The government of Tanzania has been advised by stakeholders to integrate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the national planning process and the country’s Five-Year Development Plan II of which the draft is already in place to guide plans.

Honourable Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Hon. Members of Parliament, Chief Medical Officer, Troika Chair, WHO country representative, Development Partners; staff of the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Seniors and Children; PO-RALG, PO-PSM, representatives of the private sector, ladies and gentleman, good morning.
On behalf of more than 100 Civil Society Organizations which are under the umbrella of Policy Forum, Sikika appreciates the opportunity to be one of the speakers in the opening of this policy day for the health sector’s stakeholders in Tanzania.

Tanzania Tax Justice Coalition is a loose coalition of NGOs interested in tax justice. The group was started in 2013 under Policy Forum. The group comprises of Policy Forum, Action Aid Tanzania, Kepa, Youth Partnership Countrywide (YPC), Tanzania Coalition on Debt and Development (TCDD), Tanzania Trade and Economic Justice Forum (TTEJF), Tanzania Youth Vision Association (TYVA), Governance and Economic Policy Centre, Tanzania Education Network (TenMet) and Norwegian Church Aid (NCA).

Only 30 percent of Tanzanians are covered by health insurance while the rest have to find their own means of treatment whenever they fall sick. This situation is more dreadful for those who are retired without reliable sources of funding.

This was said by Mr. Okumu Salvatory, Compliance and Field Operations Officer at the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) during the Policy Forum breakfast debate held on 27th November, 2015 at the British Council Auditorium.

Kindly be informed that Policy Forum offices will be closed for our Annual Retreat from Monday 30th to December 4th (the entire staff will be in Arusha).The office will be opened and resume regular activity and operations on Monday 7th December 2015.We apologize in advance for any inconvenience that this may cause. We encourage you all to send us any pressing/urgent matters to the PF Secretariat Office by email (info@policyforum.or.tz) or +255 782317434 . All other matters will be addressed when our offices re-open on 7th December.

Policy Forum decided to dedicate October’s breakfast debate to the issue of CSO engagement with the newly-elected administration. Titled “What Civil Society Organizations Expect in the New Government?,” the debate on Friday 30th October, 2015 focused on the manifeso that CSOs produced as part of their citizen sensitization programmes.

A call has been made by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to the National Audit Office of Tanzania (NAOT) to strengthen its Ad hoc working group that was formed with the intention of collaborating with CSOs to promote good governance and accountability.

Policy Forum in collaboration with PSAM conducted a three days workshop aiming to develop a collective learning agenda on SAM by drawing from trainers experiences in training and applying the PSAM approach. The workshop was held on 22nd to 23rd September at Royal Village Hotel, Dodoma Tanzania.

Civic actors have called upon the government to enhance "local-local" content so that the gas economy benefits the host communities. This call was made by Prof. Honest Prosper Ngowi, a Mzumbe University lecturer during the Policy Forum breakfast debate held on the 28th of August 2015 at the British Council Auditorium entitled: “Tanzania’s Gas Economy: Examining Local and National Perspectives.”

The Commission of Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRAGG) has pledged to further enhance its interactions with civil society organisations so as to improve on extending the socio-economic rights so as to see the effective delivery of public service to the people of Tanzania. This vow was made by the Chairman of the commission Hon. Bahame Tom Nyanduga during a meeting with Policy Forum members.