Hi Ngowi,
Kindly digest comments given in this thread and share with us your views that you think would lead to the formulation of "no regrets strategy" in harnessing gas and oil resources in Tanzania. However, confidence and discipline in implementing the "no regrets strategy" has to be built amongst most Tanzanians.
Richard Masika
Sent from my iPad
Sent from my iPad
Dr Ngowi,
It is always disheartening when a discussion is rolled out about Africa as an economically rising continent and the hopelessness that we continue witnessing ! I was in a village around mining areas recently.An old woman asked me "Is there a way of letting those who need the gold take it and we continue living in our hand to mouth life in peace?".
Having being in interactions with the extractive sector for close to a decade ,I would like to underline the following in relation to Africa's development :
The good , bad and ugly!
Exciting , finally empty promises!
We are constantly told we cannot harness the extractive rsources ourselves ,why -Too heavy capital investment ,sophisticated technologies required for African investors , therefore, open doors to foreign direct investment.Therefore , we shall benefit ...The maneuvering through contacts and strategically unfair practices lead to empty promises !Why!
- Royalty to the national reserves, withholding taxes ,social security contributions
- Technical skills to our people , particularly the youth in areas of investment destinations
- Beautiful compensation to those relocated from their ancestral land to allow investment
- Local government will benefit from some service levies ...
- Local procurement arrangements to benefit local communities
- Corporate Social Responsibility will be the basis for corporate support to local communities
*Natural Resource Governance-The range of unsurprising governance failures evident in fragile states to those wishing to reform but cannot,we seem to be running from the root cause of a fundamental problem .Local people in wherever you have valuable natural resources,local people are disenfranchised.The ruling prescription is, not even just investment -but FDIs.At the end, we have investment contracts with stabilization clauses not allowing us to review ... !T Our analysis of governance is now limited to technical interpretation and not the life realities in which Africans are betrayed by those mandated to lead the way.In fact , all the commissions on Africa's development fall back on Governance as the roadblock! Technically , reflection on good governance is even reduced to focus on corruption.But whose problem-Africans themselves !
*Colonial legacies-Half a decade after the colonial powers technically left , we still seek their mandate to rule and surrender our powers-Who decides about the Sovereign Wealth Fund in -Chad-Paris not in Ndjamena! Niger with probably the largest uranium deposit in the world is begging the French government to dialogue with the French investor in raising the royalty to 12% .The de jure independence has not worked for Africa !
*Lack of and evading redistributive policies- Every morning you hear about Africa economies growing ,some steadily at single but close to two digits.How is this growth translated into lives and livelihoods of citizens is the last question our former Finance Minister (Dr Mgimwa-RIP)asked before he was hospitalized! We are not ready to commit ourselves to the redistributive policies and social protection policies.Why , those in power avoid accountability in implementing the practices.Hugo Chavez was upfront on this , but popular away from home .It goes like this ..Our leaders do not want to be popular at home and unpopular out there! They are therefore accountable to the unholy trinity-The WB-WTO-IMF ! .The best available evidence now indicates that countries that have explicit redistributive policies have managed to effectively deliver the benefits of growth to their citizens.Even IMF admitted to this recently!
*The residual role of Government in extractive industries after contracts-A contract signed in Dar,operating license issued in Dar! Governments sit aside waiting from royalties and surrendering the resources and the destiny of the people in investment destinations to the "Investor" .Local Government Authorities are solemn spectators of the rules of the game between central government and investors,communities wait for the investor to think of what they can do as Corporate Social Responsibility, unfortunately as part of philanthropy and not responsibility !This is an obvious evasion of government responsibility.
Vulnerability to Illicit Financial Flows-Africa appears to be too vulnerable to Illicit Financial Flow!The recent reportby Thabo Mbeki to the European Commission tells the latest story , but we keep blaming lack of transparency across the Mediterranean sea and the Atlantic Ocean bit not on the continent !How does this cash come back -The countries with the best revenue gains from extractives in Africa are the most unsafe for a woman to give birth.Think about the Sahelian Sub Saharan Africa and those facing the Atlantic where maternal mortality rates are still annoyingly high and a country where the president's daughter is the richest woman on the continent.
Policy Failures-"What can go wrong , it will go wrong" ! We keep repeating the same mistake of rushing to exploit(may be because we have to gain before the next elections)before having rigorous policies and regulatory mechanisms for extractive industries in place.If it happens that we need the policies and legislation , we hurry up to our detriment.Evidence on this are not too far from home!But who listens-unless there is a session about this in the World Economic Forum and taken up by those who matter, no citizen will be seen citizen enough to discuss it .
In conclusion , resource curse is therefore a consequence and not a conditio sine quanon ,and as long as the "agency" of Africans is still manipulated by "clientelism",the rhetoric of Africa rising and benefiting from extractive indutries will remain a silver-lined theory.
