International smugglers devise new way to transport ivory from Tanzania

Tanzania's Minister of Tourism and Natural Resources, Khamis Kagasheki

A JOINT REPORT
The government has unearthed a new modus operand by international smugglers transporting the ivory contraband from Tanzania.

The African has been informed that this is first of its kind smuggling attempt by Chinese smugglers who last week were netted with 706 elephant tasks weighing 1,800 kilogramme from three Chinese garlic traders.

Ambassador Khamis Kagasheki, Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism told The African that investigation has started to trace the numbers written in some of the ivory pieces to net the culprits.

Kagasheki said that smugglers have now devices new technique by engraving the ivory to show the destination the person who is supposed to be receiving the cargo.

“The Tanzania government firmly opposes elephant poaching and ivory smuggling and has taken measures including lawmaking, integrated law enforcement and international cooperation, which have curbed the ivory trade,” he said.

Tanzania said will continue to work with the international community in this regard.

The international trade in ivory, with rare exceptions, has been outlawed since 1989 after the sharp shrink in the African elephant population in the 30 years before 1980s.

But as elephant tusks and other body parts are often used in Asia and the Middle East for ornaments, as talismans, and for use in religion, there have been markets for smuggled ivory.

However, Dr. Benson Bana, Senior Lecturer and Head of Department of Political Science and Public Administration told The African last week that there is need for the government now to barn the stockpiles of ivory to defuse smuggling of the tasks.

Bana said that the United Nations should declare and introduce a protocol that would make the trade illegal Worldwide and enforce trade embargoes to the countries whose citizens found to smuggle ivory.

“The most important thing is to declare the trade as illegal undertaking. The effort to fight the problem should start by dealing with those who buy and use the ivory,” he said.

Kangi Lugora, Member of Parliament for Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) said that the government should take stern measures to deal with Chinese citizens who mostly kill the jumbos in the country and smuggle the tasks to China.

Lugora said that there is no need for the government to keeping the seized ivory at Ivory room and employ paid staffs who are responsible for taking care of the stockpiles.

China said it firmly opposes ivory smuggling and will continue to work with the international community to protect wildlife.

Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei said last week that it will be cooperating with Tanzania and that the Chinese government is paying a close attention to the case.

“The Chinese ambassador in Tanzania immediately checked the information and made a statement strongly condemning poaching and ivory smuggling and promising cooperation in fighting the crimes,” he said.

The government of China said that Chinese tourists should abide by the law and stay away from ivory smuggling.

On July 2012, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) prohibited Tanzania from one off sales of its ivory piled up the natural resources strong room in Tanzania.

CITES said that with elephant and rhino poaching and smuggling levels being the worst in a decade, it is clear that strong additional measures are required.

The organization said that the year 2013 will be a critical year to adopt enhanced measures to protect the planet’s biodiversity and ensure effective implementation on the ground.

These authoritative sources of information have shown a very close correspondence between trends in elephant poaching and trends in large-scale ivory seizures, detecting essentially the same patterns at different points in the illegal ivory trade chain.

CITES said that it has written to Tanzania to urgently implementing the African elephant action plan; improving controls for domestic ivory markets; ensuring stronger collaboration between African and Asian countries to combat ivory smuggling.

It has also  been tasked to undertake international enforcement actions coordinated by the International Consortium to Combat Wildlife Crime (ICCWC).

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Unmaking of the constitution

Retired Premier Judge Joseph Warioba pondering at a point on the constitutional debate

By PRINCE BAGENDA
Recent events within and without parliament provide enough indicators that political parties and their affiliated non-governmental organizations are trying to capture the constitutional making process in order to produce a constitution in the image of the society they want. 

The issue of who constitutes what commissions and or what body at a given stage of the process has become a thorny issue. From other quarters some political actors and political activists are threatening to boycott the 2015 General Election unless and until the New Constitution is in place.  

In the philosophy of the political constitution, there is no single, identifiable moment of constitution-making. This is more so because in politics disagreement will never cease and changing circumstances will likely affects peoples reasoned opinion. Thus constitution making should be seen as an on-going process.

When Tanzania opted for review of the constitution, it was entering unchartered territory. Though the idea of capturing and dominating the constitution making process would seem plausible, no political force or movement would countenance an attempt. 

