenges as opportunities rather than obstacles.
Both governments and companies should recognize their social obligation to look out for the welfare of local communities and environments while pursuing broader development goals.
While easier said than done, citizens should strive to hold their public leaders responsible for making the long-term investments that are vital to promoting inclusive development and better living standards.
We still argue that enhancing human development through work requires policies and strategies in three broad areas—creating work opportunities, ensuring workers’ well-being and developing targeted actions.
The first area focuses on national employment strategies and seizing opportunities in the changing world of work, while the second area covers such important issues as guaranteeing workers’ rights and benefits, expanding social protection and addressing inequalities.
Targeted actions should focus on sustainable work, addressing imbalances in paid and unpaid work and interventions for specific groups—for example, for youth, women and people with disabilities.
Above all, this year is yet particularly timely, following shortly after the inauguration of the 5th phase government of President Magufuli along with UN Sustainable Development Summit, where the new Sustainable Development Goals were adopted, including Goal 8’s explicit emphasis on work:
Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all. Opportunities should be taken to strengthen the links between work and human development. ‘HAPA NI KAZI TU’
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