5 Reasons Why Tanzania Scooped Most EAC Peaceful Economy

Godfrey Njoroge, Nairobi, Sunday 31st March, 2019, GMT 21:00 hours

The Global Peace Index (GPI) for 2018 is out and President John Magufuli’s Tanzania has gone on top again among East African Community (EAC) member states. In the report Tanzania is ranked 51^st in the world climbing three positions from 54^th in 2017.

Tanzania also tops the East African Community member states by ranking 9^th in African Continent. Other East African countries with their rankings in brackets include Rwanda (103), Uganda (107) Kenya (123) Burundi (134) and South Sudan (161).

                                 Why Tanzania Again? What Others Can Learn?

High strides and performance has made Tanzania to be ranked the 51^st  peaceful country among 163 independent countries in the world whipping out major world economic powers like the US, China, UK, France and Argentina.

The 2018 Index released by The Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) adopted 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources, and measured the state of peace using three thematic domains: the level of Societal Safety and Security; the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict; and the degree of Militarisation.

In presenting the findings, the 2018 GPI also included the analysis of trends in Positive Peace namely: the attitudes, institutions, and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies that made Tanzania to scoop enough marks than many large economies in the world.

Moreover, the 2018 GPI looked at changes in indicators of Positive Peace that immediately preceded deteriorations or improvements in peacefulness, which provided a framework for predictive analysis. The report also assessed the ways in which high levels of peace positively influence major macroeconomic indicators

                                 The Pillars of Positive Peace

The pillars of positive peace that made Tanzania jump from 64^th GPI ranking in 2015 when President Magufuli was assuming power to 51^st in 2018 ranking are: a well functioning government, in a sound business environment, an equitable distribution of resources, an acceptance of the rights of others, good relations with neighbours, free flow of information, a high level of human capital, and low levels of corruption.

                                #1 A Sound Business Environment

Since assuming Power in 2016, President Magufuli’s administration among other things has created conducive, friendly and attractive business environments to both locals and foreigners. This has also attracted a number of studies that have validated President Magufuli’s efforts.    

The Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) of South Africa released its 2019 edition of the “Where to Invest in Africa” report and stated that Tanzania is the 7^th best destination to invest in Africa after Egypt, South Africa, Morocco, Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya.

By climbing on two places in 2018, the bank perceives to be the most important conditions for viable investment in Tanzania and other winning Africa countries: economic activity, expressed as a weighted average of market size and forecasted levels of GDP growth, and the opening environment depicted as a weighted average of four international surveys that measure the ease of doing business

The surveys used are Doing Business Index, Global Competitive Index, Corruption Perceptions Index, and Economic Freedom Index. The report indicates that “though marginal, improvement for Tanzania have registered in all four aspects of operating environment index.

Magufuli’s government has also completed a Blue Print; a document that contains an analysis of all obstacles to doing business, fiscal, non fiscal, legal and non legal to address bureaucracies in doing businesses. The document is under implementation.

                                      #2 Democracy and Trust

The findings from a 38-nation Pew Research published early this year put Tanzania a democratic country in Africa ahead of Kenya and Ghana.

The survey research conducted among 41,953 respondents in 38 countries across the world using telephone and face-to-face interviews found that 88 percent of Tanzanians are satisfied with the way democracy is working in the country under the leadership of President Magufuli.

“Trust in the national government is highest in Tanzania. About nine-in-ten people in Tanzania (89%) trust their government to do what is right for their country, including 48% who say they have “a lot” of trust,” states the research.

                                #3 The War against Corruption

The Transparency International has ranked Tanzania the second country in East Africa after Rwanda in the war against corruption. The 2018 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) report released recently put Tanzania at an average score of 36 points behind Rwanda which has scored 56 points.  

Tanzania which is placed 99^th out of 168 countries in the 2018 Transparency International corruption index has improved because of the efforts made by President Magufuli who has earned himself credibility and acclaim, both in and outside Tanzania, for his fight against corruption.

The 2017 Afro barometer research network, shows that over 70% of Tanzanians believe corruption in the country had decreased “somewhat” or “a lot” in the previous year. This is in stark contrast to the results of a similar survey in 2014, when only 13% reported they believed corruption had decreased in the previous year.

Another score, is the creation of an economic crimes court whose mandate include prosecuting graft cases. The court has already received more than 50 cases earning the country mileage when it comes to taking serious measures against the malady.  

#4 Sounding Government

Tanzania under the leadership of President Magufuli is undergoing massive economic transformations through the vision 2025 that aims to make the country move from low to middle income economy by 2025.

In order to achieve this economic transformation, the government is seriously promoting the rule of the law, good governance and human rights. The right to education, Health and Water are some areas among many where the government has worked seriously to ensure social service delivery.

For example, since November 2015, the government of Tanzania established the free education policy to both primary and secondary education to ensure all children are accessing education in the country. The government is allocating TZS 23bn/- every month to serve the purpose.

Moreover, the government of President Magufuli has increased the health budget from TZS 31bn/- from 2014/2015 budget to TZS 269bn/- in 2017/2018 financial year to construct new health centres, hire health experts, purchase medicine and equipment.

Since 2015 when President Magufuli was elected to be President of Tanzania, the government has constructed new 305 new health centres using local resources. In this period of three years, the government has constructed 578 houses for health workers and 268 houses for medical personnel respectively.      

                                  #5 Free Flow of Information

Despite some levels of discussions as some newspapers were banned, since assuming power in 2016, President Magufuli has been a pioneer and engineer of press freedom in Tanzania.

Two new laws guaranteeing media practice and access to information came into force in 2016. Data show that there are 216 registered newspapers, 160 radio stations and 35 televisions stations respectively making Tanzania high on media concentration and diversity.