Initially it started with the early attempt to constitute the Constitutional Review Commission.  The claim of the opposition was that the President should not be solely responsible for selection and appointing Members of the Commission. Opposition parties identify with Non-governmental and Civil Society Organizations as struggle groups. Thus their inclusion in constitutional review bodies would boost the chances of opposition parties to influence constitutional making.

The opposition objected to the presidential selection of members of the Constitution Review Commission because they feared that the President as the chairman of the ruling party CCM would not be impartial. In the end the President selected prominent personalities, whom the public accepted as a group of prominent persons from the list proposed by Civil Society and Professional organizations, which would do the job the nation wanted be done meticulously. 

This time around the same old problem has surfaced.  It is concern with the proposal about who constitutes the Constituent Assembly.  Again the opposition is seeing it differently.  That those in the political society should not dominate the Constituent Assembly, Instead, Civil Society should provide more than half of the Members of the Constituent Assembly.

The question to pose is which is Civil Society?  What is the ideology of Civil Society and to what extent is it separated from the state and the influence of foreign ideology and external political forces, notably the donor community?

It seems to me that it is early to celebrate that this country is on the right path of constitutional making and the creation of a new political order.  We need to reflect on what some political developments portend and unravel the mystery.

The unmaking of the constitution in Tanzania evolves not only through political interventions by political forces from the ruling coalition and from the opposition movement.  The proxy wars and compromises in the Constitutional Review Commission, parliament and the activities of the fragmented Civil Society and media, present the real basis of unmaking of the constitution.

The Tanzania government and the Constitutional Review Commission are gunning for the written constitution ignoring the unwritten part of the constitution which operates on the political and legal normative principle which forms the other fundamental part of the Constitution. People have values and norms which guide them in their political life, activity and community relations. 

Thus in the public and private domains, everything that happens is constitutional.  The written part of the constitution is got to do with conflict settlement on political management issues which fail to establish non-conflictual conventions which operate on the basis of unwritten code. 

Britain, Israel and New Zealand do not have a single document called, “the Nation’s constitution”.  But they are no less democratic that us in Tanzania.

The prominence given to written constitution is the mistaken belief that a real constitution is the written constitution. What they would be “founding fathers” of the people-centred constitution forget is that  the written constitution seem to be affixed, end-point, as against a political constitution much of which is unwritten and governs the daily activity of political actors and  ordinary people who carry on their daily activities which in essence are  constitutional.

For more than 25 years since the launching of political reforms in 1992, the proposition to write a new constitution for Tanzania was a frozen idea. 

The new political forces and Civil Society entertained the idea of capturing power from the ruling party as the priority peaceful way to struggle against the authoritarianism.

The claim for fundamental review of the constitution, that worthwhile attempt had always hit the wall, as CCM has always coasted to victory in the proceeding general elections of 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010. 

The necessity and need of making the new constitution was not an inevitability that had to be attended to with urgency.

It was only when opposition parties, especially CHADEMA changed tactics and opted for extra-parliamentary struggle under the aegis of Peoples Power Movement symbolized by the Arab Spring Movement that the President of the United Republic of Tanzania read the writings on the wall and agreed to the proposal of reviewing of the existing constitution and eventually the re-writing of the new constitution.

Moving swiftly, the President staked his claim to the making of the new constitution by appointing a constitutional Review Commission under the Chairmanship of the distinguished former Attorney General and Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania and Chairman of the U.N. Law of the Sea Commission.

The Constitution Review Commission includes politicians and diplomats the likes of Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim and Joseph Butiku, former aides to Mwalimu Nyerere.  Others include former radical academicians professor Baregu, Kabudi and Dr. Mvungi who are now committed neo-liberal political marketers. Former Chief Justice Augustino Ramadhani, Ally Saleh and Mary Kashonda complete the list of the legal cluster.

The legal and political clusters are well represented in the commission to undertake experiments on certain political and legal principles beyond the ground reality.  They have given us the constitution draft which bears and carries what was informally and formally said and done but not subjected to serious analysis for their workability and manageability.

This is the group of eminent person who have taken the responsibility of gathering, reviewing and documenting views from the masses of people throughout the country and have produced the first draft of the new constitution, which has, however raised more questions and controversies. 

The most controversial issues is concerned with the structure of the Union From Zanzibar, the claim is that  the new constitution should provide authority to Zanzibar to assume its supposedly lost sovereign status when it joined the Union with Tanganyika in 1964. 

