Driving Prosperity through Public-Private Dialogues

Delivering Final Report to the Tanga Regional Government

Tanzania is ranked 134th in the World Bank Doing Business Report. It has been sliding down the rankings in the past few years. While its economy has been growing over six percent the past ten years, its GDP per capita remains very low at 1700 USD. There is more, much more, that needs to be done for it to achieve its vision of becoming a middle income economy by 2025. Its legacy of socialism under Julius Nyerere remains a drag on its aspirations as there is a pervasive mistrust of free enterprise while bureaucracy remains entrenched and continues to stifle the growth of businesses through miles of red tape and endemic corruption.

It was precisely to address these challenges that the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) was established in 1998 with the mission to act as the apex organization for the private sector and advocate policy reforms that will lead to a better business climate. One of its key mechanisms for influencing policy is the conduct of public-private dialogues (PPDs). These dialogues are meant to ensure the private sector is closely engaged with the government whenever key issues affecting business are discussed and before policy changes are implemented. While TPSF can point to some successes such as the reduction of the skills development levy rates and the adoption of the Kilimo-Kwanza Initiative, there are a lot more areas where genuine reform is needed in order to unleash the energy of the private sector.

My sub-team is in Tanzania to review PPDs and help TPSF improve the process with the ultimate aim of improving the business climate as measured in the WB Doing Business Report rankings. After conducting 69  hours of  interviews with about sixty people over 28 days, and reading TPSF documents and journal articles on PPD, we gave specific recommendations in five key areas:

• One Team - improving unity and representation of interests in order to maximize influence when advocating with government
• Effectiveness of PPDs - understanding what makes a PPD engagement effective through benchmarking and then replicating best practices
• Consistency of Action - viewing PPD as a repeatable process and defining standard procedures
• Communication - informing stakeholders and member associations in a timely basis and using the most appropriate channels of communication
• Capacity Building - developing the ability for better advocacy among members and improving understanding of PPD among government officials

Mid Term Report at the TPSF Office

We have completed our final report and we will present it at the TPSF office this afternoon. TPSF has assured us they are looking forward to our recommendations and will share them to the highest levels of government, including the President. I do not expect wholesale reform to take place overnight and on the basis of a single report done in one month. But if we point out things they would not have thought about otherwise, and helped them take a few steps further on their journey to prosperity, then we will have fulfilled our mission. In the end, we are not after improving rankings on a World Bank report. We are all after encouraging entrepreneurs to take bigger risks so that more jobs are created and more Tanzanians escape the shackles of poverty.

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