CROSS ROADS : Development Vision 2025: All is not lost!

One of my readers recently reminded me of Tanzania Development Vision (TDV) 2025, which is supposed to be the guiding light in our development endeavours. A child who was born in 1995 when the brilliant document was conceived is today 22 years, and if all went well s/he is a college graduate.

By 2025, when the visions comes to close such a person, will most likely have a left parental house, be in own family unit, and be completely self-dependant.

TDV sought to address the failures of the past (after independence) whereby the fight for the nation to become economically free and majority citizens to live out of poverty and in dignity had not been fully achieved. By coming out with the TDV the third phase of government aimed to open the road towards transformation of our nation from one of the least developing countries to a middle-income state.

According to my reader Mhaluzi Lazaro the “vision was superb in theory but wanting in implementation.” He laments that so long as agriculture sector is severely underfunded, transition to middle income/ or industrialisation sound off the mark, as 2025 fast approaches.

My reader’s concerns are understandable considering that kilimo is the lifeline of majority Tanzanians. While we have other sectors, like mining, energy, telecoms that are boosting our drive for economic growth, if agriculture growth is left out, inclusive economic becomes hard to get. Lazaro’s school of thought, like many others, is that “a robust agriculture sector would lay the foundation for transition to middle income/industrialization.”

Dr E.T. Mallya’s paper, titled “A Critical Look at Tanzania’s Development Vision 2025” argues that for the vision to be realised, Tanzania would have to literary practice what the Founding Father of the Nation, Mwalimu JK Nyerere once said— “We Must Run While Others Walk.”

While discussing TDV, Prof Humphrey Moshi back in 2015 noted Tanzania so far has crafted three visions--Vision for political independence, Arusha Declaration and Vision 2025. The first one was achieved but the second one, things did not work out as planned.

The vision of our time, to me it is a great one, if implementation can be realised. Can we get the outcome envisioned in the remaining years? That is, when will we graduate into a middle-income economy, have high human development status, become semi-industrialized, etc?

Perhaps it would be important for the government to develop a score card for TDV. Of course there have been some achievements and failures as well. The big question is, where are we in the implementation, and what can be done to make us “run” and not “walk” in the battle to develop our nation?

It would be good if we can get official statements that link up current development with TDV milestones. For example, the World Bank (WB) report, June (2017) confirmed Tanzania as one of the fastest growing economy in the world, growing at the rate of 7.2 per cent as India.

Does this growth have anything to do with TDV? What does this mean for the common mwananchi? The WB expects growth for Tanzania to remain robust and expand rapidly “helped by buoyant service sectors, infrastructure investment, and a rebound in agriculture.” All the same the bank warns that public debts should be contained.

If World Bank is right in its analysis of Tanzania, then we should be optimistic that all is not lost in the drive for the economic transformation. The next few years, many milestones can still be reached in implementation of TDV.

To me, making the vision work means tackling poverty. We have a growing labour force that needs good health services and quality education. The challenges are many for the nation but opportunities also are myriad. I have faith the future of our mother Tanzania is a great one! Let’s all play our roles well.

The author is an assistant lecturer, Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE).