Recall that the United Republic of Tanzania is led by President Samia Suluhu Hassan, born on January 27, 1960 on the island of Zanzibar, since March 19, 2021.
Dr. Philip Isdor MPango is the Vice-President of the United Republic of Tanzania where the Human Capital Development Summit is being held on July 25-26, 2023 in Dar es Salaam. He highlighted three critical steps that African countries should take to unlock the continent’s human capital potential, the key being harnessing the 3 Ps (public-private partnerships).
He revealed this a day before the opening of the Heads of State Summit on African Human Capital which is being held on July 25-26, 2023 in Dar es Salaam, which means, in Arabic, Haven of Peace. Regarding, in particular, investment in human capital, he asserted that it was long-term in nature and thus required low-cost financing with a long-term maturity.
“I strongly believe that our training institutions, as key players in human capital development, can and should help the continent build local capacity to effectively manage and harness our natural resource endowment”, said Dr. Mpango. Then add: “It is ironic that the continent spends so much of its financial resources on importing knowledge to exploit our own natural resource wealth. African training institutions should therefore reposition themselves and collaborate to produce local solutions to Africa’s challenges”.
Next, Dr. Mpango revealed that the African Union’s Agenda 2063 has made human capital development one of its main flagship themes, centered on improving access to health care and education for all, the promotion of gender equality, the empowerment of women and the development of skills and competencies necessary for the growth and transformation of the continent.
“By 2025, the African Union hopes that at least 70% of African children will be enrolled in pre-primary education, while prioritizing investments in Higher Education and Technical and Vocational Training programs »noted the Tanzanian vice-president, indicating, however, that the time frame to achieve the envisaged objectives is very short.
Against this backdrop, Dr. Mpango shared some of the milestones that Tanzania has achieved in human capital development programs, including increasing education funding from 17.9% in 2019/2020 to 18.9% in 2021/2022 of the total budget. This is close to the agreed target of 20% for 2030. As for Health and Agriculture, he said the budgets for Food Security and Nutrition in Tanzania have also increased significantly.
Currently, the Tanzanian government is implementing free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education for all, in particular by allowing teenage mothers to resume their studies.
On the medical side, to expand the reach and efficiency of social service delivery, Tanzania has focused over the past two years on improving hard and soft infrastructure, including building and renovation of classrooms, health facilities, installation of telemedicine centers, X-rays and MRI machines for all regional hospitals.
Furthermore, by strengthening the National Health Insurance Fund has been strengthened in order to increase the number of service delivery centers and also to increase the supply of drugs.
In addition, Tanzania has rolled out a national social safety net program under the Tanzania Social Action Fund (« Tanzania Social Action Fund » or TASAF), and financial inclusion programs to support access to social services.
In addition, significant investments have been made in digital infrastructure and interoperability, which in turn have contributed to wider coverage of branchless banking and mobile money services, thereby increasing the financial inclusion of 65% of the adult population in 2017 to 73% in 2023.
“The interventions described above have yielded some pretty impressive results, including improved food security that has reversed trends in all forms of child malnutrition. The prevalence of stunting fell from 34% to 30% for the period between 2015 and 2022”, noted Dr. Mpango. vice-president who concluded by stating:
By forging strategic partnerships with the private sector, Tanzania has aligned Technical and Vocational Education and Training programs with the needs of industries, creating an integrated pathway from education to employment. The country is currently designing programs that will prepare graduates at all levels, even dropouts, to seize opportunities and contribute meaningfully to the workforce. I invite other African nations to learn from these experiences and work with Tanzania to build a better future, where human capital will serve as the foundation for sustainable development.”
Now we have to be realistic. Tanzania has deeply kept the Anglo-Saxon culture, like most East African countries, besides, except for Mozambique colonized by Portugal. As a result, the values, it is the case to say it, are not the same as those of the countries colonized by France, like Madagascar. In Tanzania, a member of the Commonwealth since 1961, the official languages are Swahili and English. But Arabic is also spoken there, especially in Pemba and Zanzibar, a former Sultanate which, without going into details here, has many Malagasy ancestors from the west coast of Madagascar. Why “United” Republic of Tanzania? Quite simply because this country of 945,087 km² is the union of Handle it and the state of Zanzibarin 1964.
In my opinion, as long as Madagascar will not be able to get rid of the colonized culture which still prevails and always within characters who take themselves for outstanding politicians, development will be delayed. And, taking a look at the African continent, no one will be able to contradict me that the fact that all-out instability reigns rather in French-speaking countries more than English-speaking ones. These countries are, in alphabetical order: Benin, Burkina Faso, Congo-Brazzaville, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea-Conakry, Mali, Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Togo.
Politically speaking, Madagascar was included in the African continent, but it is an island, the 4th largest in the world after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo. The Big Island in the Indian Ocean is represented at this Summit on Human Capital Development in Dar es Salaam by a delegation led by the President of the Republic, Andry Rajoelina, who will deliver a speech on July 26, 2023. Wait and see.
Dossier of Jeannot Ramambazafy
