This call was part of the deliberations made after a three days capacity building for small miners that was organized by three NGOs namely Policy Forum, HakiMadini and Interfaith Standing Committee for Economic Justice and Integrity at the Ubungo Plaza.

Listening to various experiences from best practices namely from Ghana and South Africa they resolved that they will find ways so as to strengthen their organizations and face their challenges more professionally.

From Ghana was Ms Hanna Koranteng from Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) who said even in her country the relationship between small miners and that of the central government is that of mutual suspicion and constant conflicts

There are constant evictions of small miners to the extent that human rights lawyers and activists have always come for their rescue.

“Prior to forming strong unions of small miners in order to promote their rights the tendency was that large scale miners could use arbitrary laws not only to erode the benefits of small miners but also to humiliate them,” she commented.

With an intervention of human rights lawyers there are positive developments not only of inhibiting arbitrary arrests and detention of small miners but also protection against environmental destruction and pollution caused by mining activities.

She revisited a nasty experience in her country in 2006 when various NGOs revealed that military brutality had even led to the death of some small-scale miners. This then led to the formation of a formal partnership with the Ghana Armed Forces and the Ghana Police Service in September 2008.

She acknowledges that this experience generated great concern for how artisanal miners would be treated. However she admits that this was after a bitter struggle after the common citizenry complained that they were not seeing direct benefit to their lives due to big scale mining.

“My people complained that big scale mining did not only deny them land for agriculture but also meat that they used to get freely from the wild forests which now were taken for mining purposes.

Moreover even water was no longer safe for use after spill of cyanide in Dumasi and surrounding villages which occurred on June 16, 2006. In another incident cyanide was spilled in Bogosu Gold new tailings dam and it washed into the Ajoo stream,

This was the only stream that was left in the community. The deadly chemical killed fish, crabs and lobsters and polluted the stream, which is the source of drinking water for the Dumasi community and its environment.

Dumisani Mngandi from South Africa gave an experience in South Africa and said the associated problems apart from causing land grabbing were capital flight, natural replenishment and corruption.

He said that instead of job creation the reverse has always been the case citing the ongoing crisis now in his country, to the extent that there is job loss and in many cases under invoicing as a strategy to evade tax.

For his side Bishop Dr Stephen Munga from the Interfaith Standing Committee for Economic Justice and Integrity said that the small miner groups have so far done a recommendable job after having pressurized for mining companies to use local content than imported ones as it used to be previously.

“Let me congratulate all groups be it in Mara, Arusha, Morogoro, Tanga, Geita, Mnyara and Singida, the language has always been the same that small miners opinion must be taken into serious consideration and that the government interaction with them,” he commented.

For his side Zephania Mgaya from small miners in Manyara said that in almost all mining sites in Tanzania it is the small miners who detect them but once the Government come to know this it always kick them out without giving them deserving compensations.

”We need to have solidarity and how the Government has treated small miners during their eviction. We must ensure that there are contracts of how the indigenous people will benefit from the big scale investments,” he commented.

He lamented that small miners are always treated as intruders although the Government collects tax from them. “We make direct contribution to this country, but big scale miners take resources away and they send them abroad,” he added.

A prominent lawyer and lecturer Prof Chris Peter Maina said that one problem with the Government in Tanzania is that it enters into contract without conducting first proper evaluation processes.

“It is strange that today Corporate Social Responsibility is taken as if it is a favour, in reality this is a lawful payment, Tanzanians are accustomed to begging in situations that they should be negotiating,” he concluded.

Representative of the Government Mr Ally Samaje, Acting Commissioner for minerals from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral said that the Government has enacted various laws including the Mining Act of 2010 in order to accommodate artisans and small miners.

AUTHOR: Elias Mhegera
URL: http://mhegeraelias.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: mhegeraelias [at] yahoo.com

Congo rebel M23 Colonel Sultani Makenga

East African countries have been urged to utilize their regional body in order to curb a wave of intra-conflicts and terrorism which are detrimental to economic development, peace and stability.

The call was made in a telephonic conference at the US Embassy on Monday this week by Ambassador Johnnie Carson who is the US, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of African Affairs.

Carson who has a vast experience in the diplomatic circle and African affairs said that Kenya and the Democratic Republic are in dire need of assistance from their neighboring countries in order to resolve ongoing problems in these countries.

He pinpointed the East African Community to be an important body in resolving problems in the DRC which is facing severe internal strife and M23 while Kenya is troubled by the spillover effect of its neighbouring country of Somalia.

“By lacking a strong central command for two decades now Somalia is prone to have the problems that it is facing now, by lacking a national security people are likely to miss basic services like water, food and even micro credits hence the turmoil,” he said.

With a span of 37 years of diplomatic career a good number of those having been spent in Africa, he said that without peace in Kenya or the DRC business activities will not go smoothly in other neighbouring countries.

He however was positive that there are good signs that the Somali question will be resolved due to the fact that for the past 18 months there are positive signs that this country is progressing towards harmony with a minor exception of few events of peace disruption.

