First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to convey our sincere appreciation as civil society organizations to be given an opportunity to give a short statement during this opening ceremony of the Poverty Policy Week for the year 2013.  This invitation is considered as yet another positive gesture by our Government in valuing the contribution and partnership of civil society organizations in the fight against poverty and attainment of the development goals of our country. 

Honourable Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, honourable Members of Parliament, Chief Medical Officer, development partners, staff of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, PMO‐RALG, PO-PSM, representatives of the private sector, ladies and gentleman, good morning.

We appreciate the opportunity to be amongst the opening speakers in this Policy Day for stakeholders of the health sector in Tanzania.

One of the main reasons of water points in Tanzania not functioning a few months after being installed is poor management of the facilities, weak community management structures and poor accountability by concerned actors, a policy audience has learned.

In September 2013, 13 respondents from Policy Forum participated in the Gender Audit Survey. Among them 6 were women, 7 were men, 62% were Policy Forum (PF) staff and 38% were from member organisations of PF. The Gender Audit Survey operates on a scale of 1-5, with 1 indicating a low level on the gender integration components and 5 indicating high.

Policy Forum Scores High on “Organizational Culture” and “Political Will” With Regards to Integration of Gender Issues!

African civil society organisations and a coalition of leading international development organisations have called for global policymakers to adopt measures to counter the hundreds of billions of dollars siphoned out of the continent through money laundering and industrial scale corporate tax avoidance.

The Financial Transparency Coalition’s (FTC) two-day high-level conference with Policy Forum held in Dar es Salaam last week was attended by 150 senior politicians, prominent international lawyers, academics, anti-corruption specialists and campaigners.

They heard:

The government of Tanzania has been advised to put in place robust mechanisms that will ensure benefits of gas extraction are maximized for local people.

Speaking at a recent Policy Forum breakfast debate, Mr. Silas Olang, the Senior Regional Associate (Africa) Revenue Watch Institute (RWI), said this would require observing three major things: high Government commitment, supportive international oil companies and a high focus on developing human resources.

Policy Forum has been commended for its effort to engage with Tanzanian institutions of accountability such as the Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRAGG) as means of promoting open and accountable governance in the country.

In May 2010, Policy Forum (PF) and MIICO (Mbozi, Ileje and Isangati Consortium) entered into a partnership to implement Social Accountability Monitoring (SAM) in Mbeya region. Specifically, MIICO stakeholders in Ileje selected the health sector in Ileje District Council to begin their SAM intervention in the region. The intervention began with PF training MIICO staff followed by the introduction of SAM to Ileje District officials.

"Research shows that 66% of the population in Tanzania is made of young people under 25 who are more literate than their parents' generation yet today, they make up 60% of the unemployed”. This was said by Mr. Nicas Ngumba, Manager of Restless Development during the August Policy Forum breakfast debate at the British Council.

September 5th, 2013 –The Global Movement for Budget Transparency, Accountability and Participation (BTAP) urges the world´s 20 economic powers to set a good example and to commit to advancing budget transparency, accountability and participation in their countries. The G20 countries should not only focus on discussing how to advance transparency and fight tax-avoidance, they should also launch strong and decisive strategies to promote budget transparency and accountability in their own countries, setting a good example to the rest of the world.