The sub-Saharan country, a recipient of Irish aid since the late 1970s, is desperately poor, writes MARY FITZGERALD, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
TANZANIA’S PRIME minister has said he hopes Ireland will stand by its aid commitment to the country despite the recent cut of €91 million to the overseas development budget.
Prime minister Mizengo Peter Pinda also stressed that Tanzania had a responsibility to ensure aid funds were spent properly, and he insisted its government remains committed to fighting corruption.
Pinda leaves Ireland today following a four-day official visit during which he met President Mary McAleese, Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin, and Minister of State for Overseas Development Peter Power.
Ireland has been providing aid to Tanzania since the late 1970s, and the east African nation is one of nine programme countries that receive bilateral assistance from Irish Aid, the Government’s overseas development division.
Between 2007 and 2010, Irish Aid will provide some €150 million in funding to Tanzania, 40 per cent of which is allocated to general government budget support, in particular its national poverty reduction plan, Mkukuta.
Tanzania, despite being one of the most politically stable countries in sub-Saharan Africa and enjoying economic growth of 7 per cent in 2007, remains desperately poor. It ranked 152 out of 179 countries in the most recent UN human development index; life expectancy is 51; and it is estimated that more than half the population lives on less than a dollar a day.
“When you come from a country like Tanzania, a poor country where the majority of people still depend on subsistence agriculture, you simply cannot by your own means do everything you would like to do in your country and therefore friends like Ireland become very significant,” Pinda said yesterday. “We should cherish these relations very closely. The Tanzanian government and people say thank you for the good work and hopefully the crisis that is currently taking place will not affect too much what Ireland has committed to do.”
Discussing how straitened economic circumstances in Ireland had led to greater public scrutiny of the overseas development programme as well as a reduction in the aid budget, Pinda said his country should demonstrate that bilateral aid was being well spent.
“We have to be extra careful and extra serious in the use of that money so that the Irish people and the Irish Government do not come to us and say, ‘We had to sacrifice a lot for you guys and you don’t seem to be doing the ABCs . . .’
I’m hoping that stands by its commitment and the onus will be on us to make sure we spend that money properly.”
Last week Ireland’s ambassador to Tanzania, Anne Barrington, gave an interview to a local newspaper there in which she praised the country’s efforts in tackling corruption but acknowledged that it would take time. Tanzania has witnessed several recent high-profile corruption scandals involving former government ministers and other prominent figures. Its ranking in Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index dropped last year from 94 to 102.
Pinda said the Tanzanian government is working to combat the problem by ensuring those suspected of corruption are brought to trial. “Corruption is not something that can come to an end today or tomorrow. We need to make a lot of efforts in trying to combat this evil.
“We are not saying we are 100 per cent clean or perfect – you still have some guys here and there, thieves, corrupt guys . . . If there is someone who is suspected of doing A, B, or C, you simply take him to court. That is the only way we can assure the Irish people that the government of Tanzania is highly committed.
“We have to continuously fight corruption . . .this is an ongoing war. The Irish people should be comfortable with Tanzania in relation to the efforts that are currently taking place in our country.”
Earlier this month Chinese president Hu Jintao signed several trade agreements with Tanzania while on a visit to the country, bolstering a relationship Pinda says dates back several decades. Asked about the much debated issue of China’s growing influence in Africa, Pinda replied: “Whoever comes to us with a good heart and open mind ready to support us, Tanzania will have no problem at all . . . whoever comes, whether it is China, Ireland or the US, well and good for us.”