Zanzibar political elites think that only Zanzibar joined the union. In determining the future of the Union, Zanzibar has all the initiatives in its hands, while Tanganyika as a silent partner has to be woken up and be liberated.  It is contended that the rejectionist position can do a favour to those who calamour for the rebirth of Tanganyika.

They invoke the position of Zanzibar which they claim that, that part of the union has changed its constitution to reflect her sovereign status, something which Tanganyika should emulate.  The same people had earlier disclaimed the move of Zanzibar unilaterally changing the constitution without regard to violation of the Union constitution. 

It should be noted that rights and principles when applied to specific situation divide people rather than unifying them.  That is why in forming larger political communities like unions, federations and regional integration countries opt for limited sovereignty by conceding sovereign rights and obligations.

In twenty years time, when the “new constitution” should have stood the test of time, the status of founding fathers of this country will be blurred. 

The demand by Members of Constitutional Review Commission to be included in the constituent Assembly presupposes that they want themselves not the judge of the courts of law to give a proper and appropriate interpretation of the provisions of the draft constitution.

What a fallacy!  I would rather have Members of the Constitutional Review Commission serve as consultants of the constituent Assembly than being fully fledged Members. They already have a political position which they want to defend.

The new constitution is not meant to compliment the struggle for independence that the Nationalist movement organized as anti-colonial movement but a break from the gallant history against colonial rule.

What we are witnessing today is putting faith in the written constitution as the beginning of an end to constitution-making, without understanding that the constitution has two dimensions: the political constitution (the unwritten part) and the legal constitution (the written part).

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Tanzanians tired of ‘toothless dogs’ like SSRA and others

By Tobias Nsungwe:

The former Prime Minister, Edward Lowassa doubts whether our country has a committed and disciplined executives to implement the plan

THE Presidential Delivery Bureau (PDB) must be given teeth that bite to be able to take action against government employees when they fail to reach set targets in public service delivery, a former national leader has said.

The bureau is part of the Big Result Now (BRN) programme which has been designed to identify and resolve constraints to result delivery in the six key national priority areas of energy, transport, agriculture, water, education, and resource mobilization.

BRN is a programme copied from Malaysia. Although he admits the idea to form the PDP is good, the former Prime Minister, Edward Lowassa doubts whether our country has a committed and disciplined executives to implement the plan.

“The programme is good but if we don’t implement it, it will be useless. Malaysia has succeeded because they have discipline to implement projects. Here we talk too much. Things don’t move because we have embarked on lip service phenomenon. (Uswahili)” Lowassa said while contributing in the National Assembly last week.

“I ask myself a few questions. Does PDP have biting teeth to push things forward?’’ Lowassa said to the attentive legislators. We have also a couple of ‘toothless’ bodies like the Leadership Ethics Commission, the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) and others. But this week I also want to ask myself. Does the Social Security Regulatory Authority (SSRA), have teeth to bite delinquent employers? Is SSRA able to punish employers which don’t remit employees’ monthly contributions to pension funds like; PPF, NSSF, LAPF or PSPF?

Reports that retired MPs suffer from pennilessness have shocked many Tanzanians. Speaker of the National Assembly, Anne Makinda, revealed recently that former MPs pay visits at her office asking for financial assistance!

Now if retired MPs are forced to ask for alms because of say meager monthly pensions, what about the common citizens? That is why we need a powerful SSRA to deal with employers who don’t comply.

Records indicate that all funds cover only 1.2 million members while the country has a work-force of 23 million people. Many Tanzanians are not registered in the social security funds. Another problem is that many employers don’t remit contributions to the funds although they deduct the same from monthly salaries.

The SSRA Director General, SSRA, Irene Isaka, claims that there is a strategy in place to minimize bureaucracy in the manner in which the funds carry duties in order to avoid unnecessary annoyance to members.

SSRA has an uphill task if at all it has to gather trust from Tanzanians because most employers in the country don’t remit employees contributions contrary to the law Media Houses is an example of non-compliant employers.

Even President Jakaya Kikwete admitted knowing the problem when he spoke at a journalists’ function in March 2012. Many journalists don’t know the fate of their benefits because their contributions are not remitted in their PPF or NSSF accounts. Is SSRA a toothless dog unable to compel employers to respect the law?

The idea to allow employers to shift from one social security fund to another must not be used as a way to run from past debts. SSRA must ensure that this loophole is not used at the expense of employees.

