UN dishes out USD22.5m in election support

  Urges govt to respect media

United Nation Development Programme (UNDP)

The United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) has dished out USD22.5 million to facilitate for smooth elections and emphasised the need for government to respect the status of the media during this election period. 

In a statement issued over the weekend in Bagamoyo at a two days media and election training seminar organised by the Tanzania Editors’ Forum and UNDP, the UN Resident Representative Alvaro Rodriguez, said as a development partner, UNDP is impressed with the democratic electoral process in Tanzania. 

He said media has the power to inform the public about government policies and public institutions which in turn enables the public to make informed decisions and choices during elections. 

As for the funding, he explained that is given under the Democratic Empowerment Project (DEP), a three year project (2013-2016) introduced by UN in 2012 to among other things, prevent election-related conflicts. 
He highlighted Norway and Sweden as key contributors among others and detailed that they channel their funding via the One fund budget that is under the UNDP coordinated Joint Donor Basket Fund (JDBF).

He also pointed out that since 2012, the UN has deployed an electoral Needs Assessment Mission (NAM) to Tanzania following a request by both the National Electoral Commission (NEC) and Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC) submitted to the UNDP requesting UN electoral assistance.     

“The UNDP partnership with NEC and ZEC as well as other national partners is aimed at strengthening the election cycle to ensure free and fair elections,” Rodriguez said. 

“Tanzania has made great strides in socio-economic and political stability since it turned to multiparty democracy in 1992,” he commented. 

“The country has held four rounds of successive elections which have been considered well conducted, competitive and open,” he added. 

Rodriguez said the assistance provided by the UN for the 2005 presidential and parliamentary elections was important for the development of democracy in Tanzania. 

“As a direct outcome of this assistance, the UN supported Deepening Democracy in Tanzania Project (DDTP) was developed,” he went on to say.  

According to him, over the past two decades the UNDP has assisted more than 80 countries through coordination management of about 342 electoral projects that required more than 2.5bn/- in expenditure and most were held in Africa.

They were part of the democratic transition of various types of undemocratic leaderships from military, one-party, one-person rule and others.

  “The UN electoral support has resulted in capacity enhancement for national electoral institutions and processes and in some countries elections now take place with minimal support,” detailed the UN Resident Representative. 

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN