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Overall Strategic Objectives and the Danish Focus Areas for Cooperation

Denmark’s cooperation with Tanzania takes its point of departure in the political, economic and social challenges described above. The cooperation builds on a strong Danish commitment to assist Tanzania in addressing these challenges and helping to exploit the many existing opportunities. Denmark supports the Tanzanian government’s overall Development Vision 2025 and its national development plans, including the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (MKUKUTA II, 2010-2015) and the Long-Term Perspective Plan (2011-2025) with its consecutive five-year development plans. It is envisaged that the Big Results Now framework will strengthen the implementation of these strategies.

The overall strategic objectives of Denmark’s cooperation with Tanzania are:

  1. To reduce poverty and inequality and to ensure equitable access to quality social services, especially within the health sector;
  2. To promote inclusive green growth and employment;
  3. To strengthen democracy, good governance, rule of law and respect for all human rights.

These different strategic objectives are closely interlinked. Peace, stability and democracy have been essential preconditions for Tanzania’s positive development. Continued peace and democratization, improvements in human rights, rule of law and governance will be essential for future economic and social development as well as for improving the business environment and ensuring a more equitable and just distribution of social services. Increased commercial cooperation with neighbouring and other foreign countries can help promote economic growth and generate more employment. Inclusive growth and better employment opportunities, especially in rural areas, are of fundamental importance for reducing poverty and improving the population’s social situation, but also for maintaining stability and the historically peaceful coexistence that has prevailed between Tanzania’s different social and ethnic groups.

To achieve these objectives, the following focus areas have been chosen for cooperation:

  1. Health sector;
  2. Agricultural sector;
  3. Good governance and access to Justice
  4. Regional peace and stability.

These thematic areas have been chosen based on the analysis of the major challenges and needs described earlier in this country policy paper. In financial terms, the Danish development assistance amounts to about 0.3% of Tanzania’s GDP and only around 1% of its total public budget. The priorities of the Danish efforts are therefore based on an assessment of where Denmark can play a catalyst role attracting other actors, both private and public sector, to work towards Tanzania’s overall development goals. Furthermore, Denmark wishes that the continued cooperation is based on the substantial and long-term experience and the strong Danish position gained from many years of cooperation within precisely these areas.

Denmark will work closely with a broad range of stakeholders and actors to the extent that they are prepared to contribute to ensuring the needed changes and reforms. This applies first and foremost to the Government of Tanzania, but also to parliament, civil society, the media and the private sector. More than half the Danish funds are expected to be channelled directly through the government systems, especially as support for poverty reduction and ensuring equitable sustainable provision of social services.

The Danish government has adopted a rights-based approach to development, which means that Denmark will systematically address the core human rights principles of non-discrimination, popular participation, transparency and economic and political accountability in all areas where Denmark and Tanzania cooperate.

The development cooperation will be governed by the international principles for aid effectiveness. These comprise principles of ownership, alignment, harmonization, result-orientation and mutual economic accountability. Denmark will, to the greatest extent possible, support national development strategies and work through the national systems.

The cooperation with Tanzania is characterised by a comprehensive and well-developed tradition for dialogue and coordination. Denmark will continue to engage actively in policy dialogue with Tanzania, both on a bilateral basis and through the well-established mechanisms for government dialogue with development partners. Tanzania currently has 40 development partners, the largest of which are the United States, the World Bank, African Development Bank, EU, UK/DFID and the Nordic countries. Denmark is engaged in an ongoing dialogue, cooperation and coordination with these key development partners, including joint programming and in basket funding, and in the donor group for general budget support (GBS).

Denmark is collaborating very closely with the EU Delegation and with other EU member states, and when opportunities emerge, will continue to explore the scope for enhancing this cooperation. Of particular interest is the strong cooperation and harmonization of the various aid instruments for general budget support (GBS), and Denmark and the EU have already partly aligned their methods. In Brussels as well, Denmark will engage actively in the development of EU policies relevant to Tanzania.

Denmark will increasingly support and promote commercial cooperation with Tanzania, also in the context of the increasing regional economic integration in East Africa.

Denmark will increase its collaboration with Tanzania on global issues affecting both countries, such as regional peacekeeping, the fight against piracy, strengthening of the global human rights agenda, rule of law and improved trade policies.

Denmark will also work to strengthen cooperation in the field of cultural exchange between Denmark and Tanzania.

The Danish engagement in Tanzania thus takes the form of an integrated approach in which various individual elements – development programmes, commercial cooperation and political dialogue – mutually reinforce each other in order to ensure maximum impact and efficiency. All available instruments will thus be considered with regard to attaining the strategic objectives, and they will be applied within the relevant focus areas for future cooperation as outlined in the following paragraphs.

REDUCTION OF POVERTY AND INEQUALITY AND ENSURING EQUITABLE ACCESS TO QUALITY SOCIAL SERVICES, ESPECIALLY WITHIN THE HEALTH SECTOR

Danish assistance for promoting poor Tanzanians’ right to a better life will target promotion of human rights to all Tanzanians and promote the way in which economic growth is created and distributed in Tanzania. Focus will be on three areas; jobs, social services and the affecting income distribution through the tax system.

The formulation and implementation of a pro-poor policy, and which includes the greater quality and more equitable distribution of social services is first and foremost a responsibility and obligation for Tanzania’s government. The Tanzanian government has committed itself positively to fulfilling this obligation, and Denmark will support the government in its efforts. The Danish-Tanzanian cooperation will emphasize good governance including equitable delivery and access to sustainable social services and development of a social safety net for all Tanzanians, especially in rural areas, including areas populated by indigenous peoples.

Denmark supports Tanzania’s ambitious long-term vision to become a middle-income country by 2025 (Vision 2025). This goal entails that abject poverty should be eliminated. In the short term, the government’s objective is to reduce income poverty to 24% by 2015 (MDG target is 19%). The government wants to reduce income poverty by promoting inclusive, sustainable, and job-generating growth and development. More specifically, the government's goal is to create and ensure decent and productive employment, especially for women, youth and people with disabilities, and to reduce total unemployment to 5%. This will entail creating more than three million jobs over the next five years. The efforts to improve productivity in the agricultural sector will be a crucial factor in this context, and the government plans to increase agricultural growth to 6% by 2015.

In addition to a direct reduction in poverty, the government seeks to improve the provision of public social services so that they reach farther and broader. The Vision 2025 plan sets targets for universal primary education, the eradication of illiteracy and a situation with so many highly educated and trained, skilled Tanzanians that the country achieves a critical mass of highly qualified human resources and obtains the capacity to meet the myriad of developmental challenges facing the country.

In the health sector, the objectives are to ensure access to quality primary health services of a quality for all and especially access to reproductive health services (including family planning) for all those who need it. The goal is a reduction in infant/child and maternal mortality rates to one-quarter of the current level.

Over the medium term, the government aims to ensure that all children, from early childhood, shall be offered pre-school education, and that there will be access for both primary and secondary schooling for all girls and boys. The objective entails that the net enrolment rate of children at both pre- and primary school levels must be 100%, and that an adequate number of competent teachers must be trained, so that there can be one teacher for every 45 pupils in the primary school, and one teacher for every 25 pupils in secondary school.

In the health sector, the government aims to improve survival rates, health, nutrition and well-being, especially for children, women and especially vulnerable groups. Denmark will assist the government in its efforts to accelerate provision of quality primary health care services to all by 2017 and to rehabilitate and upgrade older primary health care facilities and establish new ones in order to ensure the greatest possible equity and equal access of quality health care to all Tanzanians.

The government’s development objectives are both ambitious and costly. The government’s plan is to increase state revenue by more than 80% over the next five years, and Denmark will assist the Tanzania Revenue Authority in meeting this ambitious target. This corresponds to an increase in the state’s total revenue collection, primarily via taxation, from around 18% to 22% of GDP. If the government reaches its target, the increase in annual tax and licensing revenue alone in 2018 would correspond to more than 25 times the annual Danish ODA to Tanzania. Denmark will support a reform programmes that enhances public financial management, including management of the state’s revenues. This effort will also be crucial for ensuring responsible management connected to general budget support GBS, reducing the risks attached to this form of support. Denmark will continue to emphasize strengthening the respect for the rule of law and respect for all forms of human rights. Denmark will focus especially on transparency and accountability in administration and on the fight against corruption at all levels.

The cooperation with the Government of Tanzania will be based on a development contract between the two governments, where Denmark channels funds to Tanzania’s public budget on the basis of the Tanzanian Government’s adherence to the principles of good governance and promotion of human rights and democracy, as well as achievement of specific development targets year by year. This principle has the goal of ensuring:

  • Increased aid effectiveness and country ownership, fewer transaction costs in managing development assistance, and greater predictability of aid flows; enhancing the administration of public finances and public expenditures; strengthening of the national planning and budget process together with the financial responsibility being moved from donors to all Tanzanians;
  • Improved monitoring and evaluation systems and ensuring reciprocity in the responsibility to manage the aid;
  • Strengthening of the use of national planning and budgeting process and strengthening the capacity of Local Government Authorities, because they are on the front lines in the implementation of the poverty reduction strategies.