“I praise the recent developments where by concerted efforts of various players led by the Kenya Defence Forces alongside Amisom have taken control of Al Shabaab stronghold and headquarters of Kismayu in Somalia,” he commented.

Apart from Kenya and the DRC Carson also discussed the turmoil in Mali, Sudan and Southern Sudan and said that all these problems demand an immediate intervention by regional bodies like the EAC, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in West Africa.

Ambassador Carson said that the dramatic improvement of peace in Somalia has been a product of a joint effort by the AU, IGAD, EAC, under the auspice of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), all meant to sweep away the Al-Shabaab militants.

He stood by the UN position which condemns Rwanda for having been involved in the creation, arm and support of the M23 rebels, a view strongly backed by Congo’s government. Rwanda has been denying any involvement instead it blames Congo for the upsurge in violence.

Responding to various questions from Tanzania, Rwanda and South Africa, the seasoned diplomat denied that the US has any vested interests in Africa including allegations that it wants to register military presence through its involvement in the conflicts.

“The US does not intend to settle in Africa that is why even the United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM or AFRICOM) is headquartered at Kelley Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany,” he concluded.

AUTHOR: Elias Mhegera
URL: http://mhegeraelias.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: mhegeraelias [at] yahoo.com

Students attend the launching of a book on Climate Change for Secondary Schools in Tanzania

Servants of God through their network of Faith Based Organizations, the Inter-Religious Council for Peace Tanzania (IRCPT), have resolved to find a common ground in matters of Climate Change.

Behind this initiative was the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), which has sponsored not only the conference that took place at Kebby’s Hotel in Mwenge on Thursday last week, but also has sponsored similar gatherings on the subject and the publication of two books in the topic.

During the opening session Stephen Reith the Resident Director of KAS said that religious leaders are closer to their congregations which make it easier to disseminate the message on Climate Change.

“We are proud that through KAS now clerics can deal with the subject more confidently, the IRCPT have brought people from different religious affiliation even more closely,” remarked Rev Sistus Mallya from the Pentecostal Churches of Tanzania (PCT).

Eelier KAS sponsored the publication of a book on Climate Change for secondary schools and the second one was this for the Faith Based Organizations.

The conference not only expanded knowledge to the servants of God, but also it proved that serious pertinent issues could replace divisive sentiments which are always calculated to work for a certain political agenda.

During the conference it was decided that there was a need to prepare a special curriculum that will be used to disseminate knowledge on Climate Change by the clerics to their congregations.

Six people were appointed to determine what should appear in the curriculum and they represented the different religious sects namely Baahai, Muslims, and Christians.

Representative of the Roman Catholic Church Fr Benedict Shemfumbwa who represented the Tanzania Episcopal Council (TEC), said his church has deiced to’ walk the talk’ by embarking on a major tree planting scheme.

We have started by planting trees at Segera Senior Seminary because all priests must undergo training through such an institution which means many people will benefit from this education,” he commented.

Sheikh Ali Saidi Mosse from the Ahmadiya-Tanzania Islamic wing said that there was a need to standardize the curriculum of the education that will be provided to Christians and Muslims because in essence they do share goals on this topic.

A senior official from the KAS Mr Erasto Ndeuka warned that there must be a balance between planting of trees for Climate Change purpose and the cultivation of food crops.

Coincidently Tanzanian journalists, policy makers and researchers obtained week long training in Climate Change at White Sands Hotel in Dar es Salaam, starting from Sunday last week.

The training was convened by FANRPLAN in collaboration with the Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF), and it brought together farmers, the private sector, experts in agriculture and policy makers and journalists across the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).

Standing for Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network, it has conducted training for various groups from inside and outside Tanzania meeting to share matters of mutual concern on this matter.

Before attending the training scribers underwent one day training from Mr Ben Rootman from South Africa who coached them on getting the right angles of the stories to be covered.

In cooperation with Mr Martin van Niekerk also from South Africa, they exposed journalists to the various strategies to communicate messages in Climate Change through print, electronic, online, and social media.

Introducing the subject matter to journalists the Chief Executive Officer and Head of Mission Dr Lindiwe Majele Sibanda said that it was important that scientists, journalists and other experts work together in order to attain food security.

An expert in food and bio-fuels Dr Wyanand van Walt said that there were many benefits of biofules all there one cannot deny the requirement of large portions of land.

Expertise in Climate Change started with Dr Amy Sullivan who discussed on how strategies to adapt Climate Change and agriculture must be balanced so that people gets to know how they can mitigate and adapt for the same.

“It is important to acknowledge the fact there are many associated factors to the extent that all must be given due consideration, otherwise the communities might end up in unending conflicts,” she commented.

Dr Sullivan said that the subject entails the components of resource management, but also taking into consideration protection of water sources and food production for the communities.

Moreover journalists and other attendants in the workshop were exposed to various methods targeted at Strengthening Evidence-Based Climate Change Adaptation (SECCAP). The discussion was based on the Limpompo Basin as a case study.

Mr Kudzai Ndizadzano discussed the potential threats and resources variations caused by Climate Change including HIV/Aids spread due to demographic shifts as well as possible conflicts due to the fight for resources.