SSRA, must be the place where employees can be sure of getting a solution to get rid of employers who want to exploit their money. We don’t expect NSSF, PPF or even SSRA authorities to ‘fall in love’ with delinquent employers. If that happens, Tanzanians will paint a picture that Fund authorities and employers have a hidden agenda to exploit poor workers. Who can stop Tanzanians from believing that NSSF or PPF officials receive bribes from delinquent employers? SSRA must step up to wipe this notion.

Tanzania has 2.1 million elders of which 82 per cent live in rural areas. It is also said that only four per cent receive monthly pensions. Some of the retirees suffer a lot while following up their terminal benefits because of lack of proper documentation from their former employers. Why should workers suffer because of employers’ negligence? SSRA must turn an eagle’s idea to media houses who don’t remit workers’ contributions.

It creates a lot of suspicions to not that an employer hasn’t remitted contribution for three years! Where are PPF and NSSF compliance officers? Shouldn’t we smell corruption here?

SSRA must stretch up its muscles to ensure all employers fulfill their obligation to remit employees’ contributions timely. No excuses! I welcome the idea of Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Regional Administration and Local governments), Hawa Ghasia, who suggested that pension funds must pay employees their rightful benefits and claim the same from defaulting employers.

Ghasia advised at the Local Authorities Pension Fund (LAPF) meeting in Arusha recently. Pension funds like PPF and NSSF must implement the idea because it avoid unnecessary embarrassment which most employees are subjected to when quitting job from most of the private companies.

The emergence of SSRA must improve compliance among employers and improve pension services; otherwise there is no need of having it. We need a biting SSRA to bite non-compliant employers. Tanzanians are sick and tired of having toothless bodies.

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SA to lend $314m for Tanzania power plants

Southern African Development Community Headquarters in South Africa

The Development Bank of Southern Africa is lending Tanzania $314 million for two power plants, South Africa's treasury said on Thursday, as the east African nation country looks to tap more of its abundant gas reserves.

The state-owned lender has underwritten $227 million for the construction of the Kilwa Power plant and another $87 million for a 240 megawatt gas-fired plant at Kinyerezi, the treasury said.

Despite natural gas reserves estimated at more than 41 trillion cubic feet, Tanzania experiences frequent power outages as it is heavily reliant on hydro-power capacity and fuel-run generators.

The country's average power demand stands at 750 MW per day and peaks at around 850 MW.

The state-owned power utility burns fuel worth more than double the amount of money it receives as daily revenue, and is now racing to build infrastructure to tap a gas potential that is seen equal to some Middle East producers.

Last month, the east African country signed a $692.7 million contract for the construction of a 400kV transmission line with a Chinese company.

China is also financing a $1.2 billion 532km natural gas pipeline from the southeast of the country to the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

The Development Bank of Southern Africa is also active in Angola, where it is financing around $146 million of a $700 million facility it is helping to arrange for two Angolan national roads. - Reuters

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CPU’s and its role in increasing coffee farmer’s income

Coffee plantation in Rungwe, Mbeya

LYAMUYA STANLEY:
RECENT investigations carried out by The African in Mbozi district, Mbeya region has come to reveal that farmers processing their coffee through Central Pulpery Units (CPU’s) do realize more income when compared with those doing the same through convectional methods.

Accordion g to these investigations carried out within seven (7) randomly selected coffee farmer’s groups located in various villages within Mbozi district it was proved beyond reasonable doubts that CPU’s plays an important role when it comes to increasing coffee farmer’s income.

These investigations which compared prices given to farmer’s with CPU’s in the 2012/13 and 2013/13 coffee harvesting seasons revealed that farmers with CPU’s stands a better chance of getting more money when compared with those without CPU’s.

Verifying this fact were various at Mpogolo Coffee Group, Emnee Coffee Group, Lungwa AMCOS, Mpakani Coffee Group, Ifumbo Coffee Group, Iganda and Mpito Coffee Groups.

Among these groups except for Lungwa AMCOS AND Mpakani Coffee Group the remaining groups had CPU’s installed and used in their respective areas of operations.

The Treasurer of Mpogolo Coffee Group, Mr. Zerubabel Nzowa said coffee farmers in his group had earned a total of Tshs 3,260 for every kilogram of parchment coffee harvested in 2012/13 while Councilor Burton Kakote from Ifumbo Coffee Group said in this same year his farmer’s earned a total of Tshs 3,200 for the same.

