Addressing journalists in Dar es Salaam,
senior coalition representative, Ms Halima Shariff, said is high time
the government took note of how quickly Tanzania’s population is growing
and changing.
This will affect the economic growth.
“The transformation is relevant to all areas of economic policy and
public welfare yet it has not received the attention it deserves in
terms of investing in areas that would adequately cater for the needs of
a rapidly growing population, Ms Shariff said.
They also asked the government to ensure
that all new national strategies should consider how rapid population
growth will affect their response.
“We (TCDAA) recommended to the
government that a new five-year development plan is required to ensure
that Tanzania capitalizes on the opportunity to realise a demographic
dividend,” she said.
She said that the medium UN projection
for Tanzania’s population is to grow from around 45 million now to 130
million by 2050 almost tripling in size over the next thirty five years.
“This pace of growth is attributed to
the prevailing national high fertility rate which stands at around five
and half children per women,” she explained. “This pace of growth
demands creation of more jobs to absorb a rapidly growing workforce.
It also puts pressure on already
stretched social services such as health and education as well as
natural resources especially arable land,” she said. For his part, Dr
Joel Lincoln, from Department of Economic in the UDSM said Tanzania
today has the youngest population it has ever had.
He added that over the next 10 to 20
years these children and adolescents will become the nation’s largest
ever population of young adults who actively contribute to the economy.
He said that with the right investment in employment, education and
family planning, this can enable a rapid acceleration of economic
growth.
The TCDAA ambassador and Member of
Parliament for Kigamboni constituency, Dr Faustine Ndugulile, asked the
government to ensure the state budget will consider the national
population growth in order to fulfill the needs of all.
“I urge the government to ensure the
population growth does not affect the economy of the nation for the
benefit of all,” he said. The Tanzania Coalition for Demographic
Awareness and Action is a new coalition of agencies advocating for a
national response to Tanzania’s rapid demographic changes.
Member agencies include Advance Family
Planning, DSW, Enger Health, Health Promotion Tanzania, Marie Stopes
Tanzania, Pathfinder, UMAT, University of Dar es Salaam Department of
Economics and the United Nations Association of Tanzania.