Dar Muslims commemorate Imam Khomeini's death

 Ayatullah Imam Khomeini

By Nasser Kigwangallah

 ON June 3rd, 1989, Ayatullah Imam Khomeini passed away peacefully at the age of 87.

Muslims across the globe pour into mosques and other places of worship to mourn Imam Khomeini's death.

Similarly, every year, millions of Tanzania Muslims across the country pay tribute to the late leader, who was not the leader of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but the world over.

In Dar es Salaam, the capital and commercial metropolitan of Tanzania, Muslims also gathered on Tuesday 4^th June, 2013 at the Centre for Foreign Relations famously known as ‘Chuo cha Diplomasia Kurasini’ to pay tribute to this great leader who inspired the entire world through his philosophical thinking.

Many renowned Muslim leaders and diplomatic officials gave inspiring speeches in honour of Ayatullah Khomeini.

Speaking on the occasion, His Excellency Mahdi Agha Jafari, the honourable ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran said the anniversary of Imam Khomeini’s death, widely is recognized as the symbol of the Islamic Revolution, is commemorated in many countries all over the globe as well.

He said, according to many western philosophical thinkers Imam Khomeini was named ‘Man of the Year’ in 1979 by American newsmagazine TIME for his international influence and has been described as the "virtual face of Islam in Western popular culture.” 

He added that Islamic revolution of Iran is the most prominent and most profound of Iran’s contemporary social phenomenon.

‘This metamorphosis became matrix of expanded political, social and cultural development inside Iran and indeed its achievements were witnessed as far as regionally and internationally as well,” he said.

Ambassador Jafari added that as a matter of fact, the Islamic revolution of Iran is the last role of Iranian’s Muslim nation in its ancient ups and downs history to be delivered to the contemporary history and civilization.

He remarked: “Today, we mark the 24^th anniversary of Imam Khomeini’s demise. He was the great leader of the Islamic revolution and founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

He said by his death, the entire world missed the one of the greatest men in history of human being.

His role was felt not by Muslims alone, but the entire world as well.

Dr. Mohammed Reza Dehashiri

On his part, the renowned Assistant Professor of International Relations Dr. Mohammed Reza Dehashiri said Imam Khomeini was known for his strong political views against the regime, the security agents of Reza Khan, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty.

Giving historical background of Imam Khomeini, he said on 3rd June, 1963 Imam made a historical speech against the dependence of the Shah's regime on foreign powers and its support of Israel.

He also exhorted Ulema’s role in society was to eliminate evil doing and people to become upright in their deeds.

According to him, Imam Khomeini wrote a number of books on various subjects such as ethics, mysticism, jurisprudence, principles, politics and social issues, many of them have so far been published.

In addition to his scientific works, Imam Khomeini has rewritten a number of unpublished treatises by other learned men. Some of the works of Imam, are written in a specialized manner the understanding of which, is not possible without help by the exegesis of the experts in those lines, other works are written in a more simple style. 

Morteza Sabouri, Director of the Cultural Centre

Speaking on the occasion, Morteza Sabouri, Director of the Cultural Centre of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran said the situation of the world today is pathetic and discouraging.

“The entire world is full of miseries, problems and challenges which must be tackled by a devoted personality and this was Ayatullah Khomeini, whom we have gathered here to commemorate,” Sabouri said.

He said in the midst of this situation, we see that the Middle East has a very important role to play in shaping the entire world.

That is why Iran has played that role of shaping the whole of Middle East through its revolution.

“We cherish Imam Khomeini for his role he played to shape the geo-political situation of the Middle East and the Arab uprising is a good testimony of this,” he said.

Sheikh Alli Bassaleh

Sheikh Alli Bassaleh, the grand Imam of Idrisa Mosque situated at Kariakoo in down town Dar es Salaam castigated the western imperialists’ countries for their hypocrisy and double standards on Iran’s nuclear technology.

He said these countries have nuclear arsenals among themselves, including the Zionist regime of Israel, but they keep mum, and see Iran as a threat.

“This is stupidity and we condemn any aggression on Iran. Keep away from Iranian activities. Instead you should censor Israel first for having nuclear weapons. The Islamic nation has the same right to acquire them,” he said.

