When development puts people first: Kafulila’s PPP lesson for TZ journey to 2050

ARUSHA: TANZANIA’S ambition to become a more productive, inclusive and competitive economy by 2050 will depend not only on how much infrastructure it builds, but on whether that infrastructure creates productive opportunities for its people.

That was the central message from a public lecture delivered recently by Public Private Partnership Centre Executive Director David Kafulila at the Tengeru Institute of Community Development (TICD) in Arusha. The discussion connected Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), human capital and institutional capacity to Tanzania’s long-term development ambitions.

Established in 1963, TICD has evolved into a higherlearning institution offering programmes from certificate to master’s level in fields including project management, community development, climate change, gender, local government and finance.

Its peoplecentred development philosophy provided an appropriate setting for examining how Tanzania can mobilise capital and expertise while ensuring that investment translates into higher productivity and improved living standards.

Kafulila’s argument was that Tanzania’s development challenge is not simply a shortage of infrastructure or money. The deeper challenge is connecting infrastructure, capital, institutions and human capability in ways that produce lasting economic value.

“Development is meaningful when infrastructure and investment change people’s lives and increase their productive capacity,” he told academics and students.

That perspective is particularly relevant as Tanzania implements Vision 2050, which seeks to transform the country into a more productive, inclusive and competitive economy.

Achieving that ambition requires development to be measured not merely by the volume of projects completed, but by the economic and social opportunities those projects create. Infrastructure, in this context, should be understood as a means to an end rather than an end in itself.

A road is valuable not simply because it has been constructed, but because it enables farmers to reach markets, workers to travel efficiently and businesses to reduce transport costs. A port matters because it facilitates trade and connects producers to wider markets.

Electricity creates value when households and enterprises can use it to produce goods and services, while water infrastructure contributes to development by improving health and reducing the time communities spend securing basic services.

The physical asset, therefore, is only the beginning of the economic story. Its real value emerges when people have the health, skills, knowledge and opportunities required to use it productively. This explains why human capital featured prominently in Kafulila’s presentation.

He identified nutrition, health and knowledge as fundamental to building a productive population. A healthy worker is more likely to perform effectively, while a child who receives adequate nutrition and education has a stronger chance of becoming a skilled worker capable of contributing meaningfully to the economy.

Knowledge is equally important because it determines how effectively people can adopt technology, establish businesses, solve problems and respond to changing economic conditions.

“Human capital is the engine of the economy,” Kafulila argued, stressing that people equipped with health, nutrition and knowledge can create solutions even when resources are limited.

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The relationship between people and infrastructure is therefore mutually reinforcing. Infrastructure can increase productivity, while higher productivity generates incomes, taxes, skills and demand that help sustain further investment.

Tanzania must consequently avoid treating investment in people and physical infrastructure as competing priorities. Roads without skilled people and productive businesses may improve connectivity without delivering sufficient economic transformation.

Likewise, education and healthcare investments require productive infrastructure and economic opportunities if human capability is to translate into employment, higher incomes and national growth.

The challenge is becoming more important as Tanzania faces growing demand for infrastructure and public services while government resources must also support education, healthcare, water, energy, transport and other social priorities. The private sector, meanwhile, needs reliable infrastructure to support manufacturing, trade, logistics and investment. This creates a strong case for partnerships between government and business.

Kafulila argued that PPPs can help bridge this gap by bringing public institutions and private investors together around projects in which each side contributes different strengths.

The private sector can provide capital, technology, management and commercial expertise, while government provides policy, regulation, oversight and responsibility for protecting the broader public interest.

The significance of PPPs, therefore, goes beyond finding another source of financing. A commercially viable road, student accommodation facility, market or transport project may attract private capital, potentially allowing government to concentrate scarce public resources on areas where social returns are high but direct commercial returns are limited, including hospitals, medicines and other essential services.

However, PPPs are not shortcuts around public-sector responsibility. Private capital does not automatically produce public value. Poorly designed contracts can create costly obligations for government, while weak regulation can compromise service quality or transfer excessive risks to taxpayers.