For his part Nkulumo Zinyengere warned that it was important to analyze a combination of facts like which kind of crops are more applicable, and the kind of fertilizers to be used when the land become warmer and warmer.

AUTHOR: Elias Mhegera
URL: http://mhegeraelias.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: mhegeraelias [at] yahoo.com

Jakaya Kikwete

The Christian Holy Book talks of use of ox-plough several times both in its Old and New Testament but for Jakaya Kikwete, President of the United Republic of Tanzania, nothing testifies of the backwardness of African agriculture than the continued urging of farmers to switch from using hand hoe to ox-ploughing.

“It is now over 2000 years since Jesus of the bible walked on the earth and Africans are still being urged to switch to a technology that is now over 2000 years,” he said adding that on the contrary time was ripe for agricultural experts told Africans on their face to mechanise their farming to achieve food security.

Speaking while officially opening the second African Green Revolution Forum in Arusha, Tanzania, President Kikwete said despite abundance of water and other natural resources, Africa is still incapable of feeding her population because its agriculture remains backward due to application of inappropriate technologies which include traditional farming and dependence on rain.

Coupled with small farm sizes, low fertilizer and pesticide and herbicide use, poor skills and a lack of access to financial services, President Kikwete said it is not surprising that the 80 per cent of who produce food eaten by African population is also the poorest living on less than a dollar a day.

According to research, on average a small-scale farmer in most rural Africa holds less than 2.5 hactares of land and uses less than 8kg of fertilizer per hectare and uses only 10 per cent of the global fertiliser usage.

The continent is also the least irrigated at only 5 per cent compared to Asia at 37% and Latin America 14%.

Kofi Anan, former UN Secretary General and Chairman of the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa said no one can talk of revolutionizing African agriculture without addressing challenges faced by small-scale farmers, 80 per cent of who are women.

Melinda Gates, co-chair, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said tthinking about investment in farming is by building strategies around the small-scale farmer, often a woman…and seeking ways to better things for them taking into account different contexts within which they live.

Jane Karuku, President of AGRA agrees. She said small-scale farming is the business and governments must create enabling environment that would help these farmers realize their potential.

“We can’t increase food production without mobilizing small-scale farmers…their needs and aspirations must be brought at the center of discussions,” added Kofi Anan.

In a global food system under rising pressure, added Anan, Africa is the continent most affected by sharp rises in food prices. Yet it is also the continent, with its abundant land resources with 60 per cent of untapped land, where long-term solutions to global food and nutrition security can be found.

At the 2010 Forum, Mr Annan said a “tipping point” had been reached in the challenge of scaling up Africa’s Green Revolution.

Much had been achieved over the last two years, proving that investments in agriculture work.

African governments must in turn, uphold their end of the bargain.

Agricultural investment must rise to at least the 10 per cent levels of national budget pledged under the 2003 Maputo Declaration. The right policies are also needed to increase public and private investment.

Larger farms also have a critical role to play, particularly in testing and disseminating new technologies and providing opportunities for aggregating smallholder production for market.

Anan asked developed countries and private sector organisations to keep promises of increased support for Africa’s agriculture, despite the uncertainty and fiscal challenges.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), set up six years ago now operates in 17 sub-Saharan African countries where it is assisting governments and farmers.

Thanks to its activities, farmers have received over 330 new crop varieties developed by AGRA grantees. More than one million smallholder farmers have directly benefited through training on improved storage systems and better post-harvest handling.

According to Anan, the legacy of chronic underfunding in agriculture still remains a challenge for the realisation of the dream of a more prosperous and equitable future for all Africans.

AUTHOR: Henry Neondo
URL: http:// www.africasciencenews.org
E-MAIL: neondohenry [at] yahoo.com

Two years ago Linda Kwamboka, a Business Information Technology graduate teamed up with former colleagues at the Strathmore University in Kenya to start M-Farm Ltd, a software solution and agribusiness company with the hope of changing small scale farmers attitude towards farming and link them to markets.

Jamila Abbas and Susan Ogoya who had studied computer related courses offered their programming creativity to create a tool for farmers where they simply SMS the number 3555 to get information pertaining to the retail price of their products, buy their farm inputs directly from manufacturers at favorable prices, and find buyers for their produce.

Speaking ahead of the Forum which kicks off on Thursday, Kwamboka says that sustainable supplies has been the bane of most buyers as inconsistent supplies from farmers always works against their businesses.

Kenyan farmers, she says are plagued with problems which affect farm productivity and livelihood.

“The scenario has distorted farming in Kenya and works against small scale farmers. Big buyers with money do not find structured environment to trade with small scale farmers instead opt to work with either large scale farmers or turn to foreign markets,” she says.

The result is that small scale farmers get fall prey to middlemen who only offer meager prices for their produce. When they opt for state agencies such as the cereal board, they also face delayed payments and fail to offset cost of crop production.

“All these disillusions farmers who with time begin to fall behind production and lead to food insecurity,” she says.

Kwamboka says for Kenya and indeed Africa to be assured of food security, small scale farmers must be made to change their attitude and outlook on farming. “They must be made to look at their activity not just as supplying food to consumers, but as entrepreneurs or people in serious business,” she said.