The human rights based approach entails that through dialogue and technical assistance that Denmark will focus specifically on:

  • Creating strong and inclusive economic and political institutions able to fulfil their respective roles as duty bearers;
  • Redistribution of resources in society so that they are used increasingly for the benefit of the poor and marginalized groups; this applies to actual economic resources as well as public goods such as infrastructure, energy, health and education;
  • The need for growth to become more sustainable and inclusive, especially in creating more employment in the rural areas.

Denmark will also engage in dialogue with the Tanzanian government on issues relating to public expenditures. This includes the priority given to the social sectors, especially health, in the national budget. The policy on income distribution, fulfilment of civil and political rights and of the economic, social and cultural rights are also issues that will be emphasized in the Danish-Tanzanian dialogue.

Denmark will insist that the support leads to tangible results, both in terms of fulfilment of the overall poverty reduction and in the fulfilment of development objectives set by the Government of Tanzania, as well as the specific objectives agreed upon between the government and its development partners. The results-oriented focus is important in order to ensure that the beneficiaries of the Danish GBS will be primarily the poor people in Tanzania, and this means that considerable parts of the budget will be frozen if the agreed upon objectives are not achieved.

Social Protection and Safety Net

Equitable delivery and provision of social services is a pre-condition for proper functioning of the broader social safety net. National efforts are currently focusing on increasing health insurance coverage at both national and community levels and scaling-up the use of payments to low income families, conditioned, for example, by their children being vaccinated, girls attending school and the like. Denmark, through the GBS and health sector dialogue, will contribute towards ensuring that the poorest people, both in the public and private sector programmes, experience improved availability and access to social services.

Focus Area: Support to the Health Sector

A part of Denmark’s contribution to Tanzania’s public budget will be targeted support specifically to the health sector. The objective is to improve the health and welfare in the poorest segments of Tanzanian society by strengthening the national (including local) systems’ capacity to ensure equal access to quality health services for all. This includes sustaining and further developing the results achieved in relation to the UN Millennium Development Goals. Increased emphasis will be given especially to issues of equity and quality.

The overall objectives will be achieved through a focus on:

  • Core health systems support, including promotion of a coordinated approach to result-based financing in accordance with the national and sector strategies;
  • Public private partnership to support innovative financing mechanisms and ways of providing health services, while at the same time increasing the role of private sector health provision;
  • Strengthening efforts for maternal health, including support for sexual and reproductive health and rights;
  • Denmark will promote and operationalize the rights-based approach in all forms of its support to the health sector.

Through continued targeted support to the health sector, Denmark can use its long-standing experience in this sector in Tanzania to strengthen and consolidate existing activities until health, if things go as expected, becomes a priority sector of the Big Results Now initiative. If health becomes a part of this initiative, it will give a potential for a significant increase in the priority of this sector. Denmark will carry out studies of the ways in which the health sector is financed in order to ensure that the funds are used as effectively as possible. In this area as well, Zanzibar is also a special case, and possible future support to the health sector will be assessed when the existing constitutional review process has been completed.

In order to address the significant disparities in terms of access to quality health services as they affect different groups in society, Denmark will focus on both the supply side and demand-sides. This will include efforts to ensure more equal and equitable distribution of resources at the district level. It will be essential to ensure that the basic health services are of an acceptable standard, while also being available to all and everywhere, and provided in a way that is economically sustainable over the long term. Denmark will endeavour to: increase the resources going to the district level (from 50% to 75% of the total sector support); to ensure more equitable allocation and distribution of the pooled health financial resources; and to ensure a more equitable distribution of professional health personnel to all the districts.

These efforts will be promoted through the policy dialogue linked to the GBS. The efforts to promote equity and quality of health service delivery require a close linkage to Denmark’s broader support to good governance and human rights.

The assurance of basic health services is primarily government responsibility. However, the government is not the sole provider of health services. The private institutions and organisations today provide about 40% of the total services, and the involved institutions are both faith-based non-profit organisations and for profit firms. The private institutions also provide a great proportion of the health services in the most outlying rural areas and to some of the poorest segments of the population. Denmark will therefore give targeted support to the cooperation between public and private partners with the intention of stimulating and strengthening support to the private sector’s active involvement in promoting access, availability and quality in the health services.

Besides supporting public-private partnerships in the urban areas, Denmark will support the establishment of public-private partnership forums at the regional level (25 regions in total). It will strengthen the cooperation between the public and private sectors in seeking to ensure increased access and choice for the users of health and social services.

