“Tanzania needs to boost up its research institutions to get on track and implement the National Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction”, says Dr Berit Olsson, Director of the Department for Research Cooperation at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida.
On the 2nd of May Hon. Dr Ali Mohamed Shein, Vice-President of Tanzania, opens a stakeholders meeting arranged by the Embassy of Sweden to discuss how research in Tanzania could be further strengthened. The point of departure is more than thirty years of research cooperation between Swedish and Tanzanian institutions and researchers. During the last ten years the cooperation has focused on support research training and contributed to the UDSM Institutional Transformation Programme. Today, UDSM is a leading institution for research and higher education in the country. The research cooperation has contributed to a situation in which Tanzania could take on the challenge for a major upgrade of its knowledge base and the human resources to carry that knowledge.
The stakeholders meeting will take stock on the demands from society and the opportunities for the Tanzanian research system to supply. Sweden will design the future cooperation to be strategic and catalytic within this context. Sweden has also invited other development partners to search opportunities for complementation, alignment and harmonisation of our distinctive efforts to support research in Tanzania.
MKUKUTA, calls for strengthening of the education sector and expansion of the higher education, scientific, technological and innovation capacity needed to increase the competence and competitiveness of the country. Research, science and technology pervade the provision of health care, physical infrastructure, rational safe drinking-water and food supplies, and access to affordable energy.
The rapidly increasing number of students in Tanzania requires teachers with advanced skills to prepare them for the labour market in a globalised world and to become the thinkers to drive Tanzania’s development. All this depend on the ability of Tanzanian research institutions to search for new knowledge and disseminate it in society.For further information, please contact:Maria Teresa BejaranoFirst Secretary Higher Education & ResearchEmbassy of SwedenTel: +255 22 2196500Fax: +255 22 2196503E-mail: maria-teresa.bejarano@foreign.ministry.se