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Isles Chief Secretary drums up support for Africa...
2008-02-15 09:42:26
By Judica Tarimo, Zanzibar
The Zanzibar Government Deputy Chief Secretary, Ramadhani Mwinyi, is pushing for a proposal on united Africa and full utilisation of potentials provided in the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) in a quest to attain sustainable growth and development in Africa.
Mwinyi made the remarks yesterday during a seminar on Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) for Zanzibar government permanent secretaries and senior officials.
The educative forum is part of the on-going countrywide APRM sensitisation campaigns and internal assessment, paving way for external scrutiny by experts from NEPAD who are expected to start mid this year.
APRM is one of the NEPAD components, shaped to monitor development progress amongst states in the areas of good governance, democracy and political governance, economic governance and management, corporate governance and socio-economic governance.
According to Mwinyi, NEPAD provides the basis for drastic transformation of African nations into economic power-houses.
``In the last few years, we have seen stagnation and even deterioration of other regions and some countries in Africa. But the growth has not been even,`` he said, adding:``However, the adoption of NEPAD and associated processes such as APRM, could help Africa to realise equitable and sustainable growth and development.``
African countries, he said, needs to continue with unified voice so as to take the course for forging equitable development and economic order for ``our people``.
NEPAD structure, he said, enables African States to support the mobilisation and utilisation of resource in ensuring quality life for Africans.
Mwinyi challenged APRM-Tanzania to provide more opportunities for extensive and broader participants from Zanzibar in the APRM sensitisation campaigns and assessment so as to make it look more Tanzanian.
``It`s realistic to say we are conducting the country`s APRM assessment by holding about 63 sensitisation seminars on the Mainland and only three on the Isles. In my view, three seminars are not satisfactory if we really want to get a clear picture of Tanzania`s development progress,`` said Mwinyi.
Prof. Daudi Mkangara, APRM-Tanzania Executive Secretary, said the mechanism had already held 63 sensitisation seminars throughout the country so far and most of the meetings attracted participants from Zanzibar.
``We tried to strike a balance and of course, invited officials and other participants from Zanzibar in different seminars for district officers, directors and district commissioners, regional commissioners,``
he said, adding: ``But for the sake of changing the meeting point and not increasing participation, we may organise at least one seminar in Pemba to be frank, we had tried to ensure effective and full participation of representatives from Zanzibar--both Pemba and Unguja in the 63 seminars.``
According to the official, preparations were going-on for a similar sensitisation seminar for permanent secretaries on the Mainland, scheduled from next week onwards.
Key objective of APRM evaluation is to make policies and practices of member states of the mechanism and eventually all African states, conform to commonly accepted continental and global governance standards.
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