Chama Cha Mapinduzi 2020 Manifesto Part I
The Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) 2020 election manifesto is a record 303 pages long. While reading through it I grappled with how to approach my review of it. Should I summarize it and let the readers judge for themselves or should I analyze it and give my own opinion(s)? Ultimately I settled on a hybrid approach of summarizing the key points and giving my views on them.
The document focuses on seven key areas which are the economy, social services, science and technology, defence and security, good governance, foreign affairs and international relations and Zanzibar. For this article I will focus on four areas but I do encourage readers to first go through the entire manifesto if possible.
1. Economy
This section of the manifesto takes up 115 pages on its own. This is an indicator that CCM plans to use its economic policies as the driving force of its campaign. With Tanzania achieving middle income status, the party appears set to promote its economic reforms to voters during the next few months.
According to the manifesto, the CCM government has achieved the following in the past five years:
•The mobilization of natural resources to be used strategically as the building foundation of an industrial economy and social wellbeing.
• Economic growth of 6.9 percent from 2016 to 2019
•GDP per capita increase from shillings 1,968,965 in 2015 to shillings 2,458, 496 in 2018.
•Other indicators highlighting the reduction of poverty such as an increase in life expectancy from 61 year in 2015 to 65 years in 2020, rural electrification from 16.4 percent in 2015 to 67.1 percent in 2019, etc.
For the period of 2020-2025, the party will direct the government to build an economy which is both inclusive and competitive by creating and implementing a National Development Plan 2021/22- 2025/26.
CCM will also direct the government to implement strong economic policies which will aim to:
•Grow the economy by an average of 8 percent annually.
•Implement strategies which would strengthen economic stability by maintaining manageable inflation rates.
•Increase budget independence by strengthening internal revenue collection systems including innovating new sources of revenue.
•Increase the spectrum of funding for development projects through Public Private Partnership (PPP).
•Ensure the national debt is manageable.
•Tackle climate change through regional and international sources.
•Increase the sale of value added products in order to increase foreign currency to satisfy the need for importation of products needed for major products.
•To grow the service sector especially tourism so as to increase its contribution to the economy.
The economy will have to play a major role in CCM’s agenda if its to achieve its goal of the creation of 8 million new jobs in the next five years. Although we appear to be heading in the right direction, I would advice CCM’s government to review our laws in setting up businesses and if possible to give a tax break of 3-5 years for local SME start-ups in specific industries such as the tourism, tech and creative industries. To be fair, CCM has given the most comprehensive economic plan of the three major political parties.
2. Social Services
For most Tanzanians, this may very well be the most important area of any political dialogue. In part because this is the area where the government specifies how they will take care of us. In CCM’s manifesto, Social Services are divided into four key areas which are education, health, social welfare and water and environment. I will however focus on education and health.
Education:
CCM’s policy of education is based on increasing and improving the quality and quantity of both institutions and students themselves. The main focus of their policy is based on primary, secondary, vocational and higher learning which are the cornerstone of our education system.
Performances in primary and secondary institutions has improved over the last five years, evidence of which are in the recent form six results for the year 2020. In those results, eight out of the top ten schools were government owned. Admissions and passing rates have increased at both levels. This has come on the backdrop of free education for public primary and secondary schools.
An area of improvement which has been identified by the manifesto itself is improvement and strengthening of the systems of cost of higher education including the loan board to ensure more students who qualify get the opportunity of a university degree.
My recommendations would be to review the cost of living and studying. The amount to be loaned should be calculated based on cities and individual institutions. For example a student living in Dar Es Salaam and studied at the University of Dar Es Salaam would qualify for a different amount than a student in another city or institution. Finally, a grace period of two years after graduating should be given to graduates before they are required to start repaying the loan board, and the rate of repayment to be single digits with no accumulated interest. Payment should be suspend for any debt payer who has been unemployed for over six months. This will encourage underprivileged students to not opt out of going to university and will allow fresh graduates ample time to establish themselves.
Health:
The health sector has been one of the cornerstones of President Magufuli’s agenda. The number of health facilities have gone up from 7,014 in 2015 to 8783 in 2020 1825, an average of 5 facilities everyday since he has been in office.
In the next five years, CCM plans to increase the quantity and quality of health facilities around the country including encouraging the private sector to invest in pharmaceuticals and health equipment, the building of new hospitals and to increase the number of health professionals and to increase admission for students in health to 25,000 students.