I tend to be a hard headed optimist, but find it difficult to believe we can change sooner than our history shows!Probably ,one day, God ill bless Africa !Donald KasongiDonald KasongiGovernance Links Tanzania
Maendeleo House
P.O Box 1923
Cellular :+ 255 754 830 828
MWANZA-TANZANIA
skype:donald.kasongi
On Monday, 24 March 2014, 8:35, Dr. A. Massawe <massaweantipas@hotmail.com> wrote:
--Dear Prosper,
Wish you a very succcessful participation in this very valuable one and hope you will share harvest with all at home.
Wrote a lot on how a developing one like ours could maximize her share of the natural capital inherent in her natural resources and its contribution in the enabling of its local populations in its development endevours and would like to share with all here through the link here:
goxi.org/profile/DrAntipasMassawe
Regards, Dr A. Massawe
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 13:13:16 -0700
From: pngowi2002@yahoo.com
Subject: My Participation on Oil, Gas and Minerals in Africa Development
To: sajasealumniplus@googlegroups.com; wanazuoni@yahoogroups.com; wanabidii@googlegroups.com; jakuzilwa@mzumbe.ac.tz; jkuzilwa@yahoo.com; frkamuzora@yahoo.co.uk; frkamuzora@mzumbe.ac.tz; itikajosephat@hotmail.com; itika2004@yahoo.co.uk; mbwamboah@yahoo.com; sullea@yahoo.co.uk; EMatotay@oxfam.org.uk; PBofin@oxfam.org.uk; IGary@OxfamAmerica.org; honoryjerome@hotmail.com; jeromeha@state.gov; honoryjerome@gmail.com; costantine.sebastian@yahoo.com; makauki@gmail.com; deus.ngaruko@out.ac.tz; ngarukoddp@yahoo.co.uk; shayohill@yahoo.co.uk; magrethbushesha@yahoo.com; hildebrand.shayo@out.ac.tz; massaweantipas@hotmail.com; rmasika@gmail.com; mufuruki@me.com; ayubrioba@hotmail.com; kitalam@udsm.ac.tz; bkilama@repoa.or.tz; swangwe@yahoo.com; lunogelo@esrf.or.tz; lunogelo@yahoo.co.uk; info@policyforum.or.tz; aluleus@yahoo.com; a.namala@clknet.or.tz; m.maneno@clknet.or.tz; p.ndekana@clknet.or.tz; profmuhongo.sospeter@gmail.com; odd.fjeldstad@cmi.no; kjetil.bjorvatn@nhh.no; harald.knudsen@uia.no; makeneprosper@gmail.com; dbiswalo@yahoo.com; dkafulila@gmail.com; a.l.mdee@bradford.ac.uk; vmushi@tz.nationmedia.com; mcmilanzi@hotmail.com; mursali.a.milanzi@uia.no; Jmgmwamunyange@gmail.com; raynaluyaga@gmail.com; raymond.mbilinyi@gmail.com; hbchilewa@mzumbe.ac.tz; hchilewa@yahoo.com; rdimoso@yahoo.co.uk; PBofin@oxfam.org.uk; solang@revenuewatch.org; bukaza.chachage@gmail.com; deotutubi@yahoo.com; dmwanyika@africanbarrickgold.com; jumav2002@yahoo.co.uk; djkilawe@gmail.com; deobalile@yahoo.com; Mushi@mx1.udsm.ac.tz; bana@udsm.ac.tz; ngkamata@hotmail.com; kando.janga@yahoo.com; ndanshau@udsm.ac.tz; gelasemutahaba@yahoo.co.uk; ggwanga@gmail.com
Dear colleaguesGreetings. Once again I am happy to let you know that I will be in a two-man panel (Prof. Ricardo Oliveira of Oxford and myself, with Prof. Daniel Kaufmann of Revenue Watch Institute - London/New York as moderator) in a discussion on whether Oil, Gas and minerals can fuel development in Africa. The public forum will be held at the Central European University (School of Public Policy) in Budapest Hungary, Monday 24th March 2014 at 5:30 hours. See the attached document and details at http://spp.ceu.hu/node/651On Wednesday 26th there will be another forum on Transforming Economies Through Natural Resources with Oxford's Prof. Sir. Paul Coullier and George Soros at the same University. I participated in similar event at Brookings Institution in Washington DC and at CLKNET in Dar Es Salaam February this year. You may contribue to the debate in vaqrious ways including in writting to me, among others.RegardsHonest Prosper NgowiMzumbe University, Tanzania
Send Emails to wanabidii@googlegroups.com
Kujiondoa Tuma Email kwenda
wanabidii+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com Utapata Email ya kudhibitisha ukishatuma
Disclaimer:
Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Wanabidii" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to wanabidii+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
0 comments:
Post a Comment