Pernille Bærendtsen, Information Worker, Tanzania
‘The Citizen’, one of Tanzania’s biggest newspapers, had on December 2 the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen all over the front page: ‘Concern over Dar’s huge climate team’, I read with eager as I also detected a hint of critical journalism, a concept which isn't served on Tanzanian newspaper front pages every day.
It appears, the newspaper reveals, that Tanzania is in the process of sending the second largest delegation from Africa to Copenhagen, which also makes up one of the largest delegations for the summit.
Tanzanians might reputedly be a pole pole nation, but its inhabitants are in fact frequently seen to adapt fasta fasta to new world orders. When Climate Change appeared on the international development agenda, active Tanzanians from the civil society were quickly to integrate the concept into various existing agendas, or creating new. It soon became a popular buzz word, a concept few seemed able to add real substance to; but at the same time also approached as a doorway to funding new projects.
In spite of the general popularity of getting on board this year’s probably most hyped international agenda, it wasn’t until this Monday, December 1 (!) that the Tanzanian government launched its 5-year climate change impact programme to reduce carbon emissions.
I have already personally met a few persons who are going to Copenhagen; Maasais representing pastoralists’ agendas, and people who have produced information material on climate change. The Tanzanian delegation will be divided between government representatives, media people, private persons and actors who represent the civil society, but according to the newspaper there is no overall coordination of the Tanzanian delegation.
The journalists who wrote today’s article in the Citizen actually had to go to the Swedish Embassy (where you get your visa to Denmark these days) to get an overview of the amount of people in the delegation. So far the number of persons in the delegation is between 60-95.
Some are supported by international NGOs, the rest are paid for by the Tanzanian government. Criticism is hence radiating from the newspaper; that Tanzania will make itself look ridiculous as a nation, because where does the country get the money from? Some rightfully suspect that delegates are likely only to go due to the lucrative per diem – an infamous Tanzanian way of making a living.
Some say that it isn’t necessary to send so many participants, and that the government should focus firstly on getting its own agenda set, and letting only the experts represent Tanzania.
One thing is certain; Tanzania does need to prepare herself for the impacts of climate change one way or the other. In this case, I put myself behind the headline in The Citizen, as I find it hard to believe that the actual work in this regard depends on 60-95 Tanzanians on per diem in Copenhagen.
Pernille has worked in Tanzania since September 2007; previously for 26 months along and across the Ugandan border to Southern Sudan with civic education and Sudanese refugees, with activism in Copenhagen; and youth and reconciliation in ex-Yugoslavia. She blogs from Tanzania on www.pernille.typepad.com.