Clerics sentisize on MKUKUTA II, Government policy

The Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT), in collaboration with various stakeholders, has organised a three-day seminar for its members on how best they could compliment the government’s National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP) Phase II, commonly known as 'Mkukuta II.' CCT programme and capacity building officer Angelus Mapunda said on Tuesday here that it was the church’s practice to sensitize its leaders on topical government policy issues, such as Mkukuta II. Such seminars, he said, aim at stimulating further debate among stakeholders on strategic issues, including prioritising and sequencing of intervention as well as resource mobilisation and utilisation. The workshop, said the CCT official, would help a great deal in creating awareness of the general public on the church’s diverse network in rural areas.Mapunda also informed that the church had been implementing various programmes within its parameters that compliment government strategies.
“If the church intervenes in the education sector by building schools or in the health sector by putting up dispensaries, or when it sensitises church members that it’s their right to hold their leaders accountable on the implementation of projects, the church is implementing Mkukuta II,” he explained. Mapunda added that the seminar generated information that would facilitate the church interventions and facilitate the setting up of priorities in different sectors into a consistent and sustainable implementation strategy.According to him, the forum provided church leaders with an opportunity to assess progress in the implementation of ‘Mkukuta’.
Over the past five years, Tanzania has been implementing the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP) as overall policy framework to rally government efforts in improving, sustaining growth and fighting poverty.
Numerous successes have been achieved in social services delivery, education, health, water and sanitation, good governance and accountability and areas of economic growth despite daunting challenges.The past five years, according to Mapunda, have provided lessons for improving the implementation process in order to make ‘Mkukuta II’ more successful.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN