A joint initiative by the United Nations, The Government of Tanzania and The Economic and Social Research Foundation
Topic : Human Development Report 2015 “Work for Human Development”
1. Introduction
Twenty five years ago (in 1990), the journey of human development approach and human development reports started with a simple notion that people should be at the centred of development and that development is all about enlarging people’s
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1. Introduction
Twenty five years ago (in 1990), the journey of human development approach and human development reports started with a simple notion that people should be at the centred of development and that development is all about enlarging people’s choices. With that simple message, exploring various themes and possibilities, 23 Global Human Development Reports and more than 700 national and sub national human development reports have been produced. During the 25 years, Human Development Reports have significantly altered the way the world view development away from growth paradigm which focuses on material wealth to people’s centred development.
On 14th December 2015, UNDP Administrator Helen Clark alongside Prime Minister of Ethiopia launched the latest release i.e. 24th Global Human Development Report in Addis Ababa. In Tanzania, mini launch of the report took place on Friday 11th March 2016 in an event which was graced by Hon. Anthony Peter Mavunde, Deputy Minister of State in Prime Minister’s Office: (Policy, Parliamentary Affairs, Labour, Employment, Youth and the Disabled). The theme of Human Development Report 2015 is work for human Development.
For quite some time, development policy of many nations have embraced economic growth as being a panacea for solving societal problems with little consideration on the nature (number, kind and quality) of employment being created by the growth process. As a result, many countries have been experiencing jobless growth which isn’t accompanied with creation of employment opportunities, raising incomes and poverty reduction. Human Development Report 2015 brings back the issue of work in development debate, discourses and policy. The report argues that achieving productive employment and decent work for all is central for human development.
The report takes a broad view of work going beyond jobs and taking into account of such activities as unpaid care work, voluntary work and creative work such as writing and painting. The report therefore makes a case for improving work, workers and working conditions in all these diverse kind of work. The report also makes a case for addressing some harmful kinds of work such as child labour, forced labour and labour of trafficked persons.
The objective of this topic is to initiate a discussion that can attract contributions on the Human Development Report 2015 “work for human development”. The discussion should reflect on issues discussed in the report with reference to Tanzania.
2. Focus of the discussion
The proposed discussion forum intends to invite development stakeholders and practitioners with interest to Tanzania to reflect on the following questions.
What should be done in order to address unemployment problem and especially youth unemployment in Tanzania?
What should be done to improve skills amongst graduates in Tanzanian?
Has Tanzania done enough to addressing some harmful forms of work such as child labour, human trafficking and work in hazardous conditions?
Are Tanzanian women more disadvantaged than men in the field of work – both paid and unpaid work?
Tanzania with a population of 60% between the age of 15-35 is definitely a scary issue if jobs are not created well on time. Our president initiative being an industrialise country will take time to implement, being nearly at the bottom 128/183 in the list of doing business will not help, also our production cost is much higher compared to other countries. The WTO is not helping as TZ cannot ban importing other goods to promote local industries which also lack proper well trained people. Looking at these factors, i see our salvation first in agriculture, animal husbandry and small scale industries. India has in fact a ministry for small scale industries. ( Mwalimu's vision)
I am running a polytechnic offering 3 years diploma courses to student having completed Form 4, in our placement cell, we found out that jobs are scarce but available provided they have the right skill, practical knowledge, personality and command of the English language. Our TZ curriculum is not fit for the job market, we had to enhance it with extra modules to enable students fit into the labor market. Again my emphasise would be, involve the private sector in designing syllabi, adopt from the West or Eastern countries instead of recreating the wheel.
50-60% of students from primary fail to enrol in Form 1 and 80-90% of students fail to proceed to Form 5, the country requires more QUALITY vocational training centres and polytechnics, not only government but also promote privates to invest with some subsidy and tax benefit.
Child labor? when a child cannot proceed to higher education or training institutes due to grades and survival is an issue for the family, what does one chose? it is a vicious circle related to economic growth, government policy, cheap labor etc... It needs to be addressed by the Government through providing better working conditions as it cannot be stopped for now at least.
In the labor market, more women are getting in the job market and fortunately such discrimination is not rampant in TZ. The number is not equal to men but it seems that it will take over in due time as women work more efficiently and with more dedication than men.
Danford Sango : Monday, April 11, 2016
Thank you Gabor for some perspectives on how to address the anticipated challenge of movements of labor induced by industrialization process. We shall come back to it later. In the mean time I would suggest that we take a look at another area discussed by Global Human Development 2015 on gender issues at work places. The report point to gender based discrimination at workplace in various countries. It will be useful if we can reflect on this - whether such discrimination happens in Tanzania as well. In other words, do our sisters face some forms of harassments in workplaces (industries/offices etc.) just because they are women? On the other hand, do our sisters enjoy certain kind of favors (getting a job, salary increments, appointments, promotions etc.) just because they are women? What is the extent of sexual corruption (rushwa ya ngono) at workplaces in Tanzanian society?
My hypothesis is that there may be some gender issues at work places within our society which tend to torture people silently. It will be useful if we can reflect on this area with reference to Tanzania.
Gabor Z Siklosi : Friday, April 8, 2016
Regarding the conversation of industrialization we may do well to consider innovations in industrializing the nation but preserving the land and communities that make Tanzania so strong. Isn't it possible to harness the strength of a community itself and help them build capacity in an industry? Instead of building an infrastructure that demands people leave their villages and homes to find work in an overpopulated urban center cannot the infrastructure be built upon what communities are willing to do and are further empowered by quality training and an infrastructure that supports cottage industries stringing together to build scale rather than one large building to hold the masses and house the production. Some companies here in Guatemala are basing their model on the capabilities of the village and then empowering them to scale from their own homes rather than taking them to a factory. (See: Wakami and their community development affiliates--im simply not remembering them at the moment).
Yes--if you build a factory you have control over quality and house the entire production process in one place. And you increase profits.
However --this group is speaking about more than profits. If I'm correct.
Cannot companies maybe make a little less and let all shareholders benefit without having to uproot breadwinners and disintegrate village infrastructures?
Just a few thoughts.
Kindest regards--
Gabor Siklosi
Global Community Works
Danford Sango : Wednesday, April 6, 2016
I would like to take forward the point of Monica on industrialization as a solution to the problem of unemployment and especially unemployment among the youth in our country. I basically agree with Monica and other researchers and policy makers that industrialization is and should be the way to go in the coming years for our country. On a different note however, I have been asking myself a question on location of the envisaged industries. It appears to me that the planned industries will be located in urban areas and therefore as a consequence - the strategy will come along with rapid urbanization.
What puzzles me then is whether in planning for industrialization, we have given sufficient consideration to it's aftermath particularly housing for the massive influx of new comers, safety and security concerns, other amenities such as refuse and waste management, sanitation etc. I would therefore suggest that when planning for industrialization - we should also make thorough consideration to its consequences so that we won't get surprises in the coming years. I'm just thinking loud!
Danford Sango : Thursday, March 31, 2016
This year's report is particularly timely following shortly after the UN Sustainable Development Summit, where the new Sustainable Development Goals were adopted including goal 8's explicit emphasis on work: "promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all"
Ahmed M. Makbel : Thursday, March 31, 2016
By international definition, work is “any activity performed by persons of any sex and age to produce goods or to provide services for use by others or for own use”. The main forms of are (i) Own use production work (ii) Employment (working for pay or profit) (iii) Unpaid trainee work (iv) Volunteer work (v) Other work activities (e.g. unpaid compulsory work).
We are mostly concerned with Employment and forget that other forms of work are also important. We mostly lament about not getting paid employment opportunities or lacking capital for self employment. What about care work provided mostly by women in our households? Should we give it equally more importance as it recharges our bodies to engage in other forms of work? Why shouldn't we start community voluntary programs to assist us in child care in both urban and rural areas. Let us engage professionals to train youths in our areas for such programs as unpaid trainees, volunteers and later employees. We need to revisit some traditional forms of work that gave respect to work.
The Human Development Report 2015 provides a platform to reflect on how everyone can be engaged in a decent work not necessarily employment but contributing to the common good of our societies. Let us give value to other forms of work. IT CAN BE DONE PLAY YOUR PART.
Monica Stender : Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Dear Sirs,
In my opinion, the best way to face these problems is to invest in industrialization and entrepreneurship. If venture capital is available to imports substitution and to allow entrepreneurs transform ideas in reality, productive employment will be create to Tanzanian professionals, independent of gender. And, a problem that has to be avoided is that, independent of gender, wages must be the same, depending only on professional capacity. This will demand more training and improvement, and will make move the wheel of employment.
Mónica E. Stender, PhD, MBA
STENDER ASESORES, S.L.U.
Av. Madrid, 102 Entº 3ª
08028 - Barcelona - España
Tel: (34) 610 792450 Fax: (34) 93 229 6934
mstender@stender.biz
Skype: monicastender
Linkedin: stender@stender.biz
Danford Sango : Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Thank you Hassan for always coming up with some interesting topics for discussion. I agree with you that over the past years, the issue of employment didn't attract significant attention among policy makers. The major issues during say the past 20 years have been achieving economic growth and poverty reduction. After two decades of research and policy analysis we now know on the links between growth and poverty reduction. Put it differently, we now understand that economic growth can only result into poverty reduction if the growth process goes in tandem with creation of employment opportunities. In this context, the choice of theme for the UNDP report is very appropriate and timely when policy makers and researchers are concerned with ensuring job rich growth.
Abdallah Hassan : Thursday, March 24, 2016
The Human Development Report 2015 with the theme “work for human development” was launched in Tanzania on Friday 11th March 2016 in Dar es Salaam.
The Human Development Report 2015 brings the issue of work in development debate, discussions and policy. The report argues that achieving productive employment and decent work for all is central for human development. The report takes a broad view of work going beyond jobs and taking into account of such activities as unpaid care work, voluntary work and creative work such as writing and painting.
It further makes a case for improving work, workers and working conditions in all these diverse kind of work. The report also addresses some harmful kinds of work such as child labour, forced labour and labour of trafficking persons.
The objective of this topic is to initiate a discussion that can attract contributions on the Human Development Report 2015 “work for human development”. The discussion should reflect on issues discussed in the report with reference to Tanzania. Specifically we invite you to reflect on the following questions related to work in our country.
(a) What should be done in order to address unemployment problem and especially youth unemployment in Tanzania?
(b) What should be done to improve skills amongst graduates of Tanzanian education system?
(c) Has Tanzania done enough to addressing some harmful forms of work such as child labour, human trafficking and work in hazardous conditions?
(d) Are Tanzanian women more disadvantaged than men in the field of work – both paid and unpaid work?
Moderators of this topic are: Dr. Tausi Kida, Mrs. Margareth Nzuki, Mr. Danford Sango and Mr. Ahmed Makubel
Tanzania Knowledge Network (TAKNET) Platform is supported by The Government of United Republic of Tanzania, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and coordinated by Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF).
