UNDP chief tackles on MDGs, climate change in Tanzania
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Visiting United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark on Tuesday stressed the importance of inclusive growth to the issue of poverty reduction as well as Africa's adaption to climate change with a comprehensive strategies.
Clark made the remarks at a High-level roundtable discussion on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Climate Change held here during her four-day visit to the east African country since Saturday.
The former Prime Minister of New Zealand called on Tanzania to adopt a strategy to focus on relaxing poverty with inclusive growth to include growth of investment and agriculture, which employes over 70 percent of the country's more than 40 million population.
She also discussed about efforts to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS, empowering women and education in Tanzania.
Meanwhile, Clark called for global partnership, including North- South Cooperation, South-South Cooperation and cooperation with the private sector on the issue of achieving the MDGs, hailing China' progress in poverty reduction and economic growth.
Climate change is an urgent development challenge with the potential progress towards achieving all eight MDGs in Africa. For instance, droughts in Ethiopia have led to collapsed harvests and food shortages. In Rwanda and Tanzania, longer rainy seasons have led to increased malaria in new areas, according to a UNDP handout.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that by 2020, 75 million to 250 million people across sub-Saharan Africa could face water shortages, and rain-fed agriculture could contract by 50 percent in some African countries, it said.
For his part, Tanzanian Agriculture minister Stephen Wasira said that agriculture could contribute more to the economic growth as the current subsistence-level agriculture in his country means that farmers cannot invest, underscoring the importance of research, the problem of drought and the development of infrastructure.
During the just ended 20th World Economic Forum on Africa held here, eight international companies agreed to form an alliance to support the government of Tanzania in its Kilimo Kwanza (Agriculture First) initiative, launched in June 2009 in hopes it will spark a green revolution across the country, Wasira noted.
David Mwakyusa, Tanzanian Minister of Health and Social Welfare, discussed the issue of child mortality, HIV/AIDS, poverty and nutrition, as well as education, gender and empowering women and the effect of environmental change on people's health.
Arriving here on Saturday, Clark is making her trip to four Africa countries, which has already taken her to Mali and Burkina Faso, and will also include a visit to South Africa.
