Challenges facing public procurement information in some African countries namely: South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Tanzania.

This article seeks to find out challenges facing the procurement laws in Africa. The article examines the meaning and purpose of public procurement, drawing parallels between its essential elements, and stages with the need and requirement to enhance transparency and accountability to attain its objectives. It also seeks to provide analysis of traditional procurement reform objectives and identifies the importance of transparency and accountability as well as value for money in procurement to their achievement of joint goals. The article then examines broadly the access to information provisions of the procurement laws in a number of African countries namely -South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Tanzania and concludes that these laws contribute to improving access to information across Africa, particularly where an access to information law is absent, but are not robust enough to sufficiently provide comprehensive access to information. It examines the level of constraint posed by administrative charges for access to information. Also the article concludes based on the Tanzanian experience that limited access to information, laws already exist may be more as a result of; limited capacities in both the citizens sector and public sector to capture and maintain information in a retrievable format; deliberate delays by public officers to frustrate applications for access; poor information management practices and half hearted efforts within the citizens sector to apply existing law, than any application of administrative fee or other limiting provisions of the law, WITTING, W.A (2002)

Challenges Facing People with Disabilities and Possible Solutions in Tanzania

The first ever World report on disability, produced jointly by World Health Organization and the World Bank, suggests that more than a billion people in the world today experience disability Therefore, about 10 per cent of the world’s populations are PWDs. Out of the number said above, 80 per cent of PWDs live in developing countries. As for Tanzania in particular, the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Labour Organization (ILO)’s reports of 2007 estimated that there were more than 3 million people in Tanzania who have disability. Probably the number is still the same. The number includes both physical and mental disabilities. Reports and experience show that people with disabilities often face mistreatments in a number of ways and because of various reasons. In addition the World Bank has estimated that, 20 per cent of the most impoverished individuals are disabled. Evidently, women and children with disabilities are more susceptible to abuse, including physical and sexual violence as they may not receive sexual education and may be less able to defend themselves against sexual abuse and rape. Other reports indicate that, the mortality rates for people with disabilities are higher than persons without disabilities. Worse enough Tanzania Human Rights Report of 2010 which quotes the Disability Survey Report of the Government of Tanzania of 2008 confirms that, the current illiteracy rate for disabled persons in Tanzania is 47.6 per cent compared to 25.3 per cent of the people without a disability. That means almost half of the PWDs are not educated. Key words: The civil, political, social, economic, charity and cultural rights to all people