We second JK, political will core to realisation of MDGs

BY EDITOR

1st October 2013

Editorial Cartoon

In most cases and judging from experience, countries can liberate themselves economically and alleviate poverty to a great extent if and only if there is a genuine political will amongst the national leaders or rather the movers and shakers of the economy.

President Jakaya Kikwete’s remarks when addressing the 68th United Nations General Assembly last week couldn’t be more to the point. He noted that the world is endowed with enough resources that, if well utilised, could end or at least reduce poverty substantially.

Most African countries for instance are blessed with abundant natural resources like gas, minerals, fertile land, but in most cases fail to develop economically because the political will is lacking among the leaders.
President Kikwete pointed out that developed countries have also contributed to this situation by not living up to their promises to developing countries.
It is reported that not all developed countries have disbursed the funds they promised to finance various development project as agreed in the year 2000.

Judging from the failure of some of developed countries to deliver on their promises, a number of developing countries are unlikely to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015 as planned.

But no matter how urgently the movers and shakers of the world economy disburse the funds, if high rank leaders as well as public officials lack the political will to address poverty in the interest of the entire nation, then we will only have ourselves to blame for our failure.

We have several reports, some of them recent, of cases of corruption in local and even central governments where unscrupulous public officials connive to pocket huge chunks of public monies.

The most recent is the report by the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority of a ghost project which saw 2.0 trillion/- of taxpayers’ money signed off to some dubious procurement entities.

President Kikwete was once quoted saying corruption is eating a third of the country’s budget for local governments. More stringent measures are required to control the resources we have and ensure they are channeled towards the intended goals and do not go to line up the pockets of some greedy public officials.
We second the President that Tanzania and other developing nations need financial assistance to achieve the MDGs come 2015.

It is our hope that the developed countries will have heard and heeded the President’s call on them to deliver on their pledges to show their commitment to achieving the MDGs.
Tightening control of resources at the local government level, will yield positive results and boost the effort to alleviate poverty.

We can also learn from countries like China which managed to make a remarkable economic transformation after reforms in the past three decades. They set their priorities on building highways, first believing it to be the core to economic success and managed to achieve that and beyond through a common goal to liberate themselves economically.

With a common goal and political will it is very much possible for developing nations including Tanzania to reach the MDGs and free their people from poverty.  

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN