By MUHARRAM MACATTA: Our country, no doubt, has great potential for
economic advancement owing to her natural and human capital.
But even with all these, her growth has been painfully slow, at times
even regressing.
For instance, the national growth dropped to 5.5 per cent in 2009 from
6.2 in 2008 due to persistent droughts, high inflation rates and the
world financial meltdown.
Since some of these factors are beyond human control, there is a need
to adopt a more flexible but promising means of guaranteeing some form
of economic stability.
Developing nations can only do this by having their growth strategy
built around human resources, that is, the talents, skills and
knowledge of their people.
It is imperative, therefore, to concentrate on enhancing human
resources since they are the engine for growth.
But to get there, we need to first acquire better education and
training through greater access to colleges, universities, vocational
schools and on-the-job training.
Disparity in provision of education is one of the reasons why the wage
gaps between more and less-educated workers continue to increase.
Rarely does Tanzanian labour leave the country. If the government
therefore, spends public money on improving the human resources,
virtually all the benefits will stay at home.
In education, the net enrolment rate for primary education increased
from 59 percent in 2002 to 95 percent in 2005 with near gender parity
(48 per cent girls) in enrolment. This was due to abolishing of paying
of school fees in 2001.
But still, there are many other children who are not at school. Some
of them are orphans while others come from very economically humble
families.
These are the citizens we should strive to provide with these
important skills by taking them through the education system, from
primary to university or vocational colleges.
The number of needy children in our country, especially those orphaned
by HIV/AIDs pandemic is rising by day.
As a nation, we are morally obliged to take care of these kids because
they form part of the future human capital for this growing nation.
The other area we need to fortify is the investments through
cooperative societies (SACCOS), business councils and agricultural
associations.
We have potential business opportunities existing in every village and
town. The indigenous human capital has to be empowered to exploit such
rampart business prospects.
At the same time, the government must strive to remove the stumbling
blocks to development of this human capital by reducing the inflation
rate, high prices of fuel, electricity and food countrywide.
In addition, the government must address the infrastructural
challenges in the country.
When these challenges are addressed, our economy will produce more
employment opportunities, including self-employment, setting a
practical platform for real economic independence.
Enhancement and exploitation of our human capital should therefore be
a priority and strategically developed in order to increase our
productivity.
The notion of being a ‘productive’ citizen is so imprinted in our
nation’s character that when one is suddenly denied access to a job,
his or her self-esteem takes a nosedive.
Employment is far more than a measure of income for many; it is the
essential of self-worth.
When people are unemployed they tend to feel unproductive and
worthless. They experience an overwhelming sense of shame and
irrelevance, punctuated by a loss of vitality.
They become weary and resigned. Many turn away from their families and
harbor a lot of resentment and anger.
But the same experience can occur to people who are still in
employment, at the hand of exploitative profit-driven employers or
investors or even an unresponsive government.
This is especially so for the already available trained manpower that
is forced to work part-time at reduced pay.
With each new indignity, the workers’ confidence and self-esteem
suffer another blow. They become expendable, then irrelevant and
finally invisible.
We don’t have to go this direction, especially at this critical stage
of development. We must wake up to realize that our human capital is
the most handy resource that we have to take us where we want to be.
The government and the private sector must therefore strategically
protect and nurture this important resource.
It is our most worthwhile asset at the moment, as we seek to make
progress in this our technology driven world.
ENDS