Tanzania: Our Minerals, Aid and Aids
Source: AllAfrica.com
This article looks at the how local politics around corruption and foreign direct investment coincided with visits from VIPs from the Commonwealth fraternity. The UK's Douglas Alexander, the Secretary for International Development during his visit expressed concern for large sums of money being paid out fraudulently to local and foreign companies from the Bank of Tanzania. But he also said the UK would double its aid to Tanzania. Regarding the issuing of mining contracts, the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, agreed with his Tanzanian counterpart that the Tanzanian government needed to negotiate with investors in the mining sector in order to reach a 'win-win' situation. He too announced increases in aid, saying that Canada would donate $105 million over 5 years as part of the $500 million health improvement program for Africa and Asia.
The article also sheds light on a study by the Overseas Development Institute on effectiveness of development assistance. In this study, 261 senior stakeholders in receipient countries were asked to assess the performance of the African Development Bank (AfDB), European Commission(EU), United Nations Children's Education Fund (UNICEF), Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and World Bank. Tanzanian respondents in particular took issue with the World Bank accusing it of imposing policies on the government and meddling in project implementation. According to the researchers, the World Bank is perceived as imposing a neo-liberal policy framework.
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