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Ambassador Mahiga referred to
Tanzania as an “island of tranquility” or
“island of peace” amongst its many troubled
neighbors in East Africa. He described
Tanzania’s history of stability and peace:
As a single party democracy in a strongly
socialistic economy under President Nyerere,
the first president after independence from
the British was peacefully obtained in 1961.
Tanzania has been an example to its
neighbors. Ambassador Mahiga described
President Nyerere as the only African
president to voluntarily step down from his
role as president and to facilitate the
country’s movement to a multi-party
democracy with an economy based on free
enterprise.
Four keys to Tanzania’s
continued success according to Ambassador Mahiga, and as he noted, shared by Heartland
International are:
Multi-party Democracy
Free Enterprise
International Partnerships
Empowerment of Women
Ambassador Mahiga noted the
need for a greater focus on grassroots
democracy to facilitate equity at all
economic levels. In order to eradicate
poverty, he stated that the government
needed to provide free education and free
health care for all its citizens. Greater
equity between boys and girls has been
achieved in access to education at the
primary level. However, this is not yet true
at higher levels of education. Plus, he
noted that girls tend to have higher dropout
rates and lower performance scores on exams
due to family responsibilities and cultural
norms.
With respect to healthcare,
the biggest crisis facing Tanzania is HIV/
AIDS. The current incidence is between 7-9%.
This is a decrease over previous years due
to improved education and access to
medicine. It is also significantly lower
than neighboring countries. He talked
about Tanzania as an example of religious
tolerance with Muslims and Christians living
together in peace, and actually often
intermarrying.
Ambassador Mahiga encouraged
Heartland International’s work with the
Tanzanian Association of Women Entrepreneurs
(TAWE) to continue to provide: business
training; mentoring; association building;
and access to credit
Ambassador Mahiga strongly
supports the empowerment of women
entrepreneurs in Tanzania as one way to
enable the country to continue its
successful growth.
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