Ongoing field projects by HI, CBM and GTZ

Tanzania

Status of PRSP and disability: Tanzania initiated the PRS process in 2000. The second PRSP was published in 2005 and is known under the Swahili abbreviation "MKUKUTA". DPOs were actively involved in the drafting process of MKUKUTA and disability is almost a cross-cutting issue, as it is included in seven sectors.

Implementing organisations: CBM and "MKUKUTA Disability Network (MDN)", funded by the German Government via GTZ project "Systems of Social Protection".

Contact: Judith van der Veen [coordinator[at]prsp-disability.com] (CBM) and Kaganzi Rutachwamagyo [rutakagaat[at]yahoo.com] (network chairman)

The "MKUKUTA Disability Network" (MDN) was established after a workshop on the inclusion of disability into the Poverty Reduction Strategy of Tanzania in 2005 popularly known as MKUKUTA. The main aims of the network are to ensure that disability issues are included in the PRS of Tanzania and to enable people with disabilities to actively participate in and benefit from the PRS of Tanzania. Its vision is that an enhanced environment exists for the full inclusion of disabled people in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the MKUKUTA towards a better quality of their lives.

This year the network has started to become more active as funding has become available from the German government/GTZ through CBM. The main activity currently is focussed on setting up the network formally. A constitution is being drafted to lay out the functioning of the network. There will be an annual general meeting of the network on the 9th and 10th of May where members will adopt the constitution, elect the leadership and distribute responsibilities among members. With the constitution in place the network will be registered and hence have a status of a legal person. A secretariat can only be established after the registration of the organisation. As this is not yet the case, the network has now proposed to request one organisation to appoint one person as a temporary network coordinator in order to start working on the most important issues as soon as possible: His or her main task will be to organise the annual general meeting and conduct a baseline analysis about how the MKUKUTA implementation process integrates people with disabilities. This will be done by contacting key role players in the government, development partners, DPOs and Civil Society Organizations.

The executive committee members see a priority in re-establishing contacts with the Poverty Reduction office in respect of the inclusion of disability in the implementation and monitoring processes. The impression is that individual organisations have not been able to significantly lobby for articulation of disability in the MKUKUTA Monitoring Indicators Master Plan. Neither have they been able to form the disability specific Technical Working Group. Although disability is treated as cross cutting issues in the MKUKUTA document, it has been ignored in the general budget allocation. The other main activity of the network coordinator will be to draft a working plan for the rest of this year.