Poverty and Human Development Report 2009 - UNDP in Tanzania

eXeCUtiVe sUMMarY
Good governance assures a level and fertile ground for investment and transformation – which
in turn leads to more opportunities for increased business and employment. In this sense,
good governance is integral to achieving the goals of the medium-term development strategy.
However, given limited institutional capacity, it is impossible to simultaneously solve all the
governance problems in any low-income country. Therefore, it is vital to prioritise areas critical to
development where basic good governance is crucial to successful outcomes. For example, in
prioritising reforms and improving performance in areas which are central to economic growth,
it is important to insulate major infrastructure investments from special interests and corrupt
practices, and to strengthen the capacity of the judiciary. An empowered citizenry, civil society
organisations and the media are key actors in achieving good governance and should be valued
and encouraged as such by the state.
For the Tanzanian State to effectively and efficiently undertake the responsibilities outlined above,
it is vital to create and maintain a highly-skilled and committed bureaucracy, backed by efficient
government systems. Experiences from other developing countries show that it takes time to
build and transform a bureaucracy to achieve high performance. Again, given limited resources,
progressive strengthening of the bureaucracy may be appropriate, with priority on staff and
systems in those institutions which are most strategic to realising the national vision of socioeconomic
transformation. Without a competent bureaucracy the danger exists that government
itself can become an impediment to transformation.
More broadly, a skilled and healthy labour force underpins socio-economic transformation in
any society. In many developing economies, public investment to date has been focused on
basic education and healthcare, which is consistent with securing fundamental human rights to
education, nutrition and health, embodied in the Millennium Development Goals. Going forward,
it will be increasingly important to strengthen linkages in education to ensure the full development
of individual and social capabilities for growth and transformation. Strategic decisions have to
be made to phase and sequence the development of the human resource in line with a focused
growth strategy. Improvements in the quality of primary, secondary and higher education must
go hand-in-hand with expansion of access to appropriately equip students for subsequent
employment. In Tanzania, the ongoing discussion about focusing government-sponsored
student loans towards strategic training at the tertiary level is a move in the right direction. If
well implemented, this change will provide clear signals to providers of technical and higher
education, both public and private, on the types of training most needed. Competition among
training institutions to attract students and state loans may also be promoted, thus raising the
standard of the education. In this way, the state facilitates private-public partnerships to produce
the skilled labour force required to realise the national vision.
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