Introduction

We members of Policy Forum through the Local Government Working Group have the responsibility of lobbying national policies on the devolution of good governance, local government reforms and the raising of public voices in public matters and processes,

After reviewing the actual prevalence of the Coronavirus and increase of patients and deaths,

Being aware of the effects on humanity and the impact on the global economy and our country caused by the outbreak of Covid-19,

In addition to recognizing the major efforts made by the government of the United Republic of Tanzania through the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children and the Prime Minister’s Office Disaster Control Unit under the leadership of the President of the United Republic of Tanzania His Excellency Dr John Pombe Magufuli for setting a plan, forming a national team and allocating resources to fight the Covid-19 pandemic,

With an understanding of the role and responsibility of the local government as defined within the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania, 1977 Article 145 and 146 and the Local Government Act Chapter 287 and Chapter 288 of the year 1982, whereas, in conjunction with empowering the public, should ensure that the law is enforced, strengthen security and democracy to accelerate development in their respective areas.

We feel that it is best to use our influence as a Civil Society Organization with an obligation and position according to the NGO Act of 2002 as amended in 2019 to help the government reach out and defend its people, especially those living in the villages and in the margins of the central economy in which most of them are coordinated by the local government,

We decided to write this statement which is an analysis of the current Covid-19 situation, efforts that have been done, evident challenges and finally our recommendations to help strengthen local government efforts in the fight against Covid-19.

Recommendations

1. Local Government Authorities should relieve fines to be paid by small businesses that have been affected by the Covid-19 outbreak.
2. Local Government Authorities should enact By-laws to facilitate management and monitoring of hygiene and prevention methods and regulations rather than letting the question of masks and washing hands remain a matter of individual will.
3. Local Government Authorities to collaborate with stakeholders in their areas including Civil Society Organizations to provide education on Covid-19 awareness to citizens under their jurisdiction through advertising by using billboards but also through driving around the streets with a car, educating the community about COVID-19.
4. Local Government Authorities to put in place specific and transparent mechanisms to enable various stakeholders including Civil Society Organizations, companies and organizations in providing education, financial aid, food and other basic needs for people with special needs, especially persons with disabilities, the elderly, orphans and poor households so that they can make ends meet during this period of  COVID-19.
5. Local Government leaders should provide more education to people who continue with business as usual during this period of COVID-19 to avoid escalating the problem and disrupting the government’s efforts against Corona.
6. Local Governments should enforce the implementation of the directives set by of the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children and ensure that people are prohibited from gathering in large groups and markets without a specific activity and to make sure protective buying and selling procedures are adhered to, especially that of maintaining a distance of at least one meter between the seller and the buyer.
7. The Central Government should send emergency funds intended to combat the Coronavirus to Local Government Authorities to strengthen the health care system and hasten the goal of eradicating Corona in Tanzania.
8. The Government should be transparent regarding all the donations it receives, provides updates on the implementation status of the fight against Corona, receives feedback from the intended beneficiaries, and monitor whether the aid given reaches the intended beneficiaries.

Municipal Councils in Tanzania allocate 10% of its revenue collections to improve citizen livelihood economically. These funds are provided as a loan with no interest to groups of women, youth, and people with disabilities. Of those funds (10%), 4% is for allocated for youth.

#Testimonials

Mariam Mohamed – Youth Entrepreneurship Group Nzuguni, Dodoma 

“I belong to a youth entrepreneurship group that benefit from the 4% youth funds from the Municipal Council. This group, consisting of 4 women and 9 men, manufacture standardized small charcoal stoves.

The process of applying for the loan began as we went to introduce ourselves to our county leadership. Meeting the county chairman, he referred us to the executive officer who then informed us that we needed to register the group at the Municipality office. Thereafter, we were educated about the 4% youth loan.

