45%→55.6%
What are these numbers?? The former is Tanzanian life expectancy in 1965 and the latter is the one in 2008 (The World Bank). Considering that World average life expectancy rose from 55.7% to 68.9% in the same period, it could be said the health care policy had achieved success at a certain level. However, there is room for improvement. This article tries to report the current situation briefly.
The health policy has been influenced by political and development elements(detail: access to http://herkules.oulu.fi/isbn9514264312/html/x325.html). Tanzanian health facilities were mainly offered by the government. The main aim is to distribute the hospitals properly. This matters crucially because it is estimated that in Tanzania 70% of the population live in rural areas(http://www.tanzania.go.tz/health.html).
The serious problems are following. As WHO points out, we can see the insufficiencies of human, financial and materials to provide essential health services. Whilst the solution of this problem is suggested in the The Health Sector Reforms Programme of Tanzania, the access to health care is also related to the distribution of income.The HIV infection rate in Tanzania was recorded as 7% in 2004 (2003 -2004 Indicator Survey, National AIDS Control Programme). This is quite high compared to the (about) 0.8 percent infection rate of the world (WHO). Another crucial issue is high prevalence of malnutrition: 21.8% underweight, 37.7% stunting of children(WHO).
The role of women in Tanzanian health care improvement should be noted as well. I would take Medical Women Association of Tanzania (MEWATA) as an example here. MEWATA is an organisation established in 1987 'to address some of the issues of women’s health, to promote interests of women in the medical profession, to assist the development of promising young women professionals and to advance the health care of women and children.' They work in three thematic areas: 1Reproductive Health & Rights(eg.Breast & Cervical Cancer, gender inequality), 2HIV/AIDS and 3Health professional and institutional advancement(eg.shortage of human resource. women's career advancement).
Practically they have conducted Breast Cancer Walk to enhance awareness about health and participated in National HIV testing Campaign. Likewise with grant from Japan, they will construct Well Woman Clinic in Dar es salaam.
As it was discussed above, even though they have some tasks, there are some movements to try to solve this problems. Grass roots have also played important roles as well. I would like to write another article to focus on different aspects of Tanzanian medical situation in one of these days.
*If you are interested in traditional heals, this material would be helpful: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8348785
Kei Funakoshi
References
International Medical and Technological Universityhttp://www.imtu.edu/researchpolicy.htm
The government announcement (http://www.tanzania.go.tz/health.html)
MEWATA (http://mewata.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1)
World Bank (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN?cid=GPD_10)
Sunday, 20 February 2011
The role of education in developing countries-Part One-
Education has always been playing a significant role in developing a country. Without a qualitative education, states could hardly be politically and economically sustainable, and also the education makes people’s life easier in terms of health, technology, rights and status of women and other elements that construct a society. The Millennium Development Goal 2 declared to achieve universal primary education. ‘Ensure that all children, both boys and girls, are able to attend and complete a full course of primary schooling.’
Tanzania where the number of children at primary school has dramatically increased has shown a potential of achieving the MDG. Since 1995, Tanzanian government has worked to improve its country’s education level, and by 2002 tuition fee for primary school was abolished and the government made school compulsory. Although enrolment of children aged 7 to 13 at primary school was 59% in 2000, it has risen to 95.4% in 2010. This substantial growth has proven a high potential of the government, and the government now believes that the MDG can be achieved in the near future. Despite the hope for the bright future of the country, Tanzania still has problems with education. The number of children who enrol in primary school has increased, the quality of education is, however, still doubtful.
Although enrolment of children at primary schools in Tanzania is 95.4%, it is said that the real enrolment figure is 77% and of these about 20% completes primary education. Now we have to look at the quality of education systems in Tanzania.
One of the causes that prevent children from schools is the cost for schools. Since Local Government Reform Act of 1998, local school committees gained responsibilities to organize primary education, and less developed regions have been given preferences in opening secondary schools or receiving assistance to do so. However, 18.7% of the population in Tanzania live on less than $1 per day and many parents in district areas want their children to stay home and help their work. In addition, because tuition fee for primary education was abolished, parents are expected to contribute to other costs, such as uniform, a cooker for lunch, the cost of the school guards, in some schools, a donation to the Aids bereavement fund for pupils who have lost one or more parents. Even after tuition fee for primary education was abolished, parents still have to be able to cover other costs for schools.
Another cause that makes children out of school is a security for children, especially girls. Some female students have to walk more than a mile to get to their school, and on their way, they have to be careful of rapists. If they become pregnant, they have to leave school and can never come back as punishment under the Tanzanian law. Toilets in schools are mixed and often without doors causing girls embarrassment especially when they hit puberty. In rural areas, half of the pupils fail to qualify for secondary school and with 3000 girls dropping out because of pregnancy.
Quantity has been also one of the main problems. School facilities cannot keep up with the need of the massive growth of enrolment; overcrowded classroom, shortage of books, teachers and toilets, corporal punishments, and lack of water and electricity. Now a ration of one teacher is to 63 pupils while UNESCO says it should be one teacher to less than 40 pupils. A cause of the lack of teachers may be that there is a small incentives to become a teacher because people may prefer to become lawyer or a doctor. Of those reasons, it is still difficult that education in Tanzania is decent in terms of quality.
It is significant to look very carefully at quality of education especially in rural areas in which many poor people live in order for them to seek for their own potential that leads to their own country's development, and therefore their own lives.
The gap of the government's recognition of the quality of education and civilian's recognition of those will be the next focus.
Junki Nitta
Reference
http://www.nationmaster.com/time.php?stat=edu_chi_out_of_sch_pri&country=tz
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2010/sep/14/mdg2-education-tanzania
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2010/feb/23/primary-education-africa
http://www.tanzania.go.tz/educationf.html
How important is economic integration in East African countries - introduction-
10 years after the establishment of the East African Community, it collapsed for various reasons in 1997. One of the reasons was because of difficulty in balancing the power of countries. Kenya, for instance, demanded to exert more influence in decision-making process. Another reason was that they had different ideologies for economic system. While Tanzanian government preferred more socialistic system, Kenyan government sought capitalism for example. Likewise, it was challenging to integrate the East African economy without political integration at that time. However, East African community revived again after a gap of more than 20 years.
Some, especially among politicians who are old enough to remember the previous experience, are still skeptical about the integration of East African countries. However, process for economic integration is moving forward dramatically. One of the key issues being discussed in terms of economic integration is Custom union. Custom union is regarded as the third stage of the economic integration. Therefore, it is very crucial for East African Community to establish custom union in order to achieve further economic integration. In principle, three conditions have to be met in order to achieve custom union. First of all, they need to have common external tariffs on import from other country. Secondly, among member countries, trade transactions have to be done under the same procedure. Thirdly, trades between member’s countries need to be without tariffs.
As of now, there is still much room for improvement for custom union of East African community. They set the common external tariffs on imports from non-member country, but they still have quite a few exceptions. These exceptions have to be reduced to achieve more integrated economy. Nevertheless, economic integration still remains important and need to be driven forward given that it can foster the investment for public goods, especially infrastructure, within East African Community. This might realise the economic growth and reduction of poverty.
Following articles will explore in detail about economic integration currently ongoing in this region.
Naoya Saito
reference
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