TCSM2023 breaks new ground in its in-depth analysis and engaged commentary on major events.
The reader will find both a description of some of the main issues and events on both mainland and Zanzibar during 2023, with some background context where necessary, and critical commentary based on public policy and governance concerns.
As in previous Monitors, a number of issues that are not currently subjects of major public concern or discussion (but that arguably should be) are examined critically, including the Kigongo-Busisi Bridge in Mwanza, the huge infrastructural investments in Chato/Geita initiated by late President Magufuli, and systematic rent-seeking in pension funds and public housing corporations, procurement and ‘rehabilitation’ of state-owned boats and ferries on Lake Victoria, and the advent of commercial ‘carbon credits’.
These important political economy questions, while not typical of mainstream debates on democratic space, have a significant bearing on the capacity of the Tanzanian state to deliver public goods, basic rights, and indeed democracy itself as this report discusses.
They indeed affect the relationship and quality of interaction between the state, civil society, private sector and the international community thereby defining the civic and democratic space and its quality therefrom.
As well as reporting and commentating on important events and trends, TCSM2023 reports new findings from long-term monitoring of Public Interest Litigation cases undertaken over time.
Space constraints prevent a full treatment of microeconomic policy and regulation in a number of important sectors, including social services, agriculture, tourism and mining, oil and gas.