ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL HOLDS DIALOGUE WITH UNITED NATIONS "COUNTRY TEAM" FROM TANZANIA

ECOSOC
9 July 2001
Morning





The Economic and Social Council discussed development issues this morning with a Tanzanian Government official and the United Nations system "country team" for Tanzania, hearing, among other things, that while delivery of development services had been made more efficient and the nation's Gross Democratic Product had grown by 5 per cent in recent years, poverty-reduction programmes were not yet reaching the rural poor and HIV/AIDS posed such a threat that it could reverse all gains recently achieved.

Joyce Mapunjo, Assistant Commissioner of the External Finance Division of the Ministry of Finance of Tanzania, said the characteristics of the country's recent approach to development had been based on national ownership and leadership; broad participation; openness and improved relationships with development partners; a more strategic approach to public spending focusing on priorities, especially poverty reduction; continuous monitoring; and more attention to governance issues such as transparency and accountability. A national poverty eradication strategy aimed to reduce abject poverty in Tanzania by 50 per cent by 2010 and to eradicate it by 2025, she said.

Sally Fegan-Wyles, Resident Representative for Tanzania of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Resident Coordinator, said among other things that 10 agencies were operating in the country and that the country "team" had 12 members. She and a series of team members went on to describe programmes under way and the situation in Tanzania, noting among other things that the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) set for Tanzania had four strategic objectives: enhancement of national capacity for development management and improved quality and access to basic services; promotion of a democratic, transparent and community-driven enabling environment for development; attention to gender and environmental concerns; and a rights-based approach to all UN programming.

Those speaking from the floor wished to know more about how UNDAF intersected with the Government's poverty-reduction programmes. Speakers noted that the extensive efforts to coordinate between various agencies might ultimately result in "transaction costs" that exceeded the benefits that resulted; and that regional as well as country-based development efforts should be pursued.

Participating in the dialogue were the following members of the United Nations country team for Tanzania: Nicole Menage of the World Food Programme; Bjorn Ljungqfist of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); Ali Ibrahim of the International Labour Office (ILO); Wedson Mwambazi of the World Health Organization (WHO); Felix Ugbor of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO); Kamara Maryon of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees; Teferi Seyoum of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); Jurgen Reitmaier of the International Monetary Fund (IMF); and James Adams of the World Bank.

The Council will reconvene at 3 p.m. to hold a dialogue with the United Nations system country team for China.


Statements of panellists

JOYCE MAPUNJO, Assistant Commissioner of the External Finance Division at the Ministry of Finance of Tanzania, said the characteristics of the country's recent approach to development had been based on national ownership and leadership; a broad participatory approach; openness and improved relationships with development partners; a more strategic approach to public spending focusing on priorities, especially poverty reduction; continuous monitoring; and more attention to governance issues such as transparency and accountability. Among the efforts resulting had been a "Vision 2025" programme, a national poverty eradication strategy, a Tanzania Assistance Strategy (TAS), a poverty reduction strategy paper, and sector strategies/development programmes. The "Vision 2025" programme set the goals of a high quality of livelihood by year 2025; peace, stability and unity; a well-educated society; and a competitive economy based on sustainable growth and equity. Among the aims of the national poverty eradication strategy were to reduce abject poverty 50 per cent by 2010; to eradicate it by 2025; and to provide a framework to guide poverty eradication initiatives.

The role conceived for the United Nations system, Ms. Mapunjo said, included consultation processes for “Vision 2025" and the other national development programmes; setting of national priorities through the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF); capacity-building on development management for poverty eradication, policy analysis, monitoring and evaluation; aid coordination and strengthening of the environment for sustainable and equitable economic growth; and assistance with governance issues. Among additional help needed from the United Nations was assistance in mobilizing more resources to support poverty-reduction efforts and harmonization of procedures, rules and regulations of various UN agencies to make them more user-friendly.

SALLY FEGAN-WYLES, United Nations Development Programme Resident Representative and United Nations Resident Coordinator for Tanzania, said the basic message was obvious -- coordination was an investment that could pay off. It increased efficiency for poverty reduction schemes. This was as true for national and international partners as it was for the United Nations.

Ms. Feban-Wyles said it was important to put coordination into the context of the Development Partnership. There was now a framework for development coordination coming into place in Tanzania. United Nations working groups fed into the Government-donor working groups established in all key sectors. This progress had led to expectations for even greater reduction in transaction costs by both the government and donors.

