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Poverty reduction: Parties must play their roles well
2006-10-18 08:45:58
By Editor
The war against poverty can only be won if both the government and people play their roles affectively.
We agree that there have been achievements but the battle has not been won yet.
Yes, we have free universal primary education and we have health facilities throughout the country although we don’t have enough medics. However, the biggest challenge to our posterity remains poverty.
The third phase government laid various strategies and we are talking about National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP), Vision 2025, and a host of other noble development programmes, which the current government is working hard to achieve.
In most of the development programmes, the government has largely done its part. time has come for the people to ask ourselves, have we done our part?
Why has our standard of living remained wanting? Do the majority of our people really deserve to live with less than a dollar per day?
With such questions in mind, we find some answers in what Prime Minister Edward Lowassa recently said while on a visit in Tanga.
He warned that some people had not played their part in the war against poverty. He expressed his disappointment over the region’s failure to embrace cooperatives.
The Premier was optimistic that the region might never get the full benefit of the government’s resolve to help the people reduce poverty because of failure to embrace cooperative movement. This, he said has the potential of transforming the country into an economic giant.
In line with Mkukuta (NSGRP), the government has disbursed 1bn/- to each region for poverty alleviation strategies. For more people to benefit, all they need is to form or join Savings and Credit Cooperatives Societies (SACCOs).
A SACCOs can be formed by a group of people with common interest. They can get loans at 10 per cent interest rate per year (the figure is much lower than bank rates).
However, the Prime Minister was shocked to learn that the region had slightly over 70 SACCOs with 2bn/- capitalisation, while in Njombe District, there was a single SACCOs with the same capitalisation.
Is it possible that the government has largely done its part, but wananchi are yet to take full advantage of the chances put in place for poverty reduction?
It is the responsibility of the people to seize all opportunities availed by the government, otherwise the war will be meaningless. All parties must strive for a common goal, which in this case is a better life for Tanzanians.
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