Africa-Press – Tanzania. TANZANIA will continue building the strong partnership with the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) in attaining the country’s socio-economic goals, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Emmanuel Tutuba said yesterday.
The PS reaffirmed the commitment in Dodoma yesterday during the Joint government and UN Steering Committee (JSC) review meeting for the UNDAP II.
He said the partnership is drawing from successful implementation of the United Nations Development Assistance Plan (UNDAP II) from June 2016 to date, as a key part of in-country UN reform, national development strategies and visions for both the Mainland and Zanzibar.
Mr Tutuba, who is co-chair of the meeting, added that UNDAP II implementation is in four thematic areas of health nation, resilience, inclusive growth and democratic governance, human rights and gender.
He said, “I would like to thank the United Nations Country’s Team for your support, without which some of our poverty reduction and development initiatives would have been delayed.” “You have been instrumental in supporting the government to implement economic policies and reforms in order to foster economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve socio-economic welfare of our people, through the aforementioned thematic areas,” added Mr Tutuba.
According to the PS, through UNCT and other development partners’ support, Tanzania sustained a robust economic performance, growing at an annual average rate of 6.0 to 7.0 per cent However, growth slowed down to 4.8 per cent in 2020 attributed to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nevertheless, he said Tanzania recorded a positive economic growth unlike many other countries primarily due to the government’s decision of not adopting lockdown.
He said, most affected sectors include tourism, external trade, transport and hospitality industry.
“The economy is unlikely to recover to its pre-pandemic trajectory in the medium term on account of uncertainties regarding Covid-19 pandemic and its implications on different sectors.” noted the PS.
Real GDP growth in the first quarter of 2021, he said, was 4.9 per cent down from 5.9 per cent recorded in the corresponding quarter in 2020 and is projected at 5.0 per cent in 2021 on account of improvement in external demand, increased number of international tourist arrivals, and deployment of vaccination campaigns.
UN Resident Coordinator in Tanzania, Zlasac Milisic said the world body remains committed to working with the government in implementation of activities in the work plan for the final year of the UNDAP II, ahead of a new framework to be launched next year. JSC is the highest decisionmaking authority on UNDAP II and UN Delivering as One (DaO) reform in Tanzania.
UN resident coordinator and permanent secretary in the ministry of Finance and Planning are the co-chairs. It provides policy guidance on matters pertaining to the UNDAP’s alignment with national development priorities, recommends measures for effective delivery and decides on the allocation of resources under the One UN Fund.
Misilic said the meeting was to review the progress, best practices and challenges experienced in the latest year of UNDAP II implementation (2020/21) and to endorse the work plans for the final year of the UNDAP II which is set to conclude next year.
The UN representative added that the successful review of UNDAP II drawing lessons from its implementation, will lead to the generation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) to succeed the UNDAP II from July 2022 to June 2027.
He explained that UNSDCFs are a new generation of cooperation framework, which promote the role of the various organs of the UN working as ONE coordinated entity at the country level, in a broader collective effort to achieve the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.
The new cooperation framework marks a different way of doing business for UN systems in-country with the aim of enhancing collaboration for implementing development activities and also bringing together a wide range of stakeholders to accelerate progress towards achieving the SDGs.
“As we proceed with this process, we are committed to continue working with the government to implement the activities that are in the work plan for the final year of implementation of the UNDAP II” he said.
Misilic added that these will build on the cumulative results that we have been working towards since UNDAP II was launched in 2016.
He acknowledged the important contribution of the thematic result groups in implementing and monitoring the UNDAP II work plan for 2020/21, whose implementation report was to be presented and discussed in the meeting.