M-Farm has slowly begun to do this by connecting them with each other and buyers in a virtual space. With M-Farm, farmers not only get affordable farm inputs but also are able to sell collectively out of discredited, politicised and scandal-riddled cooperatives societies.

M-Farm offers smallholder farmer with three services: price information, collective crop selling, and collective input buying. They are currently collecting wholesale market price information on 42 crops in five markets in Kenya.

Pricing information is collected weekly through independent data collectors using geocoding to ensure that the prices are being collected from wholesale traders actually located in each market.

“We collect wholesale prices of the commodities using data collectors employed to this in five key towns of Mombasa, Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret and Kitale and list the information on our price page,” she said.

M-Farm Android App on Samsung App Store

M-Farm partnered with Samsung, a partnership that sees them release their mobile application, which is available on both Android and Samsung’s based phones.

The application, she says is free. One just hits download and gets real time crop prices from M-Farm. “We have a selection of 42 crops to start and prices from the towns and farming regions.

The application delivers the latest prices for over the past five days of the week. “We collect prices Monday to Saturday. One only needs to download and start making deals based on current market prices based on the nearest market we are reporting from,” she says.

This enables the farmer to make informed economic decisions on what to plant when, how to price his produce and where to sell.

How the system works

Farmers join by subscribing to M-Farm by sending and SMS to 3555 “Join FirstName LastName Location” format. The subscription helps them sell their products through M-Farm marketplace.

They tell an M-Farm aggregator employed to oversee an area what crops they are planting, the acreage, when they expect to harvest.

Such an arrangement, she says help M-Farm to aggregate a group of farmers planting the same kind of crop together and help them market their crop as a group to assure buyers with quantity.

With this information, the M-Farm then begins to seek for buyers, using the information some subscribed buyers have entered to link them to farmers who have planted the crop they may need.

Equally, anyone can get crop prices from M-Farm by sending and SMS to 3555 “Price cropname location” format or sell products by subscribing to M-Farm by sending and SMS to 3555 “Sell cropname weight price” format in which case, the seller will also include the product, quantity, and cost per kilogramme of their produce which could be used to help buyers see how best to bargain with the farmers.

Mentorship

M-Farm was launched after winning the IPO48 competition — a 48 hour boot-camp event aimed at giving web/mobile start-ups a platform to launch their start-ups. Of the 37 initial ideas, M-Farm took away the €10,000 prize as capital investment.

As such, M-Farm has from the beginning been linked up with both local and international advisors and consultants in various areas they feel such is needed.

It has partnered with community radio stations across key production regions of Kenya through which they create awareness of their existence and tell farmers and buyers of farm produce of their existence and service. They have also partnered with the Kenya Television through which they pass the market prices across key towns to viewers during the 1 pm news bulletin.

Currently, 5000 farmers, mostly horticultural producers who mostly face storage problems for their perishable goods are hooked to M-farm services.

AUTHOR: Henry Neondo
URL: http:// www.africasciencenews.org
E-MAIL: neondohenry [at] yahoo.com

APRM-the African Peer Review Mechanism, is a program of the African Union (AU) that seeks to foster political, social and economic prosperity of the member states through participation of the people in assessing their countries governance status.

Speaking in Dar es Salaam today, the head of the APRM Unit at UNECA, Dr. Kojo Busia told the press that the workshop that will invite key planning officers from both the Union and Zanzibar governments and some representatives of the civil society will look on how to harmonize the APRM Tanzania programme of action (NPoA) with other government plans.

“This workshop presents a unique opportunity to Tanzania stakeholders with information and best practices that could form the core process for harmonizing the APRM -NPoAs with pre-existing national plans within the context of a common medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF).

“It also is a useful forum for experts from APRM participating countries to exchange views on the key challenges affecting the process and suggest concrete tools and ways to make the APRM-NPoA a credible and an operational document for the national socio-economic development of our countries,” he said.

Speaking in the event, the Coordinator of the APRM review process for Tanzania, Dr. Rachel Mukamunana from APRM Continental Secretariat in South Africa, said Tanzania has reached a significant stage in the APRM process and its report, the Country Review Report is being finalized.

On her part the APRM Tanzania Executive Secretary, Rehema Twalib thanked UNECA and UNDP for their everlasting contributions to see to it that Africa and Tanzania realize their governance improvement goals as per the APRM objectives.

“The workshop on harmonization of the APRM Programme of Action with national planning frameworks in our country comes at a very crucial moment in the APRM process when Tanzania and many other African governments are seriously pondering on how to effectively implement the very good ideas and plans they have innovatively initiated, such as the African Peer Review Mechanism,” she said.

She added that since Tanzania has completed the initial stages of governance review under the APRM, the final report will be submitted in October, 2012 ready for the country to start working on the stakeholders’ opinions.

“Finally the consolidated report will in January, 2013, be submitted to the AU meetings in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia by H.E. President Jakaya Kikwete. The encounter between H.E. President Kikwete and his African peers in Addis Ababa will then usher for Tanzania a new journey of implementing the views of the people and experts contained it its Country Review Report,” she added.

