The President of the United Republic of Tanzania Benjamin W. Mkapa sets out his ambitious vision of the nation’s future.

ong a visionary amongst its neighbors, Tanzania has stressed the importance of peace, stability and unity since its independence in 1961, managing to avoid the descent into civil war that engulfed many neighboring nations. In recent years the country has played an active role in brokering peace in regional conflicts such as those in Burundi and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since the mid-eighties, the Tanzanian government has also been diligently implementing comprehensive macroeconomic reform that has resulted in the granting of substantial debt relief and produced consistently positive economic indicators year over year throughout the last half decade. As a result, Tanzania has recently qualified for a new 3-year Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility arrangement with the International Monetary Fund. The man behind much of this progress is Tanzanian President Benjamin William Mkapa, who since his first election in 1994 has sought to bring reform and development to this small East African nation of 36 million people, nestled between Kenya and Mozambique on the Indian Ocean. Much of President Mkapa’s time in office has been spent laying the economic foundations for the future. In his last year in office, with unprecedented levels of Foreign Direct Investment drawn by the country’s consistently stable economic indicators and hearty growth of 5.4% in 2004, the President is seeking to lay the last stone – the creation of a robust private sector, placing the reigns of development back in the hands of the Tanzanian population and allowing the country to finally win its battle against poverty.

Part of a multi-pronged strategy to achieve these goals is a higher reliance on regional trade blocs. Tanzania has in the past few years taken a leadership role in establishing new regional economic alliances such as the East African Community (EAC) with Uganda and Kenya and the South African Development Community. Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye states, “Tanzania has always been a central player in African politics and we have a general interest in securing stability on the continent. We believe that a secure external environment is a prerequisite to attracting investment, encouraging trade, and achieving sustainable development goals. This is the aim of the EAC.”

Further afield, President Mkapa is also emerging as a strong proponent in the international arena for a unified African front and a global pact against poverty that includes a fair globalization. Recently co-chairing the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, President Mkapa called for increased harmonization of development efforts on all levels, as well as grass roots ‘people centered’ solutions that will increase the effectiveness of development aid and accelerate poverty reduction in Tanzania and throughout Africa, hence facilitating the attainment of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Making reference to an old tribal proverb that says ‘Walk on a fresh tree. The dry one will break’, President Mkapa has relied on his extensive firsthand experience in the fight against poverty to outline a new route out of the poverty cycle for Tanzania in a national plan entitled ‘Vision 2025’ and the President is encouraging other African nations to follow suit in assuming full ownership and responsibility for their development. His plan rests on three pillars:firstly, good governance and political will, secondly, local ownership of development initiatives, and, thirdly, the existence of an external environment that is supportive of measures such as increased market access and the reform of agricultural subsidies. The creation of a well-educated and learning society also plays a vital role in President Mkapa’s vision and government efforts have successfully increased primary school enrollment by 50% in the last five years.