Joining hands to this was the Chairman of Iganda Coffee Group, Mr. Masoud Mnange who said in this same year his farmer’s had earned a total of Tshs 3.015 for the same while when giving similar statistics the Chairman of Mpito Coffee Group said the same was Tshs 3.013.

In the contrary when giving similar statistics for this same year 2012/13 officials from Lungwa AMCOS gave figures which were less when compared to the above mentioned groups in this article.

According to the Vice Chairman of this cooperative society, Mr. Julius Mwamuna his farmer’s received a price of Tshs 3,043 per kilogram of collected from home parchment coffee processed through the convectional method.

Similarly when giving statistical figures for the year 2013/14 these same officials gave prices as Tshs 2,9000 9Mpogi\olo Coffee Group) and Tshs 2,800 (Emnee Coffee Group) both of these two groups having CPU’s installed in their areas of operations.

In the contrary same officials from Lungwa AMCOS and Mpakani Coffee Group both without CPU’s gave figures as Tshs 2,300 and Tshs 2,370 for the same collected in 2013/14 respectively.

From the above facts it can be well concluded that CPU’s plays an important role in increasing coffee farmers income due to the fact that CPU’s produces big quantities of coffee with uniform quality which is liked by many multinational coffee buyers in the world market meaning the same should always fetch competitive prices when compared with coffee processed from the convectional or manual methods.

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Tanzania needs to tackle subsidies, tax exemptions -IMF

Tanzania's economy is set to grow 7 percent in 2013 but the government needs to expand revenue by simplifying tax exemptions and curbing power subsidies to sustain growth and ease fiscal pressure, the IMF said on Wednesday.

The International Monetary Fund said inflation was expected to slip back towards the government's target of 5 percent by mid-2014, after falling to 6.1 percent in the year to September.

It also noted that the current account deficit "remained large", at the equivalent to 13.5 percent of gross domestic product in the year July 2013 to June 2014.

Tanzania, like its east African neighbours, has been growing strongly. It is banking on gas discoveries in the years ahead, but for now has a huge job fixing rickety infrastructure, lifting its people out of poverty and addressing the sensitive issue of power and other subsidies that drain state coffers.

Paul Mauro, who led an IMF team to Tanzania, said in a statement at the end of the talks that growth of 7 percent in the first half of 2013 was expected to extend to the full year.

"To sustain economic growth and to stem fiscal pressures during the current and next fiscal year, priorities include mobilising additional revenues by reducing and simplifying tax exemptions and bringing the power sector to financial sustainability," he said.

He said the government had reaffirmed its commitment to a fiscal deficit equivalent to 5 percent of gross domestic product that was agreed with the IMF, although he said agreed targets for domestic financing had been exceeded in 2012/2013.

Among the medium-term policy challenges, Mauro included "enhancing the institutional framework to ensure that possible future revenues from newly discovered natural gas deposits benefit all citizens".

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Human resource shortage undermine eye healthcare

By Justin Damian:
Although evidence has shown that about 80 per cent of blindness is avoidable, in Tanzania, like other developing countries, it is severely hampered by shortage of trained eye health care professionals and poor eye care infrastructure.

Eye diseases are among the top ten causes of morbidity in Tanzania. An estimated 400,000 Tanzanians are blind and an additional 800,000 people are visually impaired.

Every year, an additional 7,000 people in Tanzania go blind from preventable and treatable causes such as cataract, glaucoma, trachoma, diabetic retinopathy, ocular trauma and others.

Childhood blindness is a public health problem and a priority for National Eye Care Strategic Plan for 2013-16 and of vision 2020 initiative, both of which emphasize on the right to sight.

The Government of Tanzania joined worldwide efforts of vision 2020, a global initiative for the elimination of avoidable blindness.

Speaking during the launching of eye theatre for children in Dar es Salaam recently, the Executive Director of Muhimbili National Hospital, Dr Marina Njelekela, said the mission of VISION 2020, is to eliminate the main causes of blindness in order give all people in the world, particularly the millions needless blind, “The Right to sight”

She said, poverty and blindness tend to be intimately linked, with poverty predisposing to blindness and blindness exacerbating poverty adding that, being blind and poor has many times resulted to exclusion from basic health, education and social services and exposure to isolation, ill health and economic disadvantage.

“It has been shown that once blindness is relieved, the opportunities for work are increased and dependence on other family members reduced dramatically. This is especially true for children whose life expectancy after sight-restoring interventions is higher.