The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is a mutually agreed governance assessment program of the African Union (AU) and was formerly launched in 2003. Tanzania acceded to the Mechanism in 2004; Tanzanian Parliament ratified for the domestication of the process in Tanzania in its 1st February, 2005 session.

As African governments are required to take the lead in funding the process, for coordination and budgetary purposes, APRM Tanzania was streamlined as one of the programs of the government of the United Republic of Tanzania and placed under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. To date, PRM enjoys an increasing number of its membership which is currently 34 out of 54 African countries.

AUTHOR: Shout Africa
URL: http://www.shout-africa.com
E-MAIL: news [at] shout-africa.com

“In response I felt convicted that Gods’ call is for us to be caring over all that he has given us according to his wisdom and that our failure (sin) has lead to destruction, poverty and death of many. We therefore, as God’s children, must arise to our God-given responsibilities.”

Further north, the Ugandan Muslim Youth Assembly has concentrated on forest and tree planting, with 50,000 trees planted in the past two years, and more than 700,000 trees planned for the next two.

Immam Ibban Iddih Kasozi explained that people are cutting down trees for construction, furniture, and fuel: “Wood is the biggest fuel source in Uganda,” he said. “The only way of ensuring there is wood for the next generations is to do this programme.”

“Our community believes in community work. All is jama, all is congregation: we believe that everything that we do is a prayer: this is why we have undertaken this plan.”

Elimringi Abraham Maringo from the Northern Diocese of the Lutheran Church of Tanzania said a whole generation had grown up never planting a tree and they were the ones cutting the trees down. That is why all faith groups should engage young people in nurturing the care of trees so that this generation loves trees and sees them as their responsibility. The church plans to plant 8.5 million trees.

In Kenya, SUPKEM, an umbrella body of all Muslim organsiations, societies, mosque committees and groups with around six and a half million members across Kenya in over 4 thousand groups committed itself to launch a long-term programme of training for sheikhs, imams and madrasa teachers on the importance of environmental conservation from an Islamic perspective. It commits to getting that message out through local religious FM stations and through Friday prayers and through schools.

It will promote widespread tree planting activities, as tree planting is one of the greatest virtues in Islam- and start work on an educational kit on environmental conservation for use in madrassas.

A similar body in Nigeria, Qadiriyyah Movement, with an estimated 15 million followers, 1500 full time imams and it runs 118 primary schools, 34 secondary schools, two theological colleges and has 8000 mosques committed to develop tree nurseries to supply the schools with seedlings.

At the schools to grow food organically for sale through kiosks in Kano city.

To organise weekly collections of the polythene water bags with up to 120,000 children every week collecting 100 each. These will be recycled or used as tree sapling bags.

To Green the Kano pilgrimage which brings up to 4 million pilgrims to the city and is a commitment as part of the Green Pilgrimage Network launched last year by ARC.

Not to be left behind is the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church with 43.5 million followers in 70,000 parish churches with 6.5 million children in Sunday Schools and 3000 monasteries.

45% of parish churches have forests and 75% of its monasteries are surrounded by faith protected forests. The church and monastery has traditionally been centres for protection of indigenous biodiversity as well as the centre for faith based respect for nature.

Their commitments include creating a full inventory of Church owned forests and developing a protection and management plan for them all.

Create within each monastery a centre for improved technology and skills for sustainable land management.

Install biogas digesters within all monasteries.

In Southern Africa, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa with 10 million believers and around 1000 clergy with 5000 parishes and mission centres in 53 countries committed to establish a new Environmental Centre in Johannesburg as the Church’s main training centre.

All churches will keep September 1 a day of prayer and action on the environment.

The Church will also advocate that no industrial products are brought to Africa and no waste discarded here if the country of origin would not itself accept such products or waste.

The Bhumi Africa, of the Hindu Council of Africa based in Nairobi, Kenya committed to conduct green audits on their buildings and land to be followed by environmental certification which will guide the Hindu community in creating environmentally buildings, manage the environment well and achieve sustainable development.

There are 1.7 million Hindus in Africa with 35,000 in Nairobi itself making up 1% of the city’s population. Between them they have set up 27 temples, 40 social, cultural and sports facilities, 22 schools, 9 medical facilities and 10 written and radio media outlets.

Hindu festivals add colour to our heritage and lives. However celebrating some of these festivals significantly contributes to pollution and waste. As part of their commitment Hindu communities will be encouraged and assisted to green these events by greatly reducing waste and pollution.

They will also phase out the use of plastic bags by introducing Bhumi bags, durable bags made from hemp to be promoted by Hindu temples, schools and shops.

AUTHOR: Henry Neondo
URL: http:// www.africasciencenews.org
E-MAIL: neondohenry [at] yahoo.com

According to Dr Mulure, donor funding has become unreliable adding that the only sustainable way in the fight against the disease that is caused by a parasite (Plasmodium falciparum) and transmitted by mosquitoes is through raising local funds.

