Tanzania Industry Hosts Annual UN Common Fund Meeting

The Tanzania industry sector will welcome international delegates from the 107 Member Countries of the UN sponsored Common Fund next week, as the country will be the host of the Annual Meeting of the Common Fund for Commodities from November 25th to the 26th at the Zanzibar Beach Resort.

The Common Fund for Commodities is an intergovernmental organization that was established within the framework of the United Nations, with a mandate for commodity development policy advocating the development of the least developed countries.

“The Seminar in Parliament and the annual meeting in Zanzibar, are part of the Fund’s advocacy and visibility program to spotlight the local success of CFC’s initiatives and projects in Member Countries,” said Ambassador Ali Mchumo, the Managing Director of the Common Fund for Commodities, at a UN press conference last July.

The Seminar in Parliament will take place on November 24, before the opening of the Governing Council meeting, and will provide an indication of the unique development measures and inputs that provide assistance to small-scale farmers both in Tanzania and in the neighboring countries and that are currently being financed by the Common Fund.

As a result of these Common Fund assistance programs, some of the countries in the region, including Tanzania, have begun to post higher revenues and have also begun to realize their full economic potential, in terms of the commodities that are available to them.

The program outline for the Seminar includes presentations and updates on various project activities from Common Fund staff members, ministerial officials, and representatives of other local organizations.

The focus of the Parliamentary briefing will be the reports on the various commodities such as coffee, sugar, cotton, sisal, cassava.

These reports will serve as a way to communicate the latest information about support measures, such as market development, research activities and commodity price risk management, to legislative and senior policymakers in Tanzania.

According to Ambassador Mchumo, because Tanzania was one of the first member countries of the Common Fund to appoint a National Project Co-ordinator (NPC), the visibility of CFC projects in the country will begin to steadily increase.

“The NPC will oversee the monitoring and co-ordination of projects and raise public awareness about the impact of the CFC projects within each member country,” says Ambassador Mchumo, “It will also enhance coherence of CFC projects with national development plans and poverty reduction strategies outlined by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.”

To date, the Common Fund has financed 21 projects in Tanzania, of which the organization has financed approximately USD 49million of the total USD 104million project expenditures.

Of these 21 projects, seven have been completed, nine are currently being implemented and the remaining five projects have been approved for total financial commitment of USD 23million, but have not yet been implemented.