Blending Local Government Authorities and Grassroots for Industrial Economy Through Participatory Development Communication in Tanzania

Introduction

Globally, industrialization plays a key role in the nation’s economic development. This aspect, relies on the link between industrialization and economic growth (Szirmai, 2012). Industrialization allows for greater economies of scale, with countries that are able to produce larger varieties of goods also being far more likely to undergo rapid economic growth (Hausman et al., 2007). Leaving aside successful nations with strong industrial economy like China, Britain, Germany, Japan, United States etc., there are several countries that have been successful in industrialization especially developing ones like Indonesia, India, Thailand and Turkey. The reason behind their success is that, such countries underwent industrial structural change and stressed on the use of information on the domestic credits and private sector and inclusivity of people in the process (Martorano, Sanfilippo & Haraguchi, 2017). Inclusiveness involves the participation of people from the grassroots to the national level and have common understandings and actions on the industrialization process. Also, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (2018) encourages the governments sharing information and movement of the industrialization process to be inclusive especially to the poorer (lower) segment of the society. In fact, the inclusive aspects encouraged here relates to the sharing of knowledge, expertise, experiences, challenges and actions if a country is to attain industrialization prospects.

In Africa, the calls for industrialization has been stronger than they have been lately. Arguably, it is the most talked about subject among policymakers of many of the African countries. Yet the continent is less industrialized today than it was four decades ago. In fact, the contribution of Africa’s manufacturing sector to the continent’s gross domestic product actually declined from 12% in 1980 to 11% in 2013, where it has remained stagnant over the past few years (Tafirenyika, 2016). The question has been what, are the options for Africa to industrialize in the next few years to come. This was the question policymakers and economic experts wrestled with in Addis Ababa, at the launch of “Economic Report on Africa 2016: Greening Africa’s Industrialization.” The question African countries have not been able to answer adequately is on the best approach to boost the industrial economy (Economic Commission for Africa, 2016). During the discussion of experts, it was revealed that, one of the main reasons for Africa’s slow industrialization is that, its leaders have failed to pursue bold economic policies. Many experts have called on Africa to practice so-called sophisticated or smart protectionism that is, to impose temporary tariffs to shield budding industries from the negative effects of cheap imports as part of its strategy to industrialize (Tafirenyika, 2016).

However, the challenge in Africa has been on the power of local factories to compete. This attracts discussions due to the fact that, the weaknesses rely mostly on the communication between the governments and people (grassroots) engaging in let say small scale industrial practices. This is an area that has not been focused by many in Africa. The grassroots are clearly found in the local governments’ jurisdictions, there is where the improvement and perhaps encouragement need to focus due to the aspect that, people at this area are engaging in small scale manufacturing at high pace. Surprisingly, African countries have been focusing on protecting local products with little emphasis on building the foundation by strengthening communication between governments (perhaps the local government) and grassroots engaging in manufacturing sector to boost the process. The communication helps sharing knowledge, challenges, decisions and actions to be taken to improve the process of industrialization if they are to attain industrial economy agenda.