LTT and the MDGs

On the 3rd February, 2005, Nelson Mandela as he stood in Trafalgar Square, urged the World leaders and all of us to "recognise that the world is hungry for action, not words."

He went on to say "...as long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest...Massive poverty and obscene inequality are such terrible scourges of our times - times in which the world boasts breathtaking advances in science, technology, industry and wealth accumulation - that they have to rank alongside slavery...as social evils...[In] this new century, millions of people in the world's poorest countries remain imprisoned, enslaved, and in chains. They are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free.

Like slavery.... poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings... And overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life. While poverty persists, there is no true freedom."

click here to go to make poverty history website http://www.makepovertyhistory.org/

Sub-Sahara Africa has failed to address its poverty levels because of its poor economic growth. The economic growth in most African countries has to date failed for a catalogue reasons. The geography of Africa is prohibitive to natural transport routes with few navigable rivers, poor road and rail infrastructure, a predominantly rural population of subsistence farmers relying on erratic climatic conditions, high levels of HIV/AIDS and other debilitating diseases, low levels of capacity (poor education and skills levels), poor systems of governance; high levels of existing poverty leading to social instability and conflict, high levels of debt repayments, low levels of investment caused by high risks for international investors, lack of funds for domestic investors, and barriers to fair trade.

Life expectancy is 43 years and whilst the prevalence of HIV/AIDS amongst 15-49 year olds is not the worst in Sub-Sahara Africa (Swaziland at 38.8%), at 8.8% it is still of major concern. (To contextualise, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the UK is 0.2%.)

Adult literacy rates are 85% for men and 69% for women.

Only 58% of children completed their primary education (WDI 2005).

18.7% live below the national food poverty line and 35.7% live below the national basis needs poverty line (NSGRP 2005).

The urban population accounts for 35% of the population and has grown by 6.4% each year between 1990 and 2003.

Despite this, agriculture still dominates the employment market with Services and Industry sector representing 15% and 7% of the male population respectively (WDI 2005). All of the sectors recorded a positive growth rate with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growing by 2.7% p.a. during 1990-95, increasing to 4.6% p.a. during 1996-2002 and 7.1% p.a. 2003-06. During this time inflation has been brought under control at below 5% from 30% (World Bank 2006). All of the sectors recorded a positive, though small, growth rate between 1990 and 2003 with mining, manufacturing, construction and tourism leading the way.

The Economist's Tanzania Country Review (2006) explains that economically Tanzania is performing well but the intended trickle down effect is not yet benefiting the poorer sections of the country, and more focused poverty alleviation methods need to be utilised.

Goal 1 - Eradicate extreme poverty

We are providing community agricultural training to show the subsistence farmers how they can improve their output and generate additional cash crops. This is aimed at increasing their immediate wealth. Initial investment may be needed and after that, as the excesses exceed local demands, routes to markets will have to be considered through the use of collectives

We are providing food for the students to reduce their hunger levels, increase their ability to learn and provide necessary vitamins for healthy living

Through our building programmes we are employing local craftsmen to build schools using as many local suppliers and resources as reasonably possible. We are also offering vocational training opportunities to street children to provide them with skills to develop a career rather than end up on the scrap heap.

Through the anticipated increases in the levels of tourism we anticipate taking on additional guides, and going to new locations and spreading the tourism imprint as widely as possible.

Through our volunteering programmes we employ local people to teach local cultural aspects of life such as singing, drumming, dancing, cooking and how to wear sarongs. This spreads the benefits of tourism across a greater cross section of the community and thus generates income which when combined with the multiplier effect will have a positive impact on the community

Goal 2 - Achieve Universal primary education

We are helping to increase the stock of classrooms to cope with the additional children so that the ration of 1 teacher to 45 can be maintained and not the 1 teacher to 100 students as is the case in some schools.

We are training the teachers to be able to deliver their lessons from a position of greater knowledge and skill so that the quality of education can be improved.

Goal 3 - Promote gender equality and women empowerment

This is targeted at education and we promote female education and will, funding permitting, be providing sponsorship to both boys and girls to go on through secondary and even higher education.

Goals 4, 5 and 6 - Child mortality and maternal health, and combating diseases

Through a series of community health education programmes we will be training the local communities on prevention and early diagnosis so that health concerns are reduced