Tanzania

Tanzania is likely to become one of the five countries in the world with the fastest economic growth in the next five years. Still there are many challenges ahead for Tanzania – one the largest recipients of Norwegian bilateral aid. The main objective for the Norwegian effort is to contribute to economic growth and reduced poverty.

Focus:

• Clean energy
• Environment and forest
• Climate change
• Fight against child and maternal mortality

Norway provides budget support to six countries south of the Sahara. Tanzania is one of them.

Power to Pemba

The business sector in Tanzania suffers great losses because of the country’s power crisis. At Pemba, however, people are happy. The island has been given electric light thanks to a successful Norwegian project. Nothing will ever be quite the same after a 74-km long Norwegian submarine cable connected this Indian Ocean island to the national electricity grid on the Tanzania mainland.

In the past, pollution from electricity generators thickly covered this beautiful island. Whatever electricity they had on the island was produced by generators. Now the black cloud has gone, but there are still many challenges. Pemba is a beautiful place. It is still very much an untouched island. So far, only four or five tourist hotels have been set up there. The local population live as they always have done. Tourists are hardly seen. It is, however, expected that things will change now because of the stable power supply.

“Tourism will imply challenges and problems, but also an opportunity for economic development. We certainly need that. Life on the island can be quite hard”, commented Maulid Iddi Juma, distribution engineer at Zanzibar ­Rural Electrification Project (the development magazine, Bistandsaktuelt, 2011). From Norway’s point of view, this project has been a great success. The valuable experience from Pemba will also be useful for similar projects in the future.

Norway also played an important role in the electrification of Zanzibar.

 Zanzibar General Elections

The 2010 general elections in Zanzibar made history as nobody was killed during the election period. In a subsequent referendum the people of Zanzibar voted in favour of a coalition government. This historic milestone has, for the time being, put an end to political discord and violence in Zanzibar.

Norway was one of a few countries involved all the way on the road to reconciliation. Among other things Norway provided one of the electoral observers and was involved as a dialogue partner all through the elections process.

Democracy in Africa is in a process of development. For several decades, Tanzania was a one-party state. The nation's founding father Julius Nyerere had no time for multi-party discussions. He was preoccupied with building the nation. In 1992 the multi-party system was introduced in Tanzania and Zanzibar. All the subsequent elections have shown that Zanzibar is divided between the two political parties CUF and CCM. For a long time the multi-party system remained a “Winner takes it all” system, where approximately 50 per cent of the population had little or no influence. This sparked off violence and conflict. The Government of National Unity represents a new model, based on reconciliation. Representatives from all parties are to be included. Yet another step forward is the mandatory inclusion of women in the parliament. According to Zanzibar’s new constitution, 40 per cent of the seats in parliament are reserved for women. 

Norway continues to actively support the coalition government in Zanzibar.

Forestry

Norway has allocated up to NOK 500 million over a five-year period to support Tanzania's efforts to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. So far approximately NOK 95 million has been disbursed. Tanzania is also a pilot country in the UN-REDD Programme and a member of the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF). Evaluation reports deem the Norwegian initiative to be relevant and efficient. Nevertheless, the reports call for a stronger, high level political ownership in Tanzania, in particular more involvement of the Ministry of Finance. The importance of involving the private sector has also been underlined.

Cultural exchange and institution building

The Norwegian Embassy is a main sponsor for the Zauti za Busara festival, which is organised in Zanzibar every year in February. Tanzania has a number of talented artists, but lacks well run cultural organisations. As opposed to Norway, Tanzania offers almost no public funding to events like the Busara festival, which aims at keeping traditional music and cultural heritage alive. The 2011 Norwegian cultural allocation to Tanzania is NOK 3.1 million, primarily intended for cultural institution building.

The Busara festival in Zanzibar celebrates the Swahili music. During the four performance-packed festival days, young people gathered on the lawn in front of the stage inside Zanzibar’s old fort. This year the audience also enjoyed Zanzibar’s taarab music in fusion with Norwegian folk music performed by the violinist Anne Hytta and four Norwegian musicians.

Norway sees culture as an important tool both in public diplomacy and development work. Art and culture are also seen as a powerful means to obtain other goals, for instance within the areas of education, peace and reconciliation, political mobilization and democracy building, and initiatives for international dialogue.

The fight against corruption

The debate on corruption is closely interwoven with the internal discord and struggle for power in the government party. General elections were held in Tanzania in 2010, and corruption was a major issue during the election campaigns. Norway's efforts against corruption in Tanzania are concentrated in two areas:

1: Exposing and preventing corruption in projects where Norway is involved.

2: Helping Tanzania’s authorities to improve their methods for exposing and taking legal action against all forms of corruption in the country.

Norway currently chairs the donor group for general budget support to Tanzania. This implies regular meetings with the authorities to discuss and evaluate the efforts to reduce poverty and corruption.

One UN

”One UN” was introduced in Tanzania in June 2011, which means coordination of activities to ensure higher efficiency. Norway has allocated approximately NOK 10 million to efforts aimed at increasing good governance.

• · 24 % of the budget will be used for protection of refugees
• · 17 % will be used for health projects
• · 14 % will be used for environment and climate projects
• · 13 % will be used for education projects
• · 9 % will be used for efforts to promote economic growth
• · 9 % will be used for improving good governance
• · 4 % will be used for social protection work
• · 5 % will be used for work against HIV/AIDS
• · 3 % will be used for water, sanitation and health
• · 2 % will be used for managing emergency situations

Miscellaneous:

• For a number of years, Norway has contributed to education and research in the areas of natural resources and agriculture. Specialist competence in Tanzania plays an important role in the fight against deforestation.
• In September 2010, five years before the deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, Tanzania was praised by the UN for the country’s efforts for reaching the goal of full primary school enrolment. Approximately 95 % of all school-age children are now enrolled in school.
• The Norwegian cooperation with the Haydom Hospital and the Clinton Foundation continues to produce good results.