The United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) had four strategic objectives for Tanzania, Ms. Fegan-Wyles said. It aimed to enhance national capacity for development management, and to improve quality and access to basic services. Further, it aimed to promote a democratic, transparent and community-driven enabling environment for development, and to promote macro-economic stability and pro-poor growth. Gender and environmental concerns would be addressed in all operational objectives with designated focal points in all working groups. In addition, special attention would be paid to gender and the environment in monitoring results, and a rights-based approach would be used in all UN programming. Challenges lay ahead. In January 2001, there were four United Nations working groups. Now there were eleven. "Non-resident" United Nations agencies also wanted to participate in the efforts, and in addition there was a need to cover refugee assistance. The cost of this was an investment worth making. United Nations coordination capacity required dedicated, professional staff in order to make sure those eleven working groups were effective. There was a need for internal resource re-allocation, and cost-sharing and increased ownership. In addition, there was a need for simple, harmonized tools, including information technology group work.

MEMBERS OF THE UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM COUNTRY TEAM FOR TANZANIA said there were successful individual projects in Tanzania between 1985 and 1997, but that they had little impact on overall poverty. Problems had been identified, including insufficient national ownership and leadership in setting priorities, a lack of a holistic, multi-dimensional understanding of poverty, and weak United Nations coordination.

Since 1997, there had been achievements in strong government leadership that had resulted in a national framework and process for priority setting. There was also a poverty focus based on a shared understanding of the multidimensional causes of poverty, and a strong development partnership had been established, with greatly improved coordination between national and international players and the United Nations. Progress had been seen in the poverty reduction efforts -- GDP growth was 5 per cent, and there was a sound macroeconomic framework. Further, sector programmes had been established in key areas. Yet there was still much to do. The rural poor thus far had been beyond the reach of the programmes, the under-5 mortality rate had been stagnant, and there was the risk that the HIV/AIDS crisis could reverse all the gains.

Speakers illustrated the work of the various agencies in Tanzania. The World Food Programme (WFP) had worked on school feeding to increase enrollment and improve attendance, and provided support to improved farming practices. It also provided food for HIV/AIDS affected households. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) prioritized development management, in which it supported the Population Census and strengthened national capacity for data management. It also focused on access to basic services, including establishing outreach programmes for out-of-school youth on sexual and reproductive health. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) concentrated on policy analysis and research linked to public expenditure reviews, and provided poverty monitoring. The World Health Organization (WHO) developed health systems focusing on the operationality of District Health Systems and human resources development. And the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) strengthened national capacity for poverty monitoring and effective aid coordination between national and international players and the United Nations.



Discussion

A number of remarks were offered from the floor, among them that national delegations wished to know more about how the UN Development Framework (UNDAF) intersected with the Tanzanian Government's poverty-reduction programmes; that the "transaction costs" of coordination efforts could have negative as well as positive effects, among other things by involving UN officials and resources in discussions about coordination when they might be focusing on hands-on work in the country; that further harmonization could nonetheless be useful; that regional development programmes and approaches might be considered; that best practices should be taken into account from UN work in other countries; that "south-south" cooperation should be considered, if found useful; that efforts to enhance information and communications technology (ICT) should be expanded in Tanzania; and that development programmes should be well-integrated with crisis responses, such as those for large refugee populations in Tanzania.

Ms. Fegan-Wyles and other members of the United Nations team, responding to the debate, said among other things that a rigorous Government analysis had been made of the causes of poverty in Tanzania to arrive at an effective common strategy for fighting poverty. It had been found that the Tanzanian assistance strategy reflected what would have been done in the UN's Common Country Assessment (CCA), and so the UN team had opted for the Government's appraisal -- in effect, the two processes had more or less merged, and the CCA had not been independently performed. It was probably better to have such a situation where the Government wanted to carry out such a rigorous analysis itself, and did so. The UN system was less effective on regional strategies than with country approaches, team members said, but there were regional development approaches in Africa, and these tended to focus on specific topics, such as road-building, or tended to be clustered under certain specific agencies, such as the ILO, which based its approach on regions, such as for East Africa, for which it aimed to harmonize labour laws. United Nations and Tanzanian development programmes were well-represented in refugee camps in Tanzania run by UNHCR, team members said; however, since it was not primarily a development agency, UNHCR did not participate in the development-assistance framework (UNDAF) process.

Ms. Mapunjo of the Tanzanian Ministry of Finance, responding to the debate, said among other things that the country's efforts to review the causes of poverty problems and to come up with an effective Government strategy for battling it had saved a lot of time and bureaucratic costs. Instead of having a series of UN agencies coming to the Government to negotiate strategic agreements and papers, the basic Government document now served as a common basis of agreement, saving time, money and energy. As it reviewed proposed development projects, the Government gave consideration to the relative expertise and comparative advantages of UN agencies in deciding which would help to carry out which kinds of work.






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