TZ keen on strengthening data production-PS

THE Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Dr Natu Mwamba has said that the government has been taking deliberate efforts to strengthen data production in the country.

The PS made the remarks in Dar es Salaam on Saturday when she opened the first committee meeting on implementation of the Tanzania Statistical Master Plan II – (TSMP II).

These efforts include among others, development of the Second Tanzania Statistical Master Plan (TSMP II) to be implemented in the period of five years from 2022/23 to 2026/27.”

Dr Natu said that the TSMP II is partly funded by a soft loan from the World Bank amounting to 82 million US dollars, under the Eastern Africa Regional Statistics Program for Results, which is being implemented in Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda.

“As the chairperson of this meeting and on behalf of the government of Tanzania, I extend my sincere gratitude to the World Bank and all our development partners for your support and partnership in statistics development, we value your contributions in this process immensely and I would like to reaffirm the government’s commitment to continue working hand in hand with all our development partners throughout the implementation of TSMP II,” added Dr Natu.

Preeti Arora, the Operation Manager of World Bank Tanzania said that through its Second Statistical Master Plan (TSMP Il), Tanzania has committed to producing, disseminating and using timely, relevant, high-quality data.

Preeti said, “Tanzania’s operation is different in that it is designed at the regional level and it uses an alternative lending instrument, the Program-for-Results (PforR).”

Preeti said that under PforR, funding will be disbursed against results and that shifts the focus of World Bank’s engagement from monitoring inputs to providing technical support to achieve Program results.

She added that The World Bank will provide not just the finances but also technical assistance for TSMP Il implementation and it will do so through its own experts or by hiring international expertise to advise on technical issues.

“And by coordinating the support of other agencies, it will conduct regular virtual and in-person meetings and implementation support missions to support National Bureau of statistics (NBS) and other actors in the NSS to execute the Master Plan,” added Preeti.

On his side, Dr Islam Seif Salum representing Principal Secretary of President’s Office Finance and Planning, Zanzibar said that implementation of TSMP Il is the responsibility of URT since the government has been committed in promoting resources to ensure the smooth effective implementation of the program.

Dr Salum said, “All we know is that it was implemented TSMP from 2011/12 2017/18 and realized remarkable contribution on statistical development specifically on development of Statistical Infrastructure, human resource, Legal Reforms, Data production and Dissemination.”

Dr Salum added that the Second phase of TSMP is a continuation of the government’s efforts to improve and strengthen production and use of statistics in the country and this is a successor of similar national strategic plan aiming at improving the National Statistical System to enable it to provide quality statistics.