TANZANIAN PEACE AT STAKE: Religious leaders urge the government to take action before it is too late

Dr Emmanuel Nchimbi, Home Affairs Minister 

THE Minister for Home Affairs Emmanuel Nchimbi has warned that the country's peace and harmony among Tanzanians of different religious denominations was at stake and there was a need to take action immediately to safeguard the lost glory that existed.

Nchimbi was addressing a congregation of religious leaders organised by Dar es Salaam region at PSPF Conference Centre in the city yesterday.

He congratulated the regional commissioner Sadik Meck Sadik for organising such a meeting adding that it was vital for conducting such a meeting at a right time.

"You have a responsibility to organise such a meeting at this time aimed at easing the tension among our people of this region and the whole country as a whole," Nchimbi said.

He said misunderstanding was the root cause of all evils in the society and the tension that exists has been fommeted by such discord.

He added that it is ironic to see such discord among our people happening now although we have lived for decades since independence in peace and harmony.

"When you visit social networks such as Facebook  twitter, you tube  Jamii Forum and internet  etc, you will notice how people are divided on religious dimensions and they always hurl insults at one another on religious matters," he said.

He extorted religious leaders to take charge and have a responsibility to preserve harmony that existed for decades in our country.

Nchimbi wondered why have we reached to that extent of hating each, because the government has been reluctant to take action on wrongdoers at an earlier stage.

"From now on, the minister warned, the government would not tolerate such behaviour and will take action promptly, fearing none," he said.

He urged religious leaders to preach the message of love to their disciples in mosques and churches so that we exist to live in peace and harmony as before.

Dr Nchimbi said if we do not take action now, the country's peace would be in shambles and we would witness civil war and religious conflict in future, which we have to avoid.

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Premier Pinda inaugurates population census in Dar es Salaam

Premier Pinda inaugurates population census in Dar es Salaam on Friday

 

By Nasser Kigwangallah

TEN percent of the 44.9 people live in Dar es Salaam which is 10 percent of the population which is a worrisome to policy makers in the country, PM Pinda has said.

He was inaugurating the  2012 census in Dar es Salaam on Friday.

He added that the 2012 PHC revealed that, the population of Tanzania has grown from 12,313,469 persons in the 1967 Census to 44,928,923 persons counted in 2012.

“Dar es Salaam accounts for 10 percent of the total Tanzania Mainland population.” he said.

THE National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is the Central Statistical Office of Tanzania.

The NBS, as a Government agency, was formed from the former Bureau of Statistics to provide efficient services, giving increased value for money for the benefit of the Government and the public in general.

NBS carries out its activities in a businesslike manner, using commercial financial management and business-planning techniques and is customer focused.

It conducts Censuses and Surveys which yield a wide range of economic, social and demographic statistics.

The General Report on Population Distribution by Administrative Units is the first of a series of publications planned for the 2012 PHC.

The main purpose of the report is to give aggregated totals of population by sex.

The report also provide number of households, average household size, population densities, average annual inter-censal growth rates and sex ratios.

Levels of aggregation are national, regional, district council and ward/shehia.

REPOA organises the 18th Annual Research Workshop in Dar es Salaam

Dr Mohammed Gharib Bilal, the Vice President of the United Republic of Tanzania

By Nasser Kigwangallah

RESEARCH ON POVERTY ALLEVIATION (REPOA) organised the  18th annual research workshop-2013.

The 2 days workshop was held from  April 03, 2013 to  April 04, 2013 at the Kunduchi Beach Hotel & Resort in Dar es Salaam.

The theme for this year’s workshop was “The Quest for Inclusive Development.”

There was a keynote presentations during the opening session, and other presentations from experts and distinguished scholars from Tanzania and other countries selected strategically to share their experiences of the inclusive development in different sectors of the economy.

The keynote address was on Problems vs. Polarities; The Importance of Understanding Stakeholder Nuances In Your Quest For Inclusive Growth by Datuk Chris Tan, Director, Performance Management And Delivery Unit (PEMANDU) of  Malaysia, which is one of the emeging economies of the East Asian countries.

The workshop was earlier inaugurated by His Excellency Dr. Mohammed Gharib Bilal, the vice president of the United Republic of Tanzania.

In his inaugural speech, the vice president emphasised on the importance of research for the development of the country.

