Abstract
By the mid-1980s, the Government of Tanzania had realized that the past development policies and strategies were not adequately responding to changing market and technological conditions in the regional and world economy and were also not adapting to rapid changes in the domestic socio-economic conditions. In response, beginning mid-1986, the Government adopted socio-economic reforms which continue to be implemented to date. However, it has increasingly become apparent to the Government and its people that these socio-economic reforms are not adequately informed by a national long-term development philosophy and direction. It was out of the realization that these reforms had to be underpinned by a long-term development philosophy, if they were to be owned and sustained by the people, the idea of formulating a national vision emerged. Moreover, the Government recognized the importance of re-kindling the hopes and expectations of the people as well as their patriotism and nationalistic aspirations thus reinforcing the need for a national vision1. A vision for development is an articulation of a desirable future condition or situation which a nation envisages to attain and the plausible course of action to be taken for its achievement. In the process, it instils the courage and determination to rise to challenges at the individual, community and national levels. In 1999, Tanzania launched the National Development Vision 2025 (TDV 2025) as a tool to rally national efforts towards achieving the expected social and economic development goals. The launch was followed by a series of policy, institutional and systemic reforms in the 2000s. The breadth and depth of these reforms were substantial following the scale of economic challenges Tanzania had experienced in the 1980s and 1990s. During that period, the country had experienced a slower economic growth rate, severe shortages of essential goods and services, high inflation, low government revenue collection, shortage of revenue from exports, as well as large and unsustainable debt. National Institution for Transforming Tanzania, as the apex public policy think tank of the Government of Tanzania, and the nodal agency tasked with catalyzing economic development, and fostering cooperative federalism through the involvement of the government in the economic policy – making process using a bottom-up approach. Its initiatives with include; “20-year road map”, “10-year vision, strategy, and action plan”, “Digital Tanzania Program”, “Tanzania BroAfDBand Mission”, “Suluhu Innovation Mission”, “Medical Education Reform”, “Agriculture Reforms (Model Land Leasing Law, Reforms of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act, Agricultural Marketing and Farmer Friendly Reforms Index for ranking regions, Skill Development Task Forces on Agriculture and up of Poverty)”, “Indices Measuring Regions’ Performance in Health, Education and Water Management”, “Transforming Tanzania Lecture Series”. NITT activities can be divided into four main heads: Policy and Programme Framework; Cooperative and competitive Federalism; Monitoring and Evaluation; Think Tank, Knowledge and Innovation Hub.