Members of the Policy Forum Local Government Working Group (LGWG) have proposed that local government elections that were slated for October this year should be postponed and coupled with the 2015 general elections.
Policy Forum Board of Directors is delighted to announce the election of Namwaka Omari-Mwaikinda of WaterAid Tanzania as the new Chairperson of the network and of Israel Ilunde of Youth Partnership Countrywide (YPC) as Vice Chairperson. Ms. Omari-Mwaikinda, Director of Policy at WaterAid succeeds Nemence Iriya of Macsnet. Policy Forum would like to convey its gratitude to Nemence Iriya. His guidance and knowledge have brought in enormous benefits to the organisation in his spell as Chairperson
“A fundamental element of social accountability is for citizens and CSOs to have access to accurate and relevant information regarding public policies, programs, services, budgets, and expenditures.”
This was revealed at the Policy Forum Breakfast Debate held on 27th June 2014 by Mr. Abongile Sipondo from the Public Social Accountability Monitor (PSAM), South Africa who presented a preliminary study conducted in Tanzania on the challenges and opportunities of applying PSAM’s Social Accountability Monitoring (SAM) Approach in Tanzania.
The Society for International Development (SID) recently shared with Tanzanian parliamentarians new information about East Africa in a bid to create awareness about the progress towards achieving harmonious growth and equity in the region.
Presenting a report entitled The State of East Africa 2013. Mr. Aidan Eyakuze, the Associate Director of SID said that the concepts of inclusiveness and equity are fundamental to the integration process and economic development of the region.
Civil Society Organizations have been praised for their contribution in educating the Tanzanian society on crucial issues including the ongoing constitutional making process. They have been advised, however, to provide solutions and advice to the government on key governance issues instead of merely criticizing the executive.
As the Minister for Finance tables the National Budget for Financial Year 2014/15 in Parliament tomorrow, we, members of the Policy Forum Budget Working Group, representing over 70 different Civil Society Organisations working together to increase informed civil society participation in policy making, would like to make our contribution to this key process.
In spite of the substantial increase in Water Sector funding with more commitments made by the Government of Tanzania and Development Partners from the original estimate at USD 951 Million to almost USD 1.7 Billion as per March 2014, the sector still faces major challenges including delays in disbursement and low spending in new districts.
During the year 2013, the Tanzania Natural Resource Forum (TNRF), a member of Policy Forum, was nominated at the network’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) to partner with Policy Forum to conduct Social Accountability Monitoring(SAM).
During its 2014 Annual General Meeting (AGM), Policy Forum (PF) secretariat arranged for a field visit aimed at familiarizing its upcountry members with the work of key government institutions that it has been closely working with. For 2014, the National Audit Office (NAO) and the Commission for Human Rights and Good governance (CHRAGG) were selected for the familiarization tour.
The field visits were done on day one of the AGM in the afternoon where two teams were formed, one to visit the NAO and the other to visit CHRAGG.
With new found gas reserves in Tanzania, there has been adequate talk of how the extraction of the resource can be maximized for the benefit of locals in the country. Observers have called for Government to demonstrate high commitment towards enhancing local content in the sector and international oil & gas companies to demonstrate the concrete steps they will take on this including development of human resources.