USAID hails Samia’s democratic reforms

THE Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Ms Samantha Power, has acknowledged President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s commitment in fostering democratic reforms and engagement, saying the initiative has enabled Tanzania to expand its development cooperation.

Ms Power revealed this in Dar es Salaam over the weekend during a press conference to wrap up her 2-day visit in Tanzania.

According to her, President Samia’s bold initiative has simplified their task of encouraging the US private sector players to consider Tanzania when they think of where to invest.

“Certainly, it has made my task, and Ambassador Battle, and Secretary Blinken, Vice President Harris, and President Biden’s task of encouraging the private sector to think  of  Tanzania as the right place for investment,” said Administrator Power.

She,however, observed that the task will even be made easier if additional  governance reforms will be carried out,  indicating that the development objective agreement represented a chance to double down on some of the successes the two countries have achieved in strong cooperation.

She outlined some of the areas including health, food security, and clean energy, reiterating the US commitment to continue supporting various efforts made by the government in boosting its socio-economic development as it has been doing within the 60 years of the two countries’ relations.

The USAID Administrator stressed on three things which Tanzania could do to reap high on socio-economic development including moving from aid to trade, investing in its young people and bringing on board the private sector.

Unlike in other areas where the young people are referred to as the future, she said the situation in Tanzania was different because youth are the present.

She witnessed young Tanzanians through the support from USAID do extraordinary things with just the modest of investments.

Administrator Power was optimistic that Tanzania can take advantage of its youth whose number is the largest among the country’s population to build an inclusive economy by leveraging technology.

Besides, she suggested that the country can look always to see how to turn investments into something much more substantial by bringing the private sector and other investors together.

On the other hand, the Administrator with the world’s premier international development agency was pleased see how Tanzania is utilizing technology through the M-Mama Programme to save lives.

Elaborating on the programme, she said M-Mama was a ride-sharing dispatch service that allows pregnant mothers who are experiencing complications to call trained nurses who are equipped either to connect that mother with ambulance transportation, or  in places where there is no ambulances are not likely to be available.

She indicated that in just a shortest time of scaling up the M-Mama program, it has contributed to the drop of maternal mortality by 38 percent.