PRESS SUMMARIES 13-15 DECEMBER 2014 National news UNFPAs 17.3bn/- to bolster maternal, child health The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will provide at least USD 10 million (17.3bn/-) next year which will be channeled to revitalise Tanzania’s ailing maternal and child health system. Dr Stephen Kebwe, Deputy Minister for Health and Social Welfare made the revelation recently in an exclusive interview with The Guardian on Tanzania’s progress in improving maternal and child health. According to the deputy minister, the UNFPA’s support is huge and one of its kind the country has never received from the UN’s agency in recent days. He said that this support seek to help the country continue to improve maternal and child health. Tanzania has made remarkable strides in improving child mortality rate by two third, but the challenge has been on maternal mortality and therefore efforts are being taken to attain the millennia targets. Child mortality was significantly reduced from 165 to 54 per every 1,000 live births, such achievements in Africa have been recorded in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Malawi. The deputy minister attributed the achievements to improvements in the use of long-life insecticide treated nets and child immunization by 72 and 90 percent respectively. The announcement of the UNFPA funding support comes amid the Global Fund’s revelation to back-up the country’s health sector by providing at least 20 million treated mosquito nets come 2015. While maternal and child mortality is associate with several health issues, health experts maintain that at least half of the fatality results from malaria and pregnancy related complications. The mass distribution of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets will play a defining role in controlling malaria which severely affects pregnant women and children under five. He said that the UNFPA funding will positively scale up efforts to reduce deaths related to pregnancy. Even then, the deputy minister expressed concerns over budget allocated for the ministry, saying the entire budget is too eager to meet the millennia targets of improving mother and child health. Despite the Abuja declaration, where heads of states ratified to allocate at least 15 percent of their national budget, the deputy minister ponders that economic and budget challenges that most African states including Tanzania face remain a challenge to meet the declaration. (The Guardian et al - Monday) More than 100 girls flee from knife in Mara Nearly 120 girls have camped at a new safe house in Mugumu Town in Serengeti District after fleeing forced circumcision from different Mara Region villages. The Coordinator of the Serengeti We Can Live Without HIV/AIDS, Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) project, which is run by the Mara Diocese of the Anglican Church of Tanzania, Ms Rhobi Samweli said that the number was 117 by Saturday and most of the girls have been badly beaten and injured for refusing to be circumcised. The girls started fleeing their homes early this month when the ongoing female genital mutilation (FGM) season kicked off in various parts of Mara Region. Miss Rhobi said they have girls who have come from villages in Tarime, Serengeti and Butiama Districts. According to the official those who received with injuries were taken to Mugumu District Designated Hospital for treatment. According to Ms Rhobi, the Police Force, through its gender desk, is showing good cooperation in protecting the girls. Establishment of the new safe house in Mugumu is designed to address the problem of FGM and other forms of GBV acts in Serengeti District. It is part of the outcome of an ambitious anti GBV,FGM and HIV/AIDS implemented in the district under the sponsorship of Rapid Fund Envelope (RFE) in recent years. (Daily News et al-Monday) Local govt elections marred by irregularities The local government elections were marred by irregularities in many parts of the country yesterday, leading to the postponement of the exercise in some areas. Lack or shortage of voting materials as well as the mixing up of the names of candidates and voters forced many returning officers to call off the election at some polling centres. Reports gathered by The Citizen showed that no region was unaffected and there was chaos in some areas, prompting riot and intervention by regular police. Police fired tear gas to disperse angry voters at a number of centres and arrested party officials, candidates and voters who were accused of violating electoral rules. The Prime Minister’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments) blamed district councils, noting that they were responsible for most of the preparations, including distribution of voting materials and printing of ballot papers. Contacted for comment, the local government elections national coordinator, Mr Dennis Bandisa, confirmed that the polls were marred by irregularities due to local authorities’ failure to complete preparations in time. He said problems with ballot papers were widespread, adding that local authorities were solely to blame as they were the ones who were tasked with printing and distributing them to all polling centres well ahead of yesterday’s elections. Mr Bandisa added that ballot boxes were distributed to councils, but the printing polling papers was left to the local authorities themselves. He said that he has reports from Ilala and Ulanga districts highlighting mistakes on ballot papers. The ballots were apparently returned to printers twice to be corrected, but voters still noticed errors on election day. He said, adding that some details were not easy to deal with at the national level. Mr Bandisa noted that they were waiting for reports from district executive officers, who were the returning officers, because they were the ones who postponed elections to next week after consulting with assistant returning officers and party agents. But the opposition Chadema cried foul, and charged that the elections were deliberately sabotaged by those tasked with supervising the exercise. A Chadema statement posted online listed a number of irregularities at many voting stations and blamed the authorities for what happened. (All Media - Monday) WB denies Dar funds After the European Union and others in the Budget Support Development Partners (DP) Group suspended disbursement of budget support funds, the World Bank has joined them, declining to provide $300million for the construction of Mbezi Luis upcountry bus terminal to the Dar es Salaam City Council because of changing the location of the project. The World Bank wanted the construction to be done at the same location, at the Ubungo upcountry bus station, but the City Council suggested that the place was too congested and wanted it to be built at Mbezi Luis where it would not prejudice the road traffic. The United States has lately warned aid-reliant Tanzania that further assistance, under a program that rewards countries for good governance, depended on its success in fighting corruption. The