Tackle inequality Gaps to reduce poverty

Tanzania’s wealth remains concentrated in Dar es Salaam, despite the fact that other regions are steadily closing the gap as reflected in the latest National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report. While the new NBS figures paint a promising picture as far as addressing the inequality challenge is concerned, more still needs to be done. Common sense dictates that it’s a huge risk having one’s eggs in one basket.

This is why it’s critical for the government to continue improving the economies of all regions across the country. There are plenty of untapped investment opportunities in regions such as Mwanza, Mtwara, Lindi and Rukwa. These are the areas that registered the highest growth rates last year as they moved to catch up with Dar es Salaam, whose contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), fell slightly from 17.2 per cent in 2015 to 17 per cent last year.

It will be very important for the fifth phase administration, especially in the wake of its flagship industrial drive, to find ways of safeguarding the advances these regions have achieved, and ensuring inclusive and sustainable growth.

But this must be a priority for all the regions, including Coast, Morogoro and Kilimanjaro, whose contribution to the GDP fell last year. There is no silver bullet, but there are measures which can be taken, which together can make a big difference - and infrastructure development is a good place to start.

There is an urgent need, for example, to boost revenues for public investment in reducing some of the regions’ historical gaps – which include the highly segregated access to quality public goods in education, health, transport and infrastructure. In a nutshell, tackling inequality between regions is a pressing challenge. And this must be part of deliberate and concerted efforts to improve the livelihoods of Tanzanians everywhere, and building of a fairer, more stable and inclusive society.

Let peace missions go on

The bodies of 14 Tanzanian fallen peacekeepers arrived in the country yesterday evening. The Minister for Defence, Dr Ali Mwinyi, Chief of Defence Forces Venance Mabeyo and other government officials welcomed the heroes. The soldiers were killed in a surprise attack by rebels in the Northern Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday.

We grieve with the families of the 14 heroes in particular, and with the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces in general in this tragedy. We pray that God gives them strength to deal with the loss and carry on with life.

We commend the government for its decision to continue with peace missions, despite the tragedy. We are also of the view that abandoning peace missions that the country has committed itself to undertaking because of the cowardly act by the rebels would be admitting defeat. If anything, the attack should strengthen Tanzania’s resolve to take the centre stage through the UN patronage, to help bring peace to the DRC, both militarily and politically.

The participation of Tanzania in peace missions is a strong expression of the fact that peace in Tanzania is meaningless until the whole of Africa is peaceful.We urge the government to ensure the families left behind by the Tanzanian heroes are taken care of in accordance to the laws of the land.