President Karume urges CSOs to play role in strengthening democracy

The President of Zanzibar, Honourable Abeid Amani Karume has asked members of the civil society to utilise the goodwill they have created and trust gained in the society as an asset in enhancing democracy in the country.

Hon. Karume made the call through a speech delivered on his behalf by the Deputy Chief Minister of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar, Hon. Ally Juma Shamhuna during the official opening of the eighth civil society organisations Annual Forum organised by the Foundation for Civil Society,  on 27th May 2010 at Bwawani Hotel in Zanzibar. He was addressing the forum whose theme was “The role of CSOs in enhancing democracy in Tanzania”, which was attended by about 350 representatives of civil society organisations from all over the country.

He said that civil society organisations have been working closely with people and have gained acceptability thus have potential of helping in building democracy and enabling citizens to understand their rights to participate in democratic processes.

“It is a clear fact that through your efforts, people have been directly working with the government through utilising their right to elect and be elected. Also, it is correct to say that your efforts in providing voters education, using the media, and providing civic education have helped our country to widen citizens’ participation in election processes. This is quite encouraging and should be sustained,” he said.

Also, Hon. Karume asked CSOs to invest their resources in supporting the vulnerable groups of people to get the right and all other opportunities to participate in election processes as it is for other people in the society.

He said that previous evaluations, which CSOs have undertaken show that the vulnerable groups were not participating effectively in democratic processes, especially in election.

“I hope civil society organisations will make efforts to increase the participation of those groups in good governance processes, election, and participatory democracy. I would like to see the deaf, the blind, and other people with disabilities are highly participating in those processes,” he said.

On the other hand, Hon. Karume expressed appreciation to the CSOs for helping both the governments of the United Republic of Tanzania and that of Zanzibar to look into their performance, to learn and to make necessary corrections for improving performance.

He asked them to use the same wisdom in ensuring that civil society organisations are also a good model of good governance.

Speaking about the national strategies, Hon. Karume asked CSOs to link their activities with the Strategies for Growth and Reduction of Poverty, well known as MKUKUTA in the Tanzania Mainland and MKUZA in Zanzibar.

He said that the implementation of MKUKUTA and MKUZA greatly depend on the participation of both governmental and non-governmental institutions, and therefore CSOs have a crucial role to play in implementing them. 

The President’s speech is available in Kiswahili version. Click here to read the speech.