He urged researchers to make findings of their research to the people in the villages so that they could feel part and parcel of the research.

Dr. Mohammed Gharib Bilal said remarked:  “Our development Vision 2025 envisions Tanzania as a middle income country with a dynamic and competitive economy by 2025.”

He added that a competitive and dynamic economy however, cannot come about or be sustained in a society characterized by poverty and inequality.

“It can only be achieved and sustained when economic growth is both robust and inclusive,” he said.

Dr. Bilal said inclusive development must at a minimum, ensure that the majority of the population participate in the development process through productive employment and engagement in diverse forms of productive economic activities as well as broader access to basic social services.

According to him, Tanzania has during the last decade or so been achieving high economic growth, 7 per cent on average, and Tanzania aspires to become a middle income country by 2025.

However,  he warned that the growth has not translated into poverty reduction and job creation.  

Presenting a paper on “Productive Employment for Making Economic Growth More Inclusive in Tanzania”  Dr. Rizwanul Islam,  thr former Employment Sector Special Adviser, for the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva, said: “Indicators of inclusive growth should start from stable economic growth, sustainable economic growth which should include poverty and inequality reduction, productive employment, improvement in access to education and health and basic social protection floor for all citizens.”

According to him, this includes protection against old age, unemployment and disability among others. 

He said Tanzania has been doing well in average per capita income which has grown substantially at 3.8 per cent in the 2000s. The country’s GDP growth rate has also been quite stable as compared with those in other East African countries. 

REPOA is an independent research institution which creates and utilities knowledge to facilitate socio-economic development.
REPOA produces high quality research, provides training, facilitates knowledge sharing and promotes the use of accurate information in policy development.

Closing the annual workshop, Professor Samwel Wangwe, the Repoa executive director said unemployment was one of the major issues discussed at the recently ended workshop. 

According to him, this year’s theme was chosen based on the fact that research on development in its economic, social and political dimensions has shown that meaningful efforts to improve the quality of life in society require shared and inclusive growth and development.

He thanked presenters for enabling the workshop to be successful and thanked participants for their tireless efforts of being friends of Repoa.

“Please continue supporting us so that we could execute our responsibility more rigorously,” he said.

Professor Wangwe urged researchers to emphasize on expanding their research to villages where majority of the people are based.

ABOUT PROFEESOR SAMWEL WANGWE

 Professor Samwel Wangwe

Professor Samuel M. Wangwe has a Ph.D from the University of Dar es Salaam (1980), an MA (Economics) from the University of Dar es Salaam in 1973 and a BA (Economics and Statistics) from the University of Dar es Salaam in 1972. Prof. Wangwe has authored eight books, including Economic Challenges Facing the Third Phase Government (with Prof. Van Arkadie), Exporting Africa: Technology, Trade and Industrialization in Sub-Saharan Africa (1997).

 Prior to assuming his current position, he was chairman of Daima Associates Limited (DAIMA), a private consulting firm based in Dar es Salaam that offers a range of professional services directed towards the economic management and policy analysis, policy advisor on coordination of reforms in the Office of the President, Public Service Management, a post he took after eight years as Executive Director of the Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF), a nonprofit nongovernmental policy research institute focusing on capacity building in economic and social policy and development management in Tanzania. He is principal research associate with the ESRF and is chairing the Independent Monitoring Group which is tasked to monitor aid relationships between donors and Tanzania government.
He has 35 years experience as an economist and policy researcher and policy analyst and policy advisor, and as economist and an economic advisor to the Government of Tazania. He has authored/co-authored/edited 13 books development and economic management and over 70 published articles in journals and edited books. In addition he has led and/or participated in over 80 consultancies addressing development policy and economic management in a wide range of areas including formulation and implementation of strategies and policies, industrial development, agricultural development, infrastructure, finance and poverty studies.
He holds a bachelors degree in Economics and Statistics, masters degree in Economics, and a doctoral degree in Economics from the University of Dar es Salaam; and has also worked as the head of the Department of Economics as well as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the same university. During a three-year leave of absence from the University, he was senior research fellow at the Institute for New Technologies of the United Nations University in Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Besides the African Technology Policy Studies (ATPS) network, has served on a number of advisory boards including the Bank of Tanzania, the Tanzania Housing Bank, and the National Micro Finance Bank and has chaired several boards including the State Mining Corporation, the National Institute of Productivity, the National Social Security Fund in Tanzania and is currently chairing the Social Action Trust Fund and the Kibaha Education Centre in Tanzania.
He has also been a member of several commissions, special committees, and task forces including the Fourth Five Development Plan Working Committee on Industry and Technology; the Committee for Improving National Statistics; the Secretariat of the Tanzania Advisory Group; the Presidential Commissions on Exports and Salaries; the Tax Force on Restructuring the National Bank of Commerce; the Advisory Committee in Financial Sector Reform, and was Chairperson of the national Consultative Committee on Fast Tracking the East Africa.

