Working for a better and fairer business environment
Welcome to the third phase of Tanzania’s business, advocacy and dialogue facility, now known as BEST-Dialogue (2013 – 2019), supported by Danida.
BEST-dialogue’s aim? To work as an independent donor-funded programme and assist in gearing the business environment towards sustainable private sector growth.
How? By providing funding, training, mentoring, and networking opportunities to private sector and civil society organisations, who want business reform. We also support institutes of further education and media houses in communicating the business agenda.
BEST-Dialogue works in parallel to the government of Tanzania, striving to achieve a more professional and fairer business environment. We help create a continuous discussion between organisations and the government concerning the Tanzanian business environment and the importance of private sector-led growth.
Inclusive growth
BEST-Dialogue is part of Danida’s Business Sector Programme Support phase IV, which focuses on inclusive growth. This means attention is paid to targeting organisations addressing the particular needs of women and youth for example. The programme also prioritises working in areas which hold particular potential for creating employment and increasing income.
Doing business in Tanzania
Private sector organisations in Tanzania face multiple challenges that reduce their ability to press for changes in existing policies, which would improve business operation. Many organisations have a small, unsustainable membership base. They lack the professional expertise to design and conduct campaigns which communicate the need for business reform. It is important to persuade the government to make changes on specific issues; we call this single-issue advocacy. There is also increasing demand for the private sector to engage in regular, structured dialogue specifically related to Tanzania’s investment climate and business environment. This is called a sustained dialogue.
Support for advocacy and sustainability
BEST-Dialogue strives to build a meaningful relationship between government and business organisations in order to strengthen ongoing discussions, sustained dialogue. It is essential that the government recognises and engages the business sector as a significant partner in Tanzania’s development. On a positive note, the government has created a space in its agenda for the private sector to be consulted in the advocacy dialogue.
We look further afield and provide support not only to private sector organisations but also to civil society at local level, who dedicate their work to business growth. This could be supporting a land rights issue, for example.
Going green
We promote green growth and climate change mitigation in everything we do. This means we work towards reducing the harmful effects of environmental changes which are impacting globally. BEST-Dialogue is supporting public-private discussion to ensure specific environmentally friendly approaches are employed when allocating funding. This approach is upheld in all training and guidance materials.