Tanzania: APRM – ‘BIG RESULTS NOW’ a commendable approach
By Shout-Africa Correspondent, Hassan Abbas – The African Union governance assessment body, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Tanzania chapter has commended the government of Tanzania for establishing the President’s Delivery Bureau (PDB) that will implement highly prioritized projects.
The statement was issued over the week end by the APRM Tanzania Executive Secretary, Rehema Twalib when addressing the local and international media on marking the APRM Day in Dar es Salaam.
She noted that among the governance gaps identified in the APRM review of Tanzania is multiplicity of plans, policies and strategies but a weak implementation level. This hampered transformation and development.
“We strongly commend the government of Tanzania for working on that gap which the APRM review identified since our initial report in 2009. We now believe that the BIG RESULTS NOW will stir our socio-economic transformation,” she noted.
According to the APRM Country Review Report no. 17 for Tanzania, the country was advised to strengthen state capacity to implement policies and programmes by, among other things, recruiting the necessary personnel and increasing budgetary allocations to key economic and social sectors
On its responses attached to the report, the government of Tanzania affirmed the importance of enhancing its capacity to implement policies and programmes and cited that strategies towards addressing the gap have been outlined in the Five Year Development Plan 20111/2012-2015/2016.
The commitment to address identified governance gaps was re-emphasized by President Jakaya Kikwete when he addressed his peers, the rest of African Heads of State and Government participating in the APRM in a forum held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, January, 2013.
“We endorse APRM process as a value addition to our existing governance architecture. The government welcomes the observations in the Country Review Report (CRR) as objective and candid. Tanzania is ready to work on the identified challenges by funding the prepared National Programme of Action (NPoA),” he said.
APRM is mandated to periodically review progress on good governance through wide consultations of the people at the national level and then a country is finally reviewed by its peers-the rest of the African Heads of States and Governments for constructive discussions on how to move ahead.
Tanzania signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to join the APRM process on the 26th May, 2004 and secured formal admission into the process on the 8th July 2004. On the 1st February, 2005 the Tanzanian Parliament ratified the APRM Memorandum of Understanding.
