When leaders don’t know poverty exists

Monday, 11 April 2011 08:27 Editor

Recently Tanzania Prime Minister Mizengo Kayanza Pinda shocked many Tanzania with his statement that he didn’t know why Tanzania’s were complaining of poverty when all economic indicators were showing that Tanzanians’ living standards had grown.
He was addressing a meeting of the Research on Poverty Alleviation (REPOA) in Dar es Salaam when he expressed serious doubts on the economic data of the country’s economy.
He instructed REPOA to conduct yet another research to verify the truth and recommend ways to reduce poverty. REPOA has already conducted 50 similar researches and submitted to the Government, but they are gathering dust in high places, while it listens  to foreign accolades.
REPOA has been in operation since 1995 as a non-profit non-governmental organisation, and is now one of the top independent non-profit research organisations in Tanzania. It specializes in economic and social research.
Most Tanzanians saw the admission of ignorance, by a top Government leader on the state of economic status of his people, as deplorable because year-in and year-out Government budgets for poverty alleviation, but hardly anything gets food to the tables of the majority.
Tanzania, with a population of over 40 million, nearly 80% of whom living in abject poverty in rural areas, has on many occasions been praised by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for making positive progress to alleviate poverty.
The Government, it seems, pays more attention to praises from foreign capitals when in fact its people suffer from hunger, complain of corruption everywhere they turn to, and are hit by an ever rising inflation.
If Premier Pinda, being the third highest ranking Government official in the country doesn’t know the real poverty situation, it means President Jakaya Kikwete and Vice President Gharib Billal don’t know either who they are leading.
This Government under the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) has been in power since independence in 1961 – some 50 years down the road it doesn’t know the state of poverty of its majority people.
Every body thought the Government knows there a huge army of unemployed youths, poor health, and falling standards of education.
A few years ago President Kikwete created a fund of over Tshs 40 billion (US$ 26.50 million) which came to be known as the ‘JK Fund’ in collaborations with commercial banks, the money was loaned to thousands of small entrepreneurs and SACCOS to invest in profit making businesses of all sizes.
Preliminary reports indicate that the JK Fund didn’t make any real impact, and the Minister of Finance has promised to inject more JK funds to enable more people to obtain the loans, but it doesn’t look like it will help much either.
For all good reasons, the Tanzania Government needs to seriously engage into poverty alleviation by involving grassroots people not imposing decision from above.