‘If you want to invest, you need the right conditions’
As part of Team Europe, GIZ is improving conditions for trade and investment in Tanzania.
Tanzania has become one of East Africa’s most attractive markets. As part of a Team Europe Initiative, together with other European implementing organisations, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is supporting the development of resilient and sustainable infrastructure in order to establish conducive conditions for trade and investment in the country.
According to Germany Trade & Invest, in Tanzania the strongest growth in demand for German technology is currently in the tourism, renewable energy, agriculture and mining sectors. These are also the sectors experiencing greater interest from German and European companies looking to establish businesses here. At the same time, the Tanzanian Government is very keen to expand its trade in raw materials, foodstuffs and coffee.
‘But if you want to invest, you need the right conditions – like properly functioning infrastructure,’ stresses Martino Vinci from the European delegation in Tanzania. However, because of climate change and the growing population, the country is reaching its limits. ‘By 2050, the population of Tanzania will have grown from 62 million to 150 million people,’ says Tobias Godau, a GIZ employee with the programme Water Security and Climate Resilience for Urban Areas in Tanzania. And these people need jobs, homes, food, clean drinking water and much more besides.
This is where Godau’s programme comes in. It is being implemented on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in the northern towns of Tanga, Mwanza and Pemba (Zanzibar), with cofinancing from the European Union (EU). The programme’s objective is to improve the infrastructure and water and waste management in these places, while also enhancing employment opportunities and reducing climate risks. It is part of the Green and Smart Cities SASA Team Europe Initiative (TEI), which is helping the Tanzanian Government to ensure the sustainability and resilience of its towns and cities in the future, benefiting both the people and economic development.
Combining measures increases their value
Team Europe Initiatives combine measures from multiple European organisations to leverage synergy effects and therefore achieve a greater impact. Green and Smart Cities SASA entails cooperation between projects run by GIZ, France’s Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and Belgium’s international cooperation organisation, Enabel. ‘This raises the value of the individual contributions,’ says Vinci, who coordinates the Initiative. Matthieu Brommier from AFD, which provides credit on behalf of the Initiative, agrees: ‘We augment the value of the funds because what we offer already includes support.’ Tanzania’s authorities can use a loan directly without having to establish their own staff and structures because these are provided by GIZ and Enabel. Besides this, as Koenraad Goekint, Enabel’s country director in Tanzania, observes, the programme encounters such big challenges that no single organisation could overcome them alone. ‘The fact that we all have the same objective and are coordinating our work together makes many things easier and more efficient. For our local partners too.’
To ensure smooth cooperation and efficient coordination, the EU, GIZ, Enabel and AFD meet every six months. Representatives of Tanzanian ministries and partner authorities also attend these meetings. ‘This is where everything is discussed transparently,’ says Godau. Be it delays to financing for the covered market, or the start of development of the digital water billing app. Recently AFD, Enabel and GIZ even began sharing offices in Mwanza and Tanga. ‘This makes implementation much easier,’ says Godau. ‘It’s making us much more efficient because we can quickly clarify things whenever we need to, or pool our enquiries to the water authority.’
Initiative sparks interest among other EU Member States
‘This cooperation platform, which is working so well, is now also attracting interest from other EU Member States,’ says Vinci. ‘Just recently, Denmark proposed getting involved by becoming a partner of the Initiative, and therefore of Tanzania too.’
The TEI is part of the EU’s Global Gateway strategy, which offers its partner countries sustainable infrastructure, new employment opportunities and improved access to resources. In return, Europe can benefit from stronger supply chains for raw materials and new, stable markets for technology and expertise. GIZ is currently involved in 105 of these initiatives with 27 partner organisations worldwide.