An interesting study by the London School of Hygiene, showed that the annual cost of global blindness and low vision would be $110 billion by the year 2020 with no intervention. This would be a significant loss to mankind. The story is no different in Tanzania where 45 per cent of the population are children aged 14 years and below.

As mentioned, one of the key challenges in eye care, is shortage of human resources for eye health. Like many developing nations, Tanzania is still struggling to cope up with this rising demand for eye care workforce. For example, Tanzania currently has 40 ophthalmologists for a population of nearly 45 million.

This translates to only 1 ophthalmologist per 1.2 million people against a WHO-recommended ratio of 1:250,000. Compare this to 324 ophthalmologists for 50 million people in South Africa, and 2400 eye doctors for 81million people in Egypt.

“The likelihood of adequately addressing this problem in the immediate future is bleak, unless the number of trained eye health personnel is increased through collaborative effort of the Tanzanian Government and its partners,” she said

She was happy to register the College of Ophthalmology of East, Central and Southern Africa (COESCA), saying Tanzania and its partners were committed to lead the role in tackling the shortage.

COECSA, Sightsavers and other eye care partiners are working closely with the Government to address the shortage of eye health workforce and to improve access to eye care services for all.

The Eye Department at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) and Muhimbili Natinal Hospital (MNH), are some of the founder members of COECSA.

“Infrastructure is no doubt one of the key inputs needed to improve our services in health. Today we are here to witness the opening of this facility. The hospital provided the space which was renovated using funds donated to MUHAS by the Prevention of Blindness Union (PBU) and Middle East Council of Ophthalmology (MEACO).

The funds were channeled to MUHAS through COECSA and Sightsavers. We now have a good facility that is equipped with the essential equipment. The renovation will not only improve the quality of children health care and survival, it will also enable the hospital to increase number of surgeries, hence reduce blindness and also provide the MUHAS trainees with increased opportunities for hands-on experience. Special thanks to Sightservers- Tanzania country office for overseeing the renovation and handing over process,” she added

She commended MEACO for the generous donation to the eye department which has made the renovation possible. I congratulate MEACO and COESCA for coming together as a medical professional group to work and strive to improve the quality of training and increase the number of eye care health workers in the region.

“You are not only raising the profile of your society, certainly you are attracting students from the region to choose ophthalmology as a carrier. I know that ophthalmology has not been a popular specialty in the medical field as compared to others. COECSA is actually providing regional leadership, a sense of unity, shared purpose, and setting standards for eye care.

I as a director of the hospital and my counterpart, the Vice Chancellor of MUHAS (prof Kaaya) will play our part in supporting the department. The Hospital will continue provide conducive environment and space for MUHAS to provide standard training expected for the university and we look forward continued symbiotic partnership with the University.

MUHAS and MNH hope that the partnership will continue and that sightsarvers, COESCA, MEACO, St Thomas and other partners will continue to support the department in acquiring more equipment to deal with the rising demand of eye care in Tanzania,” she said.

Oh his part, Dr Emeritus Chibuga, who is COECSA Treasurer, said COECSA is one of the largest Ophthalmic professional bodies in Sub-Saharan Africa, It was formed as a merger between Ophthalmological Society of Eastern Africa (OSEA) and Eastern Africa College of Ophthalmologists (EACO) adding that, currently COECSA has 8 member countries (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Malawi and Zambia).

He said COECSA has many activities, all focusing at increasing an improved and affordable eye care service in the region.

“COECSA facilitate restructuring of ophthalmic training processes not only in clinical but also in administration, advocacy and policy making, moreover is engaging in providing equipment and learning facilities as well as infrastructure development in affiliated institutions. In addition, COECSA facilitate provision of scholarships for ophthalmology training at different levels,” he said

Dr Chibuga noted that COECSA has a long working relationship with MUHAS. This event of opening the theatre could have not been possible, if the relationship would have been poor. “We understand MUHAS was faced with various challenges on the course of restructuring its infrastructure but we are proud to see one of the outcomes of the work we did together with MUHAS has been greatly achieved.

“We as COECSA, are not working alone, we recognize enormous contribution from various partners, to name a few are Sightsavers International and MEACO. Their contributions have played a larger role towards what we are about to witness today at the opening of this theatre,” he added

He further noted that, COECSA is committed to continue working with MUHAS at provision of various levels of eye care services. All partners are invited to join hands with us to make eye care services of Muhimbili Hospital reach the highest standard and yet affordable to everybody.

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