The government’s efforts in the health sector is to be applauded. We were used to seeing pharmacies in government hospitals lack medicines and patients being told to buy medication in private pharmacies. Services and professionalism in public health centres has gone exponentially up. One area I hope the government will put an extra effort in is to improve the working conditions and pay of health professionals in order to encourage more students to enter the field.
3. Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation
The President has stated numerous times that he does not travel abroad frequently in order to focus on domestic issues. This has given the wrong impression that Tanzanian diplomacy and influence abroad has decreased over the past five years. It is important to note that almost all diplomatic negotiations are carried out at the ministerial level and that the President’s job is guide and supervise the country’s foreign policies while the diplomats do the ground work. The President has delegated international travels to other top of officials such as the Vice President, The President of Zanzibar and the Prime Minister. With that said, I do not believe the President making frequent trips abroad necessarily equates to better diplomacy or otherwise.
CCM’s manifesto lists the following as the administrations foreign relations successes in the past five years to include but not limited to;
•The strategic opening of eight new missions in Algeria, Turkey, South Korea, Qatar, Sudan, Israel, Cuba and Namibia.
•Increased commercial opportunities for the country through economic diplomacy through different conferences regionally and internationally.
•Participation in talks which lead to the establishment of the Continental Free Trade Area.
•Strengthen Tanzania’s relationship with the EAC and SADC
•Convincing members of SADC to pass a resolution to lift economic sanctions on Zimbabwe
•A total of 2,303 Tanzanian troops have been part of six peace keeping missions in The DRC, Sudan (Darfur and Abyei), South Sudan, Lebanon and CAR.
For the next five years, CCM’s focus will be on political and economic diplomacy, EAC, AU, UN, Non-Aligned Movement and the Commonwealth.
However on top of the common diplomatic jargon, it is noticeable that CCM plans to actively motivate diplomatic missions to open consulates in Zanzibar and the government will take a proactive role in efforts to make Swahili an official language in all regional organizations Tanzania is a part of. It is important that more consulate offices are opened in Zanzibar because it will allow the isles to take up an active role in attracting foreign investments and tourism to the island. One suggestion I would give is that we have a Zanzibar desk in strategic missions abroad. In terms of Swahili, the government should not stop at just encouraging it to be an official language in regional organizations but I would strongly recommend we open cultural centres to promote Swahili in strategic countries.
4. Zanzibar
The 2020 manifesto provides one of the most detailed plans for Zanzibar of any manifesto past or present. The section on Zanzibar goes for nearly 90 pages and covers every aspect of the isles social, political and economic dynamics. Topics covered included economy, tourism, education, health, democracy and rule of law, social services, sports, communications, journalism and so forth. I do recommend all Zanzibari and anyone with an interest in the isles to read through this section.
It is hard to cover all the details on this section since most of the key areas written for Tanzania in general were also written for Zanzibar in specific. What I can do is give an overview of the general direction CCM wants to take Zanzibar in.
It is evident that CCM’s goal is to make Zanzibar more politically and economic independent within the structures of the Union government. We saw in the previous section that the government aims to encourage more missions to open consulates in Zanzibar which is a gateway for the isles to attract foreign investments and tourists.
CCM’s government also plans to increase Zanzibar’s revenue collection from shillings 800 billion in 2019 to shillings 1.55 trillion by 2025, almost double. The government also plans to utilize the island’s geography by strengthening the tourism and transportation sectors.
CCM has a 12 point plan to improve Zanzibar’s tourism industry which includes;
•Implementing the ISAP and BIG Z plan to create value addition in Zanzibar’s tourism sector which the government hopes will lead to an increase in tourists, number of days tourist spend in Zanzibar and the amount they spend daily.
•To strengthen tourists attractions
•Promote Pemba islands as a tourist destination
•Improve cruise tourism and increase the number of ships visiting Zanzibar from 6 to 40.
•Promote Zanzibar as a tourist destination through the private sector, Tanzanian embassies, celebrities and the diaspora.
The tourism industry in Zanzibar has a lot of potential and the Zanzibar desk that I have suggested prior would among other things be tasked with promoting tourism to the islands. A foreign service officer of Zanzibari origins should be in place at strategic missions abroad tasked exclusively with promoting Zanzibar interests abroad inside the frameworks and guidelines of the foreign ministry.
Finally, I urge everyone to read the manifesto for themselves and see how it affects and impacts their lives at an individual level. The manifesto is very comprehensive and has spared no details. I specifically encourage the youth and women to go through the document seeing as that they are the largest voting bloc in the country.
Thomas Joel Kibwana
