The Ministry insists on use of Osaka training knowledge

AFTER having maintained a poor performance record during the previous 2011/12 financial year as per the CAG report, the government has directed executives from district to regional levels including Regional Administrative Secretaries (RAS) to apply the best practices of their knowledge they had attained in Japan in order to strengthen their local governments. The directives have been issued by the Minister for Local Government and Regional Administration Hawa Ghasia to stakeholders who gathered recently 

Minister for Local government and Regional Administration Hawa Ghasia

in Dar es Salaam for a one day forum with a view to deliberate ways and possible means on how to improve their local governments in the country. The call by the Minister was preceded before she had launched a 214 paged book titled ‘Best Practices hand book’ which describes the best practices the stakeholders attained in Japan in different regular training schedules being conducted in Osaka and attended by district council directors and RASs in the country. The program is being financed by the Japanese government through its Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and run under the Prime Minister’s office. The details in the book have highlighted various examples and various methodologies adopted for development in Japan and that could be used to reform the provision of various social services in the country.  The book which has been compiled by over 250 alumni members who form Tanzania-Osaka Local Government Alumni Association, (or in short TOA) includes district council directors, RAS and other senior regional and national officials in the ministry of Local Government and Regional Administration. The stakeholders have been attending the program eleven years ago since its inception in 2002 in Osaka, Japan, the book basically describes best practices and learning technologies taken on how to strengthen local governments and later, these have been made applicable in various district councils in the country.

Describing the nature of the book, the Minister said that, the contents are worth to be emulated for the development of the local governments in the country. However, she added that, it will also work as a stimulus for information dissemination as it shows various successes attained so far while undergoing various development initiatives for public needs. The Minister insisted on the issue of time and asked the executives to be time conscious as this is one of the most prestigious resources while implementing their development initiatives targeted for their councils at all levels. The Chairman of the RAS group in Tanzania mainland, Liana Hessani told The Guardian in an exclusive interview during the forum that, the adoption of Japanese training has opened an avenue of conducting their councils matters more efficiently and to the best of their knowledge. Liana who is among the beneficiaries of the training is also the Regional Administrative Secretary for Singida region said that, the Osaka trainings is a reform program that can change the shape of the work performance in district councils in the country. The district council director for Kilindi in Tanga region, Daudi Mayeji, who is also among the beneficiaries of the training said in an exclusive interview that, the trainings he received in Japan are categorized in various segments that includes how to maintain council records and the dissemination of services to the people. He said that, generally the trainings involvers how to integrate people and coordinate their activities together into achieving better results. It also involves the coordination with the people in various development activities which are in various areas of development from production of the commodities and its supply to the market. He further described that, they are taught on how to integrate people in matters concerning with their councils and in this way it makes them to have a comparative advantage in a particular sector of development. However, he added that, good governance is another aspect of their concentration is to ward off the existing bureaucracy which has been seen to be existing thus causing an obstacle to development . He said were also taught on how to work closer to their subordinate staff and this provides closer monitoring of their work performance. Statistics made available by the Ministry of local governments shows that, during the 11 years under which the Osaka training has been conducted, more than 100 reform leaders have participated in the training and among them, the number of RASs and council directors amounts to over 70.  However, due to various reasons such as retirements, transfer and some other causes, only 21 council directors and 7 RAS who have remained in the system. However, due to that reasons further trainings are highly needed for purpose of sustainability of the original aim of Osaka training.