remarks by the US envoy on Thursday were directed at President Jakaya Kikwete who is expected to give his position on parliamentary resolutions on the Tegeta Escrow saga, as MPs have demanded action on several cabinet ministers and top government officials. A report by the Controller and Auditor General and investigations by the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) raised questions on the way senior government officials authorized the transfer of at least $122 million from the escrow account to a disputed new owner of Independent Power (T) Ltd. Tanzania won a five-year package of grants in 2008 worth $698 million under the U.S. governments Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) program, but the award of a second round of grants would now depend on the governments anti-graft effort. An October report of the Budget Support Development Partners (DP) Group said the group of 12 international donors delayed budget support for Tanzania until findings of an investigation into charges of corruption in the energy sector were released and appropriate action taken. The government denied the charges of graft related to the energy sector special central bank account in question. It affirmed in Parliament that due procedure was followed, but MPs were not impressed by those explanations. (The Guardian et al - Sunday) Ministry reiterates national youth council plans The government is planning to set up a National Youth Council (NYC) as a link in outreach activities for various groups of youths and their occupations around the country. Such a council would help the government to overcome various matters pertaining to the mobilization of youths in plans aimed at the development of youths in the country, a senior government official has affirmed. James Kajugusi, the acting director of the Youth Development Department in the Ministry of Information, Youth, Culture and Sports made this observation in Dar es Salaam on the sidelines of an international volunteer day whose national level activities were held in the city. He told The Guardian in an exclusive interview that the government is currently finalizing strategies to set up a national organ which would stand for the welfare of youths regardless of their political affiliations. The position was expressed following demands by the Tanzania Youth Forum (TYF), an organ which for a long time has been urging the government to form a non-partisan body which would look after various challenges affecting youths, including unemployment.TYF through its chairman Fahami Matsawily sent a request to the government almost a year ago to follow examples of Kenya and Uganda which have already established such organs. The annual occasion jointly organized by UN Volunteers in collaboration with the Information ministry in the country was also attended by about four youth volunteering organizations. The latter exhibited products and services to the general public, and are among 34 civil organizations which volunteer activities in the country. They include Restless Development, Volunteers Services Overseas (VSO), Raleigh Tanzania and FourLife Company. Kajugusi affirmed that forming a youth council follows ratification of the UN Youths Charter 2006, which together with other things requires governments to involve youths in effective economic resources. The ministry is in the pipeline to propose a bill and send to Parliament which would protect the various guidelines helping to lead the processes once it is made to work out. Among the main tasks to be spearheaded by the NYC after its formation is to reduce the rising unemployment rate currently faced by most youths. Together with other things, the council would also ensure youths’ participation in every aspect of national economic development bearing in mind the fact that youths’ contribution to GDP is of high percentage rates. Youths provide about 75 percent of the total workforce in every aspect of production in areas such as agriculture, fishing, education, industries, mining, livestock keeping, construction and others, the director stated. (The Guardian et al - Saturday) International News Cheney says CIA interrogators were heroes Ex-US vice-president insists CIAs enhanced interrogation techniques worked and says Ill do it again. Former US Vice President Dick Cheney has defended the US now-banned programme that tortured al-Qaeda suspects, describing the CIA operatives who ran it as heroes. Former President George W Bushs right-hand man told NBC televisions Meet the Press programme on Sunday said that he is perfectly comfortable that the CIA operatives who ran it should be praised and they should be decorated. He added that he will do it again in a minute. His remarks came days after the US Senate released a long-awaited investigation into enhanced interrogation techniques employed by the CIA to question terror suspects post 9/11. In excruciating detail, the report described crude torture methods including water boarding, hanging people for hours from their wrists and locking them in tiny coffin-shaped boxes. The report questioned the effectiveness of such techniques, which it determined were actually counterproductive for getting actionable intelligence. The report said the methods used were brutal. Cheney strongly disagreed with the findings of the report. The remarks echo comments made last week by the former vice president defending the interrogation programme and blasting the 500-page Senate report as terrible and full of crap. The report released on Tuesday said the CIAs interrogation of al-Qaeda suspects - including beatings, rectal rehydration and sleep deprivation - was far more brutal than acknowledged and did not produce useful intelligence. It also concluded that the CIA deliberately misled Congress and the White House about the value of the intelligence its interrogators were gathering. (World Media) Death toll spikes in DRC boat tragedy At least 129 people killed in a boat accident on Lake Tanganyika, according to new official death toll. At least 129 people have drowned after a boat capsized on Thursday night on Lake Tanganyika in the southeast of Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a new official death toll, the AFP news agency said. An official told AFP that rescue workers recovered a total of 129 bodies . On Saturday, the provincial government said at least 26 people had died after the boat packed with passengers and goods capsized. The vessel, which was travelling north from Kalemie in Katanga province to Uvira in South Kivu province, sank in the early hours of Friday, survivors speaking by telephone from Katangas capital Lubumbashi said. Deadly shipwrecks are frequent on the lakes and rivers of DRC, where boats are often overloaded, life jackets frequently missing and many people cannot swim. Lake Tanganyika is the longest freshwater lake in the world and also borders Tanzania, as well as Burundi and Zambia. (Al Jazeera et al)
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 09:00:52 +0000
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