As a group, we agreed to apply for a loan of tshs 1 million. However, after the municipality inspected our group and project, we received an additional tshs 3 million – totaling the loan to tshs 4 million. The reason this loan was increased was that the funding we requested was not sufficient to implement our desired project.

Our goal is to improve our livelihood status by creating projects that will help them become independent. We decided to do this due to the unemployment situation youth face for not having the privilege of going to school or after graduation for those who have had the privilege of going to school.

Because His Excellency Minister of Industry and Trade insists on starting up of industries in the country, my colleagues and I are striving to meet this request through hard work and perseverance.”

Joel Jackson – Vijana Kwanza Group Usangara, Mwanza

“Our group was founded in 2015 and started with only welding crafts. However, in 2016 we, through UNA Tanzania, expanded our scope and grew in number. This meant that we were now able to weld aluminum thus enabling us to manufacture aluminum windows, doors – basically, everything involving aluminum.

We requested for a loan of tshs 10 million, and after fulfilling all the requirements, it was granted. Therefore, I would like for all young people to know that the government is there to help us improve our livelihood. And my advice would be to make use of this opportunity, whether you are literate or illiterate.”

Rethinking Project Implementation with clusters amidst the COVID-19 outbreak

On the 6^th of April, UNA Tanzania in collaboration with the Foundation of Civil Society held an emergency meeting with cluster organizations to rethink project implementation methods amidst the coronavirus pandemic and the general elections season.

Clusters were informed about the ongoing ban of social gatherings due to the status of the coronavirus infection rates and were educated on the transmission and prevention methods. Furthermore, this meeting provided clusters with an opportunity to discuss project implementation methods that will erase the assumption that illegal campaigns are being carried out and entice more adolescents to participate in development projects.

Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) is an approach that promotes social inclusion and gender equality for inclusive decision making and public finance management. It is important for analytical works to adequately cover gender dynamics so that plans and budgets at both the local and national level are gender responsive. Doing this is important because gender means people; and when we talk about gender, we mean the development of people. Therefore, it is impossible to mainstream development without involving people.

So, on 16^th March 2020, UNA Tanzania participated in a 3-day GRB training to learn how to mainstream gender in all activities and reports and increase knowledge about Gender Responsive Budgeting and its articulation in the policy analysis processes.

This 3-day training was very fruitful and interactive because we attended presentations and took part in group discussions and activities.

One of the activities was a matching game that required us to match different concepts with respective gender aspects. The objective of this activity was to understand our perspective on equality, equity, stereotypes, social responsibilities, inequality, and discrimination in our societies.

Following this activity, a presentation session was held to discuss and rectify our results from the matching game. During this session, the facilitator took the opportunity to highlight and elaborate more on important terminologies such as sex and gender dis-aggregated data, productive and reproductive roles, and practical and strategic needs. Secondly, the Women and Men Empowerment Budget was reviewed. It was interesting to learn that empowering an individual affects some gender roles in the family during the process. Another topic that was covered in the presentation was that of “Gender as a transversal theme”. Here, it was emphasized that an aspect of gender should be mainstreamed on all activities that are to be conducted. Lastly, the government budgeting approach was reviewed, specifically, 2 main categories; Input Based Budget and Output or Result Based Budgeting. From these 2 categories, the Output or Result Based Budgeting was recommended because it is user friendly and result oriented.

In a nutshell, GRB is a very important tool because it ensures policies on revenue and expenditure address barriers and bottlenecks to women and girls, and ensures that men and boys enjoy and utilize opportunities for leading a dignified life. Secondly, it can be used as a tool for gender equality, as well as a tool for mainstreaming gender equality in government expenditures and revenues. Lastly, it is powerful enough to manifest political choices of decision makers on how and who levies the government revenues and whom the expenditure is spent on.

2020 is a busy year, ten (10) years left to achieve the set goals and targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – Decade of Action, the Five Year Development Plan II (FYDP II) is gearing to an end, and five (5) years left to end the National Development Vision, Vision 2025. This is the perfect time to stock take on the promises made to young people in these national and international development frameworks, and discuss and recommend innovative ways to empower Tanzanian youth as key actors in the implementation of these three (3) frameworks.

