Tanzanian President Urges Increased Aid, Better Schooling

The president of Tanzania, Benjamin William Mkapa, spoke about the economic challenges facing his country to a packed ARCO Forum Wednesday afternoon.

Mkapa spoke resolutely about the need for increased aid, emphasizing the problems in education and health care that plague his country.

Quantifying certain kinds of needed aid is difficult, he said.

"What price can you put on making someone literate?" he asked. "What price can you put on a child, who thanks to an aid-funded vaccination program, does not die before the age of 5?"

He said he considers basic education a human right. "Education is the key to life," he said, and added that it was unfortunate that just as African countries' interest in aid for development is increasing, the aid being offered is decreasing.

Mkapa added that the United Nations has yet to make development a human rights issue.

He also talked about popular misconceptions of African countries, which have trouble with creating and maintaining global presences.

"I do not know if most American people can locate Tanzania on a world map," he said. "Herein lies one of the greatest challenges for African countries."

Mkapa made a special point of reading a list of countries that had contributed to a Tanzanian debt relief fund. The U.S. was conspicuously absent.

Addressing concerns that aid was wasted, he cited statistics showing that many aid dollars went directly to debt relief.

"Our philosophy [is to use] our resources to the maximum before asking for help," he said.

The audience also heard about the progress made in Tanzania under

Mkapa's presidency. Some schooling is now compulsory, and hundreds of new schools have been built. But the new millennium poses additional questions about education, he noted.

"Certainly the question has to be asked: How prepared are countries like Tanzania for the science and technology century that is upon us?"

One in 9,000 Tanzanians uses the Internet, Mkapa said. The ratio in the U.S. is 1:4.

"Globalization has not closed the gaps between rich and poor," he said.

Mkapa added that speaking at the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) held special meaning for him, because the school is named for the U.S. president who supported many African countries during the 1960s, when they were just gaining their independence.

"He really did much to help those who are poor," Mkapa said.

Following his address, audience members questioned Mkapa about Tanzanian and African issues.

One KSG student asked about the effect of refugee flow on Tanzanian economics and development, pointing out that many of its neighboring countries are engaged in war. Mkapa replied that there was a special need to press for peace in the region and said that UN support was needed to monitor the process.

Before entering politics, Mkapa worked as a journalist, holding prominent positions in several publications, and was a founder of a national news agency.

Prior to his presidency, Mkapa served as minister of foreign affairs; information and culture; information and broadcasting; and science, technology and higher education. In the early 1980s, he was ambassador to the U.S. He was elected the country's president in 1995.

Mkapa's talk was co-sponsored by the Center for International Development (CID) and the Institute of Politics' student advisory committee.