TANZANIANS PARTICIPATE IN THE MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL GAS REVENUE

Deputy Minister of Communication, Science and Technology, January Makamba sits on an expert panel to answer questions from the respondents.

Press Conference with Aidan Eyakuze from TWAWEZA (first left), Innocent Bash from TEITI (second left), Dr. Abel Kinyondo from REPOA (third left), Mujobu Moyo from CDG (second right) and Silas Olang from NRGI (first right).

Dr Abel Kinyondo, Economist & Senior Researcher at REPOA giving his opening remarks at the conference which took place at Blue Pearl Hotel in Dar es Salaam recently.

Dr Abel Kinyondo, Economist & Senior Researcher at REPOA giving his opening remarks at the conference which took place at Blue Pearl Hotel in Dar es Salaam recently.

A moderater trained by Centre for Global Development (CGD) conducts a group discussion with the respondents.

A respondent asks a question to the expert panelists.

One of the respondents during the session.

Deputy Minister of Communication, Science and Technology, January Makamba exchanges ideas with some of the attendees.

On Monday April 13, 2015, 400 Tanzanians from 20 different districts around the country met to share and discuss their opinion on the best approach to manage the revenues that will come through the discovered off-shore natural gas deposits that could be worth nearly 15 times the country’s GDP.

The representatives met as part of a first-of-its-kind national survey to be conducted in Africa by REPOA and the Center for Global Development (CGD), an independent think-tank that conducts research and analysis on topics related to effects of policies and actions of the rich on poor people in the developing world.

Speaking to the media, CGD Research Fellow Mujobu Moyo said, “Proper management of revenues from natural resources can determine the total well being of a nation. Like most developing nations, Tanzania faces major challenges to harnessing the full benefits of the recent discovery of natural gas. Some of these challenges are corruption, wasteful spending and political violence.”

“Citizens need to first understand and then get involved in the decision-making process of how revenues from such a resource should be managed to avoid the resource curse that has plagued other countries before,” she added.

The project aims to challenge the assumption that the Tanzanian electorate is incapable of grasping the issues that the country is facing with regards to the discovery of natural gas. By involving the public and creating awareness on the various options of the management of revenues, public accountability will improve.

On his part, Executive Director of REPOA, Prof. Samwel Wangwe said, “A sudden influx of revenue from natural resources could lead to corruption, economic distortion, entrenched poverty and a state of weakened democracy. Resource-rich countries face a higher risk of seeing these outcomes especially, when large numbers of their citizens have poor access to information and low literacy levels.”

“This is why a country like Tanzania could benefit greatly by being better prepared in terms of facilitating access to information on policy options so that they can participate effectively in the decision-making process and shape politicians’ decisions, actions and behavior,” he added.

On his part, Dr. Abel Kinyondo, Senior Researcher at REPOA said, “Tanzania has for more than one decade recorded an impressive economic growth but this growth has not been pro-poor. Many Tanzanians continue to live in poverty. The recent discovery of natural gas in the country provides a unique opportunity to redress this situation.”

He highlighted that for the country to achieve a more inclusive growth, effective revenue management in the oil and gas sector is crucial. It is against this background that REPOA and CGD have embarked on a deliberative polling event that seeks to examine various options available to natural resource revenue management in the country.”

The conference forms the second part of the survey where after collecting baseline info from a sample of 2,000 Tanzanians from 20 different districts across the country, 400 representatives from the districts will meet to give their views and receive expert information in a deliberative poll. This serial survey will help evaluate citizen’s knowledge of and preferences for natural gas revenue management before and after exposure to expert information and public deliberations.

The findings of the survey will be disseminated to policy makers in Tanzania. The first discovery of natural gas deposits in the deep crevices of the Indian Ocean was in 2010. Although still in exploration stage, according to a report by the IMF, the estimated annual revenue from production of natural gas could range between US$3 billion and US$6 billion.