This year, the National Youth Symposium – one of our biennial flagship events, aims to connect young people in Tanzania with these issues through inspiring dialogue and action on effective and progressive inclusion of young people in decision making and improved social, economic and livelihood standards.

This two-day event will inspire high-level dialogue and action between youth, youth stakeholders and policymakers in Tanzania; come up with concrete actions, and initiate policy recommendations for the next national development plan – the FYDP III, the remaining years of the Vision 2025 and the Decade of Action. Furthermore, the symposium will focus on contributing to the progress in the realization of SDGs Goal 1 – End Poverty, Goal 5 – Gender Equality, Goal 8 – Decent Jobs, and Goal 10 – Reduced Inequalities. All this will be done through engaging activities such as panel discussions, thematic workshops, breakout sessions and presentations.

The panel discussions are subdivided into 2 categories; the High-Level Panel that will reflect on the industrialization promises to the Tanzanian Youth and the Youth Expert Panel that will steer the discussion on youth as the main drivers in building resilient economic growth in Tanzania.

Regarding the workshops, they are categorized into 3 groups with the following themes “The Industrialization Promise”, “Beyond Farming” and “Waking up from sleep” respectively. The first group will talk about Youth Tangible contribution in Industrialization, the second group will touch on how Agriculture can be used to achieve SDG 8, and the third group will focus on how to take advantage of regional blocks for Tanzania Youth Economic Prosperity.

The breakout sessions will enable youth to learn about Technology, Agriculture as well as Cross-border business and trade. And the presentations will reflect on lessons learned from the breakout sessions.

Finally, young people in Tanzania are highly encouraged to take part in this symposium as it will offer them a platform to chip in their recommendations for the socio-economic good of the country.

On 7th March 2020, UNA Tanzania participated in a one-day SDGs workshop organized by the DANIDA Alumni Network. Using our technical expertise, we elaborated on the technical aspects of the SDGs implementation, monitoring and evaluation at the country level.

We began by providing extensive knowledge on the background of the SDGs starting from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Agenda 2030 and the implementation strategy of the United Republic of Tanzania through the Five Years Development Plan 2016-2021.

During the session, we explained that 17 goals were approved by all member states of the United Nations to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that everyone enjoys peace and prosperity. These goals tackle the root causes of poverty and the universal need for development that works for all people. The key implementers of the SDGs are the Government, Private Sectors, Development Partners and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).

In Tanzania, the government implements SDGs through the President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government (PORALG) using regional strategic plans. On ensuring SDGs are achieved, the Ministry of Finance and Planning (MoFP) is responsible for producing the SDGs performance reports that provide key information to support the implementation process in the country.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is responsible for providing core statistics and data that are critical for monitoring and evaluating the National Five Year Development Plans that contribute to the SDGs implementation. And the National Parliament exercises lawmaking and budgeting for the implementation of the National Plans and Strategies.

The Private Sector implements the SDGs through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that aims to ensure companies conduct business in a way that is ethical, taking into account social, economic, environmental and human rights aspects.

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) implements the SDGs through capacity building training and advocacy through awareness, activity creation, production of learning materials and conducting of service delivery programs.

In tracking and reporting progress made towards achieving these goals, countries present a Voluntary National Review to give an overview of where the country stands in SDGs implementation. During this conference, suggestions on how to accelerate progress can be done through experience sharing, peer-learning, identifying gaps and good practices, and mobilizing partnerships.

In 2019, Tanzania signed up to give a review for the first time. The review showed that our country had been doing reasonably well in addressing goals 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 16, and lagging in the implementation of 1, 13, 14, 15 and 17. Following this analysis, it was agreed than extra domestic and international efforts are needed to help achieve these promises.