Dr Mulure pointed to Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa as countries in Africa who have shown that it is possible for governments to set aside budgets within their own resources to wage war against malaria.

He said that although African governments may be looking to the West for support, yet, malaria is still an African problem and the solution to it lies within the continent.

According to Dr Mulure, although Malaria is preventable and treatable, yet nearly 800,000 lives are lost to the disease every year, mostly children under 5 years old and pregnant women.

He said 80 per cent of the 300-500 million clinical cases per year are reported in Africa and that 90 per cent of the estimated 1 million deaths per year occur in Africa.

He said most of the older treatments (e.g. chloroquine) are no longer effective anymore because of resistance.

Yet global mechanisms such as the Affordable Medicines Facility – an innovative financing mechanism designed to expand access to the most effective treatment for malaria, artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) ends at the end of the year due to lack of funds.

Through the facility, the Global Fund, as host and manager of the AMFm, has negotiated with drug manufacturers to reduce the price of ACTs, and to require that sales prices must be the same for both public and private sector first-line buyers.

As a result, private importers now pay up to 80 percent less than they did in 2008-2009. The Global Fund pays most of this reduced price (a ‘buyer co-payment’) directly to manufacturers to further lower the cost to eligible first-line buyers of ACTs purchased from manufacturers.

This means that first-line buyers only pay the remainder of the sales price for the ACTs. First-line buyers are expected to pass on the highest possible proportion of this price benefit so that patients are able to buy ACTs across the public, private, not-for-profit and for-profit sectors at prices that are less than those of oral artemisinin monotherapies and competitive with the prices of CQ and SP.

AMFm Phase 1 which is set to end this year, is being implemented through nine pilots in eight countries: Cambodia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania (including Zanzibar) and Uganda.esides the challenge of funding.

Dr Mulure added that the issue of poor quality drugs, emergency of resistance to available drugs and long and complicated supply and procurement chain as well as lack of accurate data especially in the private sector are still challenges that those leading the war against Malaria still contend with.

Innovations and partnership

Dr Mulure however cited some few innovative ways countries have adopted to record some noted successes against malaria. “Coupled with global partnership, winning the war against malaria appears achievable,” he noted.

Countries such as South Africa, Tanzania, Jamaica, Madagascar, Zanzibar, Rwanda and Kenya have seen malaria incidents drastically reduced by use of indoor residual sprays, distribute insecticide treated bednets, early diagnosis of suspected cases as well as treat identified cases with artemisinin combination therapy.

A participant from Zimbabwe said his country has adopted such mechanism as levying every working person some tax that is spent to fighting diseases such as HIV.

Tanzania’s sms for life programme—which brings together mobile phone provider, IBM, Novartis and other partners and uses mobile phones to track weekly stock outs of ACTs and quinine in rural health–is proving a success and many countries are thinking copying the programme in bid to heighten their efforts in eliminating malaria.

AUTHOR: Henry Neondo
URL: http:// www.africasciencenews.org
E-MAIL: neondohenry [at] yahoo.com

Harry Kitillya, Commissioner General, Tanzania Revenue Authority

African civil societies have been warned not to leave the issue of tax administration in the hands of the governments alone, instead they should form parallel institutions to monitor the same.

This call was made on Monday last week at the Kunduchi Beach Hotel during an International Training in Tax Administration.

The training to representatives of civil societies drew attendants being trainers and other participants from East Africa, West Africa and Southern Africa.

In the workshop that was convened by the Policy Forum NGO. It was learnt that tax collection is turned into a political weapon by many African countries Tanzania inclusive.

It was learnt that the political oligarchy tend to muzzle through tax collection the commercial people who are contrally to their tastes and they tend to give offers in various forms like havens, holidays, and exemptions those in their favour.

But this nasty game which has long term calculated moves to evade tax involves the multinational companies no wonder there are changes of names and ownership in some big companies in order to evade capital gain tax.

For instance in Tanzania there have been such changes with some five stars hotels and mobile phone companies which have been changing names with a short span of time in order to escape capital gain tax.

It was with such changes that the civil society and investigative journalists were counseled to investigate the motives behind such changes.

During his opening remarks the Policy Forum (PF) Coordinator Semkae Kilonzo said that tax administration has caused a lot of problems in African countries.

This is due to evasions which are manipulated through various corrupt means. He delineated that a lot of revenues are left untapped and therefore denying people adequate services.

“If taxes are not collected properly it means some of the Government’s revenues are left outside and hence denying the people income through services which are essential,” he commented.

He added that it was the duty of the civil society to ensure that reports are published and there is transparency on who should to pay what.

Dr William Mgimwa, Minister for Finance Tanzania

“The tax regime is poor in Tanzania and many other African countries because the whole issue has been left to the civil servants hence corruption and capital fight out of Africa have become common phenomenon,” he added.

Jack Ranguma a tax expert from Kenya said that he has conducted a lot of researches just to find that proper collection of taxes can be effective if various community groups are involved in the monitoring programmes.

Ranguma who is former Commissioner of Kenya Revenue Authority is currently working as a consultant with the Kenyan Tax Research Institute.

