Any 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 realisation. A national vision therefore seeks to actively mobilise the people and other resources towards the achievement of shared goals. A shared vision arouses people's aspirations and creates the spark that lifts the nation out of its slumber. In the process, it instills the courage and determination to rise to challenges at the individual, community and national levels. A vision is thus a vehicle of hope and an inspiration for motivating the people to search and work harder for the betterment of their livelihoods and for posterity.
The objective of Tanzania Development Vision 2025 is to awaken, co-ordinate and direct the people's efforts, minds and national resources towards those core sectors that will enable attain development goals and withstand the expected intensive economic competition ahead. The Vision projects that by year 2025 the Tanzanian society will be free from poverty and will have graduated from the group of least developed countries to that of middle income countries with a high level of human development. It has the following five major attributes: High quality livelihood; peace, stability and unity; good governance; a well educated and learning society; and a competitive economy capable of producing sustainable growth and shared benefits. Knowledge of the past visions and impediments to achievement of their objectives is important to ensure successful implementation of Vision 2025,
The first was Vision to Achieve Independence. Every Tanzanian understood and accepted that goal, which was a basic human right. However, having attained independence, it was realised that not everybody understood his or her consequent obligation; namely, that enjoying the fruits of independence implied hard work. Hence, the post-independence catchword " Uhuru na Kazi ”. The second vision was the Arusha Declaration of February 1967. The Declaration articulated a philosophy of socio-economic liberation based on socialism and self-reliance as the long-term national goal of Tanzanians and was accepted by the majority of Tanzanians and galvanized them behind its realisation . There was genuine commitment to eradicate poverty, ignorance and disease and reasonable progress was achieved in the fields of education and health. However, the strategy did not sufficiently address the complexity and dynamic character of policies and incentive structures which were necessary to effectively drive the development process forward.
Among the impediments to the past visions, the following have often been cited as the key ones:
• Donor dependency syndrome and a dependent developmental mindset and a culture of admiring "effortless" success plus high degree of apathy and lack of accountability;
• A weak and low capacity for economic management - an economy dominated by agriculture and other primary production of commodities;
• Failures in good governance (characterised by corruption & other social vices coupled with a very strong central governance i.e. less peoples involvement) and in the organisation of production and structures, which have not been reviewed to cope with the demands of the on-going reforms; and
• Ineffective implementation strategies and propensity to prepare and pronounce plans and programs, and ambitions to which there was little commitment to monitoring, implementation and evaluation mechanisms.