The quality of institutions is therefore as important as the amount of capital mobilised. Tanzania’s development will depend not only on attracting investment, but also on having institutions capable of converting that investment into sustained economic value.

Natural resources, land and capital can create opportunities, but strong management, governance, skills and accountability are necessary to ensure those opportunities translate into lasting benefits. In PPPs, financial models and private capital cannot replace proper project preparation, effective regulation or capable institutions.

Infrastructure must also be properly managed and maintained and aligned with public needs if it is to deliver value over the long term. This places new demands on Tanzania’s workforce.

PPP projects require more than financiers. They need project managers, economists, lawyers, environmental specialists, community-development experts, gender specialists, local government professionals and others who understand both the commercial and social dimensions of development.

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That gives TICD’s role particular relevance. The institute’s leadership said PPPrelated modules have been incorporated into its training programmes to prepare graduates for a development environment in which government, businesses and communities increasingly need to work together.

Its expertise in project management, finance, climate change, gender and community development can contribute to stronger project preparation and implementation. Its localgovernment experience can also help ensure investments respond to community needs.

PPP, in this context, becomes more than a financial transaction. It becomes a multidisciplinary development instrument. Women and youth as productive capital The same principle applies to women and Tanzania’s growing youth population.

Kafulila highlighted women’s economic role through the concept of Womenomics, arguing that women should be viewed not simply as beneficiaries of development, but as workers, entrepreneurs, farmers, investors and employers. Improving women’s access to education, healthcare, finance, markets and productive assets can raise household incomes while expanding national productivity.

Empowering women economically also strengthens the capacity of households and communities to participate in wider economic activity. Tanzania’s growing youth population presents a similar opportunity.

A healthy, educated and employed workforce can become a demographic dividend. But without sufficient investment in skills, jobs and productive opportunities, population growth can instead increase pressure on public services and public finances.

The impact of PPP projects should therefore also be considered in terms of who participates in and benefits from them. A project that creates temporary construction activity but leaves local communities without skills, businesses or longterm economic opportunities may have limited transformative impact.

By contrast, projects that build local capacity, create jobs, open markets and connect communities to wider economic activity can generate broader public value.

The TICD lecture also points to a broader understanding of partnership. PPPs should not be viewed as arrangements involving only government and private companies. Universities have a role in developing skills; communities provide local knowledge; businesses bring capital and expertise; government provides policy and oversight; and citizens ultimately use the infrastructure and services created.

If any of these links is weak, the economic returns from investment can suffer. This broader partnership is consistent with TICD’s peoplecentred development philosophy because it forces policymakers to ask a question that financial assessments alone may overlook: Who ultimately benefits?

For Tanzania, the implications extend well beyond individual PPP projects. Vision 2050 will require the country to mobilise domestic and foreign capital, improve productivity, strengthen institutions and develop a workforce capable of operating in a more sophisticated economy. PPPs can contribute to that transformation, but only when projects are carefully selected, transparently structured and aligned with long-term national priorities.

The private sector cannot be expected to pursue objectives that belong exclusively to government, just as government cannot expect businesses to invest without reasonable commercial prospects. The strength of PPP lies in finding the intersection between those interests while ensuring that public value remains central. Ultimately, the measure of an investment should not be its size alone, but the economic capability it creates.

A bridge should move more than vehicles; it should move opportunity. A port should connect businesses to larger markets. A school should produce problem solvers, not merely graduates. And a PPP should deliver more than a government-investor contract; it should create lasting public value.

That was the enduring lesson from Tengeru. More than six decades after TICD’s people-centred development philosophy was established, Tanzania faces the same fundamental question in a new economic era: whether investment can translate into productivity through better health, nutrition, knowledge, skills and stronger institutions.

Vision 2050, in that sense, is not simply a project to build a richer Tanzania. It is a test of whether Tanzania can build the people and institutions capable of creating, sustaining and broadly sharing that wealth. The writer is a PPP Economist at University of Dar es Salaam.