I. INTRODUCTORY NOTE

This study analyses recent government initiatives for the regulation of the nongovernmental organisation (NGO) sector in Tanzania. First, "the National Policy on NGOs", the fifth and apparently final draft of the NGO Policy that has been formulated since early 1996 under the coordination of the National Steering Committee for Formulation of National Policy on NGOs (NSC) (Millinga and Sangale 2000: 1). It was adopted at the Third National Consultative Workshop on National Policy on NGOs in early December 1999 (ibid., 10).¹ Second, the proposed Non-Governmental Organisations Bill of 1998 whose drafting appears to have been proceeding in parallel with the drafting of the policy.

These initiatives offer an opportunity for serious reflection and debate on the status of the rights and freedoms called for by our country's Constitution. They are also of direct importance to social and environmental activists and NGOs, as they are likely to decide not only their freedom of operation but also whether their organisations have the right to exist at all. This report aims to highlight the issues at stake by examining these proposals in the light of the Tanzanian state's historical stance toward the rights of freedom of association, of assembly, and of free speech.

We show that the legacy of authoritarianism that has been the hallmark of Tanzania's constitutional and political history is all too apparent in both these proposals. However, whereas within the draft NGO Policy the authoritarian impulses of the state are to some degree tempered by liberalizing provisions, in the draft law, state control over the NGO sector remains absolute. This striking difference in emphasis can be explained only by taking into account the Tanzanian state's need to affirm its reformist credentials before the international donor community. Hence the relatively liberal provisions of the draft NGO Policy. In the law making process, however, where the state's authority is most directly on the line, it has not made even token concessions to civil society's demands for democratization.

Forewarned is forearmed. Once passed, laws gather their own momentum, creating vested interests along the way and thus becoming extremely difficult to undo. Although these drafts are still only "works in progress," they provide an invaluable insight into the thinking of policy-makers. Awareness of their implications will help activists and NGOs to participate in, and influence, the debate before and not after they go into effect.

1. Although a workshop report prepared by consultants for the NSC refers to the document the "final policy", this appears to be inconsistent with the policy-making practice in Tanzania which has historically treated the cabinet as the final policy-making organ. With this in mind, I have resisted treating this document as the policy on NGOs in Tanzania and, instead, I refer to it as the final draft of the NGO Policy, or for convenience the Policy.

   I have also examined the Policy's second and fourth drafts, but the former was too incomplete to make any meaningful analysis possible. I have, therefore, had to rely on the final draft in this work whereas references to the fourth draft are made where comparisons between the two documents is relevant.