He mentioned such groups as parliamentary groups, villagers, and distribution functionaries with the aim of ensuring that there is justice in tax administration and that there is enough capacity building in order to create awareness.

“If people are reluctant to pay tax then it means that they do not see the direct benefit of paying taxes to their government and this is a reflection that either tax rates are too high, or the tax authorities are weak,” he commented.

Ranguma said that the main problem with developing countries like Tanzania is the fact that they give priority to the expenditure side than to the income generation one.

He challenged that this trend eventually deprives some important projects like hospitals, schools, infrastructures and hence leading to the vicious cycle of poverty.

He further explained that once there is proper collection of taxes there will be stable economy of a country. He warned that without this stability the rich tend to manipulate the economy much to their advantage.

“I am convinced that Africa, and other poor countries need to discuss with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) more seriously, and constructively for both sides,” he commented.

The tax expert also argued that the failure to monitor social security funds and pensions which are other forms of tax, denies the weaker equity while at the same time these are more beneficial to the high ranking officials.

“Even social security fund is a tax but in a different name, that is why there are a lot of political involvements in these funds. These are meant for re-investment while other employees pay for the retirees,” he added.

Vituz Azeem who presented a paper on the link between tax justice and development said that tax is meant to support development, and if there is poor collection of the same this will be reflected in the national budget.

He warned that many African countries fall prey of corrupt officials in the customs and excises to the extent that big amounts are pocketed to their personal accounts than to the governments.

“Tax administration needs a lot of ethics, if you are working with the tax authority you need to declare your property, also these workers need to report their properties periodically,” he cautioned.

On the issue of tax leakages was Savior Mwambwa who presented a paper on the role of multinationals in tax exemptions, competition, and capital flight.

He said that exemptions are always issued in the pretext of attracting more foreign direct investments, reducing poverty and creation of jobs as well as to allow big growth of the economy.

But in many cases these exemptions are issued through ill motives. However he warned that a good number of such exemptions in various names be it haven, holidays etc, are doing harm to Africa economies than good.

“In many cases tax exemptions is just a creation of a room for corruption, there is a need to create independent body for scrutiny and independent prosecutors who can handle the matters in the court,” he counseled.

Dereje Alemayehu presented a paper on how to mobilize domestic resources in order to avoid dependency. He counseled that citizens must be induced to like payment of tax because in many cases a good number of people do not like payment of such.

“If citizens realize that there is a value for their money they will just be attracted to pay without any kind of harassments or intimidations,” he commented.

Alemayehu mentioned that there are four measures to make people tax willingly; to make state income transparent, to make equity in the provision of services, and minimize the externalization of costs.

Another method is to give voice to the citizenry in regard to public expenditures, on how incomes are generated and spent.

On his side Michael Otieno from the Kenya’s National Taxpayers Association (NTA) said that there is a need for the civil society to institutionalize mechanisms of verifying how tax is collected and spent in a country.

He counseled that through civil society advocacy people must understand that paying tax is amoral obligation and duty which has benefit to their lives.

AUTHOR: Elias Mhegera
URL: http://mhegeraelias.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: mhegeraelias [at] yahoo.com

red Judge Damian Lubuva (l) with President Jakaya Kikwete (R)

One of the highly respected judges in Tanzania Justice Damian Lubuva recently failed to satisfy his audience how he could balance his loyalty between the president and that of his duty as chairman of the National Electoral Commission (NEC).

Justice Lubuva was guest of honour at the International Conference with a theme Elections and Transitions to Democracy in Africa, where he presented his paper with a title Elections Management in Africa: Tanzania Experience.
The two days conference was held at the Coral Beach Hotel in Dar es Salaam a fortnight ago. Distinguished academicians in the field of politics, law and management of elections presented their papers.

The conference was organized in collaboration of two research institutions namely the African Research and Resource Forum (ARRF) and the Tanzania based Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF).

In the opening speech the host CEO, Dr Bohela Lunogelo, executive director of the ESRF urged participants to discuss the tabled matters freely without fear or favour due to the sensitivity of matters of governance and democracy in the African continent.

“In discussing issues of democracy and management of elections in Africa we need to acknowledge to the evidence based researches given the challenges that this continent has been facing for quite some time now,” he commented.

Bu the core of this discussion was when the chairman of Tanzania’s independent constitution forum, Jukwaa la Katiba, Deus Kibamba when he explained during his presentation that the voter’s apathy in Tanzania has partly been caused by lack of trust that voters have to the NEC.

Moreover, Kibamba said that other reasons are irregularities which are caused by sheer negligence and at times excessive use of the Police Force which distract women to participate fully in the electoral process.

“People do not see any benefit of participating in the elections process if their votes will not bring changes, so they have desperately given up,” he said.

Expanding more his subject Kibamba added, “It has also been noted that there is excessive use of force in areas that are highly contested, people detests to be harassed by law enforcers who at time even teargas them unnecessarily,” he added.

Kibamba criticizes the trend whereby the President of the United Republic of Tanzania is the one who appoints the chairman of the Electoral Commission and his commissioners. It was at this juncture that the NEC chairman protested that he has not been interrupted in his work anyhow.

