Tanzania

The Organisation of African Youth (OAYouth) is the youth platform for information exchange, forum for debate on African issues and a network of future political, corporate, academic, literary, religious and traditional leaders in all African contexts.

The African Youth Day was declared and adopted by the African Union (AU) in 2006 to be commemorated on 1 November each year. It has since evolved as the most powerful platform of young people of Africa.

OAYouth, in collaboration with Phelps Stokes and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), is hosting the ‘African Youth Day Conference 2011 (AYDAC'11)’ on 1 November 2011 in Johannesburg.

The youth of Africa will convene at AYDAC’11 to celebrate the African Youth Day. The conference will pave way for youth to examine workable methods to improve youth unity as well as strengthen youth economic empowerment through leadership development, entrepreneurship support and agricultural transformation.

Conference Objectives:

• Echo the voice of ordinary young people of Africa;
• Share information and best practices in promoting opportunities for youth encouraging youth to start new entrepreneurship initiatives;
• Establish suitable structures for meeting the unique needs for youth business start-ups in developing economies in Africa;
• Build lasting relationships between youth and business institutions;
• Infuse a gender perspective and rights-based approach to policies and programs for youth;
• Cultivate in the youth the spirit of accountability, transparency and integrity (ATI).

Only young people of between 15 and 35 who are of nationality of any African State will qualify to apply.

Cost: R2 430 per delegate.

For sponsorships, exhibitions and applications, write to: info@oayouth.org.

Enquiries: Tel: +27 73 445 4355.

For more about The Organisation of African Youth, refer to www.oayouth.org.

The Peoples Organisation For Transparency Agency (POTA) has proposed for an immediate formulation of a parallel election manifesto which would reflect desires of majority of Tanzanians.

POTA maintains that it is high time for the civil society to come up with own manifesto which would incorporate the interests of many Tanzanians.

POTA president, Idrissa Masalu, argues that unlike the political parties which come up with own manifestos when the election approaches, the civil society should hold community consultation to develop issues Tanzanians think are of their paramount significance and priority.

To read the article titled, “NGO calls on civil societies to develop own manifestos,” click here.

Press Release

6 May 2010

This is a press release from our partner organisation, AIDS Rights Alliance of Southern Africa (ARASA), endorsed by the Treatment Action Campaign.

On Wednesday 5 May, the opening day of the World Economic Forum on Africa (WEF) in Dar Es Salaam, a group of nine AIDS activists from across the continent were detained for questioning by Tanzanian authorities after they handed over a memorandum entitled “Health is Wealth”, which emphasised the need for increased investment in health and particularly HIV, TB and Malaria in Africa, to two prominent speakers at the WEF.

Yvonne Chaka Chaka, a popular South African musician and UN Goodwill Ambassador for the region, and Christoph Benn, the Director of External Relations for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, had arranged with the group to receive the memorandum from them outside the conference centre.

The small group had been delegated by 40 NGO representatives from more than ten African countries, who were gathered in Dar Es Salaam to discuss global and regional advocacy strategies to address the urgent need for resource mobilisation for universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care (universal access), and for replenishment of the Global Fund in October 2010.

One such strategy included the submission of a memorandum to participants of the World Economic Forum, which outlined the concerns and demands of civil society organisations working on HIV and TB in response to the rapid backtracking of both donors and national governments on their commitments to funding universal access.

The group had chosen the WEF as a focal point for advocacy because of the inextricable links between health and socio-economic development. As mentioned in the memorandum, African heads of state, in the Abuja Declaration of 2001, stated that HIV, TB and other infectious diseases “constitute not only a major health crisis, but also …the greatest global threat to the survival and life expectancy of African peoples, a devastating economic burden, through the loss of human capital, reduced productivity...”

In calling on global leaders to mobilise at least US$20 billion for the Global Fund replenishment in October 2010, the memorandum also pointed out that, as warned by the World Bank, “responding to immediate fiscal pressure by reducing spending on HIV treatment and prevention will reverse recent gains and require costly offsetting measures over the longer term”.

The memorandum was originally intended to be handed over at a peaceful march with around 800 supporters, largely from Tanzanian community groups. However, the march was cancelled the night before, after the government revoked the permit to demonstrate.

Following the handing-over of the memorandum to Chaka Chaka and Benn outside the WEF, which lasted no longer than 15 minutes and caused no disruption to the conference activities, the group had boarded their bus and were preparing to return to their hotel when they were detained by police and taken to the police station for questioning. They were held for five hours, although ultimately no charges were issued or arrests made.

The group was then escorted under heavy security back to their hotel, where they were instructed to gather their luggage and proceed to the airport to wait through the night, under police supervision, until their flights departed from the country the following day. Although no formal “Prohibited Immigrant” notices were issued, members of the group were effectively treated as such and one member, who had planned to extend his stay by a few days, was compelled to accompany the group to the airport on standby for the next available flight.

Michaela Clayton, Director of the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa expressed her concern about these actions on the part of the Tanzanian authorities, ‘which display a complete disregard for the right to freedom of expression in respect of the conveyance of a message as critical as this. Unless donors and national governments make more resources available there will be no universal access”.

Those detained were: Paula Akugizibwe and Lynette Mabote from the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa; Bactrin Killingo, James Kayo and Netsayi Dzinoreva from the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition; Linda Mafu and Soraya Matthews from the World AIDS Campaign; Sydney Hushie from the Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS; and Michael O’Connor from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. All have now left Tanzania.

Ends ++

Contact Persons:

• Paula Akugizibwe (ARASA) +27 83 627 1317
• Bactrin Killingo (ITPC) +27 73 392 3377
• Linda Mafu (WAC) +27 72 896 2453
• Sydney Hushie (GYCA) +233 244 50 56 57

Download the full report here.

This report presents a situational analysis of ICT4D in Tanzania and aims to establish key priority areas for ICT4D in Tanzania, identify various issues determining the success or failure of ICT4D in Tanzania, and recommend possible measures to be taken to facilitate the progress of ICT4D for the next ten years.

With respect to the above objectives, an inductive-interpretive approach was adopted to inform the study. Information was purposefully gathered from a broad range of informants from government, the private sector, NGOs and international organisations. Qualitative analysis was used to identify the issues and priorities, and to build the concepts and recommendations.

The analysis shows that, at a high level, the Government of Tanzania has established key priority areas, some of which coincide with priority areas identified by citizens. The government priority areas are defined in strategies such as the Tanzania Vision 2025, the National Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy, the National ICT Policy, and the Universal Communication Services Access Fund. However, a composite of the two perspectives reflects the shared view that it is of paramount importance to streamline ICT into the areas of production and service provision, government, health, education, business, and the growth of SMEs.
 
Three categories of success factors have contributed to facilitating ICT4D in Tanzania, namely the affordability, availability, and adoption of ICTs; supportive social infrastructure (levels of literacy and Kiswahili as the national language); and presence of government will. At the same time, four categories of issues were identified to challenge the successful uptake of ICT4D in Tanzania, namely an unsupportive ICT connectivity and supporting infrastructure; inadequate quality of ICT content; unsupportive organisational issues and peeople-related challenges.

Various areas were identified as requiring further studies. These include development and applicability of policy to facilitate the documentation and archiving of information concerning ICT and related projects. Others are identification of possible services to be delivered through mobile phones. The transferability of successful ICT implementation modes from one local community to another also needs further investigation.

The report was compiled by Jim Yonazi of the The Institute of Finance Management in Dar es Salaam.

Attachment	Size
tanzania_thetha_report_ict4d.pdf	1.98 MB