|
Kudos for UNDP’s new anti-poverty dedication
2005-04-13 15:02:21
By
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations General Assembly five years ago encompass a great vision indeed, for the simple reason that they target poverty at its very source.
Ignorance, poor health delivery systems, mother and childcare, improving governance, reducing gender marginalisation, are part of its goals.
It also seeks to uplift backward agriculture and propel industrialization and cut on environmental degradation.
A broad range of regional or country-based strategies has been mooted with a view to attaining the goals come year 2015.
The overall consensus focuses on the private sector as dominant engine of growth - the principal creator of value and managerial resources capable of delivering economic growth and opportunity.
The various interventions so far attempted face challenges of wobbling in the waves of globalization.
If any of the goals is to be achieved either in absolute or relative terms, greater economic activity in developing countries must be fostered.
Responsible private investment and entrepreneurship is the key to producing goods and services that the global market wants.
More importantly however, is the question of ownership of anti-poverty schemes, their prospective pitfalls as well as outcomes.
Of late, we have seen momentous increases in Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) targeting certain sectors, particularly the lucrative mining area, while a few large foreign companies eye some manufacturing undertakings.
While such developments are important in rejuvenating local economies, it is critical that the upsurge of foreign investments create pro-active and sustainable supportive linkages able to invigorate local economic activity as well as small and medium enterprises.
This implies implementing strategies that aim at developing both indigenous enterprises and a local private sector tuned to creating wealth and retaining it, in order to make progress towards realising the MDGs.
The irreversible process of globalisation is teaching us how the private sector should address specific development challenges through ever-changing styles of doing business to meet customer expectations as well as overall demands of the economy.
It is upon this premise that an idea was mooted two years ago in launching the Growing Sustainable Business (GSB) scheme for poverty reduction in Tanzania, a collaborative effort between UNDP, UNIDO and ILO.
The GSB Initiative deserves kudos as it recognizes the role of the indigenous private sector in contributing to the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) and the significance of public-private sectors working together to alleviate poverty.
It is true that at policy designing and dialogue, much is easily said than done about fostering Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Tanzania.
GBS is a new frontrunner development initiative, facilitating and encouraging feasible projects and investments while providing practical inputs to policy makers.
It is encouraging to note that since its establishment in December 2003, GSB has been able to support the development of four concrete projects in partnership with the government, NGOs, local companies and development partners.
The projects range from rural ICT penetration, use of non-timber forest products to produce oil, integrated dairy development as well as rural electrification.
Economic analysts expect that the successful implementation of these projects will provide rich experiences on how best can poverty be tackled, due to the fact that companies are taking the lead in those business activities.
This model will help foster an effective tool for stimulating sustainable economic activity in many parts of the country, as in other areas among the world’s poorest places.
|