Justice Lubuva also said that even incidents of Police interruptions are so few and isolated to the extent they cannot be termed as causes of voter’s apathy.

“I think Kibamba is exaggerating the situation is not that bad, these are not the main reasons of voter’s apathy probably there are other reasons we should find out,” Lubuva affirmed.

But in what might be seen as the support to Kibamba’s stance was representative of the main opposition party Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA), Victor Kimesera who acknowledged that people do not trust the NEC.

“I am 74 years old and I understand how people were motivated during the independence struggles in this country, now people lack that kind of motivation because they do not trust our election management body,” he commented.

Kimesera said that he has been contesting since the re-introduction of multiparty in 1992 but he has been losing due the mismanagement by the NEC.
Moreover Kibamba and Kimesera felt even more comfortable when contributions from outsiders also said that it was difficult for the election body to work independently if the entire leadership is made up of the presidential appointees.

From Sierra Leone, West Africa was an election expert Dr Shekou Sessay, who commented, “it is very difficult to expect a person who has been appointed by the president to turn against him or even to be impartial, I think it would have been better for the chairman and his commissioners to be scrutinized first by an independent body like the parliament, “he said.

But probably this academic would have suggested of another body if he was aware of the dominance the ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi has in the august House.

Leaving aside Tanzania politics, it was the response from Uganda’s army spokesperson Major Felix Kulaije who was irritated by presenters who said that soldiers should remain where they belong, the barracks and leave politics to the civilians.

“I am surprised that the discussion here is against soldiers who turn to politics, we should understand that soldiers intervene when politicians have failed to manage their countries, actually it is politicians who ‘invites’ us to ‘rescue’ the situation,” he retorted causing laughter in the hall.

The harsh attack against soldiers was provoked by a presentation from a Kenyan professor who referred to such situations of military dominance in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Rwanda and Uganda.

Prof Nyong’o went further by even criticizing the civil society and the media by becoming other uninvited guests in the political arena in African politics.

“The civil society and the media are now involved in active politics which they are not supposed to do, this is an invasion indeed,” commented the professor causing astonishment in the hall.

As if to respond to him was Zimbabwe’s Dr Donald Chimanikire an expert in politics who said that you cannot isolate the civil society and the media in politics because the former is pressure groups while the latter is an avenue where politicians meet with their subjects.

But another issue which drew considerable attention was a Governments of National Unity (GNU) as it is the case in Kenya, Zanzibar and Zimbabwe. Some participants saw them being retrogressive while others approved them due to the prevailing political circumstances in the respective countries.

Profesa Nyong’o said that in Kenya there were agreements which were made in 2002, and subsequently after referendum which led to the formation of the National Alliance of Rainbow Coalition (NARC) but these were violated leading to the 2007 post-election violence.

The ARRF Executive Director Prof. Michael Chege who is a Kenyan said that GNUs are just representatives of the democracy which has been denied to the winners, he was supported by George Omondi also a Kenyan.

But in quite a different stance was Prof Gaudence Mpangala from Institute of Development Studies of the University of Dar es Salaam who said in Zanzibar the GNU has proved to be productive.

“I have been an observer in Zanzibar General Elections since 1995 to the most recent one in 2010 and I have observed the GNU has been one source of peace because it was arranged prior to the election and the agreement was the winner becomes the president the loser becomes his vice this was tactical and indeed it has changed the political scenario in Zanzibar,” he commented.

Since gender issues were part of the discussion Prof Maria Nzomo from Kenya said that women are sidelined from African politics because at times they are scared to vote if elections are violent and at times they cannot contest because abusive languages are used against them by their male counterparts.

“I recommend that African Governments provide friendlier environments for women to participate without any kind of fear,” she commented.

But with all these discrepancies it was noted that many of the African governments were far ahead in allowing changes than in the Arab countries, since a good number of African countries experienced upheavals in early 90s and now they are relatively calm.

“What is happening in Egypt, Tunisia and even now Syria is what happened in many countries in Africa immediately after the crumble of the USSR, and its entire satellite states of East Europe said Prof Chege.

Other issues which drew attention although to a small extent were the Union matter between Mainland Tanzania and the Zanzibar isles. Moreover the academics sent a strong call for the two presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe to step down in time in order to avoid chaos in their countries this is after they have overstayed in power to the extent of lacking a new political agenda.

The conference also decided the role of religious leaders in African politics, that they should be agents of positive change rather than cause division based on religious inclinations.

And this was not to put aside the debate on the rulings of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the meaning of the concept of “the international community” there was a perception that this court is biased and discriminating African leaders.

Probably one of the most disliked debates but surfaced in the conference was marriages and love affairs of people of same sex, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Inter sex (LGBTIs).

Caption
1. Retired Judge Damian Lubuva (l) with President Jakaya Kikwete (R)
2. Deus Kibamba chairman ‘Jukwaa la Katiba’ an independent Tanzania’s Constitutional’s Forum

AUTHOR: Elias Mhegera
URL: http://mhegeraelias.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: mhegeraelias [at] yahoo.com