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Dr Mohammed Gharib Bilal opens the 18th Repoa Annual research workshop in Dar es Salaam

Vice President  Dr. Mohammed Gharib Bilal opening the 18th Repoa Annual Research 

Workshop in Dar es Salaam yesterday

THE Vice-President Dr Mohammed Gharib Bilal has said that Tanzania needs the existence of appropriate policy instruments, public investment and mechanism to ensure that people engage in productive economic activities.
“Our government has continued to put emphasis on policy reforms and increasing public investment aiming at eliminating barriers to progress and development,” he told participants yesterday attending a REPOA annual research workshop in Dar es Salaam.
He said that new challenges emerge continuously which need continuous thinking and innovation on effective means of addressing them.
“Our economy has remained primarily agricultural, which contribute to about 24 percent of the GDP. The sector employs about 75 percent of the national labour force, yet agricultural productivity and rural incomes remain low,” he said.
“It is equally true that access to various economic and social services are not universally similar across urban and rural areas. This is not a desirable condition for inclusive development, but it is not an easy task to resolve either,” he added.
Such condition, the Vice-President said, sets a clear argument for more proactive role of the state in economic management so that long-run outcomes of economic activities pursued by all actors, market and non-market are geared towards inclusive development.
He explained that proactive engagement of the state includes the setting of national development priorities and coordinating their implementation of which the Planning Commission has increasingly played its role in setting development priorities and framework for coordination and motoring of implementation.
“Tanzania has made enormous strides in promoting inclusive development, especially through increased access to education and health services, and in improving economic infrastructure,” he said.
However, Dr Billal said challenges remain immense and that research can play a big role in achieving a common goal.
Delivering a keynote paper on the importance of understanding stakeholder nuances in the quest for inclusive growth, the Director of Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) in Malaysia, Datuk Chris Tan, said the key to success lies with strong leadership.
He said the quality and quantity of policy may be debated by policymakers but what’s more important is leadership to take first step towards their realisation and set the direction for the rest of the people.
“This strong directive leadership is required only in the nation’s infancy. We must give the captain of a ship, the freedom to plot the cause for the journey,” he pointed out.
Any economic success, he said, does not just happen; there must be someone fully committed to policy implementation as well as provide a room for the people to participate.
REPOA’s Executive Director Prof Samwel Wangwe said that the annual research workshop would discuss the transmission mechanism of growth to poverty reduction which seems to be constrained by low growth rate of agricultural sector, low productivity in the informal economy and increasing unemployment.
“This condition calls for renewed policy dialogue and strategies to promote inclusive economic growth and social development, exploration of the nature of policies and institutional interventions required for Tanzania to achieve high and inclusive growth as envisioned in the National Development Vision 2015,” he said.
Prof Wangwe said that the workshop theme is ‘The Quest for Inclusive Development’ and experts and distinguished scholars selected strategically both from inside and outside the country, would share their experiences of the inclusive development in different sectors of the economy.
Inclusive growth as a strategy of economic development received attention owing to a rising concern that the benefits of economic growth have not been equitably shared.
Experts say growth is inclusive when it creates economic opportunities along with ensuring equal access to them.

Apart from addressing the issue of inequality, the inclusive growth may also make poverty reduction efforts more effective by explicitly creating productive economic opportunities for the poor and vulnerable sections of the society.

The inclusive growth by encompassing the hitherto excluded population can bring in several other benefits as well to the economy, economists say.

The concept ‘Inclusion’ is seen as a process of including the excluded as agents whose participation are essential in the very design of the development process, and not simply as welfare targets of development programmes.