PROMOTING INCLUSIVE GREEN GROWTH AND EMPLOYMENT

The objective of the Danish support is to strengthen employment and income opportunities for both women and men by supporting green, inclusive growth of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). This is an area where the Tanzanian government has eloquent policies, but only modest results have been seen on the ground. In order to help Tanzania reach the desired outcomes in terms of both jobs and poverty reduction, Denmark will focus its support on the non-state actors, who have the best prerequisites for increasing economic growth, and on the local governments, who are the key government interlocutors for most businesses in the country. This support will be given parallel with an effective private sector advocacy activity for reforms of the business environment. There has already occurred a significant degree of success in developing financial borrowing systems and models that can create the kind of security so as to facilitate better access to loans in the private sector. This work will be continued and expanded.

Focus Area: Supporting the Agricultural Sector

The Danish support will address some of the major factors that can contribute to stimulating private sector growth and job creation, and special emphasis will be given to raising agricultural productivity and the processing of agricultural products. Constraints analysis has identified a number of barriers to growth, including lack of access to markets, lack of access to financing, and lack of skills. Focus will be on creating donor cooperation for developing implementation modalities that are flexible in relation to the needs and that can embrace a wide range of public and private stakeholders. All activities will be initiated with the aim of giving the individual Tanzanians access to decent employment that can assure him or her an income that gives a minimum standard of living and possibilities to support a family. The activities will be centred around those value chains in production related to agriculture, which have the greatest potential. There will be a strong focus on green growth, especially where there are particularly promising possibilities for creating decent employment and decent incomes for poor people in rural areas and small towns, and not least for women and young people. The effort will target the structural barriers to growth, and include targeted efforts to develop technical skills.

The support effort is expected to have the following impacts:

  • Increased income and higher productivity among especially farmers and poor small-holders;
  • Increased employment in part-time or full time jobs, especially in rural areas;
  • Greater and more varied skills and better employability among those Tanzanians who have been beneficiaries of education and training;
  • Enhanced competitiveness and access to markets for MSMEs;
  • Improved business climate, especially in terms of improvements in the local governments’ ability and capacity to implement the adopted reforms of rules and regulatory framework;
  • Improved access to credit through new, improved and innovative financing systems, especially in the rural areas.

The goal of the support in terms of employment impact is to facilitate the creation of what corresponds to at least 50,000 new full-time jobs. In practice, it will correspond to the creation of more than 150,000 part-time or seasonal jobs in the value chains that are supported through the programme. Overall, the goal of the support is that more than one million people obtain direct or indirect benefit from the support.

Denmark’s rights-based approach ensures that there is a focus on rights in all major interventions. The partner institutions’ compliancaae with human rights will be assessed, and the partners will be en couraged to initiate and publish their own human rights policies. Follow-up will be evaluated. In agriculture, special emphasis will be placed on issues of access to land and water for different groups (including pastoralists). The choice of interventions in the different value chains will be based on analyses of green growth potentials and gender analyses. Tanzania’s strategey for mitigating the negative consequences of climate change will form part of the foundation.

Denmark will also continue to support the regional economic integration process in East Africa through direct support to the EAC and to TRADEMARK East Africa, the goal of which is to improve the efficiency of East Africa’s transport corridors and to reduce administrative costs so that regional trade can increase and competitiveness improve. The overall objective of the regional support is poverty reduction through green growth and promotion of employment. All the EAC member states, including Tanzania, stand to benefit from stronger regional economic integration, and a number of promising steps have already been made to make East Africa into a single market and customs union. The single market and the customs union are the pillar of EAC cooperation.

Denmark will leverage all available GoGlobal tools and instruments in order to support green growth and employment in Tanzania, including Danida Business Finance, Danida Business Partnerships, Danish Climate Investment Fund and the Investment Fund for Developing Countries, and Denmark’s Export Credit Agency and the Trade Council.

Tanzania is increasingly resorting to non-concessional borrowing for its credit needs and could therefore benefit considerably from using Denmark’s different types of concessional lending instruments with lower interest rates. Opportunities also exist in other sectors than agriculture, such as renewable energy, transport and infrastructure, waste management, industrial design, health and food processing. Such loans will at the same time promote investments by Danish firms in Tanzania and can help to create employment and sustainable growth, especially in Tanzania, but also to some extent in Denmark as well.

Intersection Between Development Cooperation and Commercial Activities

In order to increase the role played by commercial activities in support of green growth and employment, Denmark will strengthen the synergy between its development cooperation and commercial activities. Focus will be on agriculture, but not limited to agriculture.

Actual commercial cooperation between Denmark and Tanzania is today very limited, and trade on purely commercial terms is practically non-existent. Export of Danish goods to Tanzania accounts for 0.01% of total Danish exports (equivalent to DKK 57 million in 2011). However, there is more export within services in the form of shipping and other transport. There are also some minor examples of commercial cooperation through the Danida Business Partnerships (DBP), which work to promote technology and knowledge transfer from Danish to Tanzanian companies. Denmark has set the goal of establishing 20-25 projects over the next five years through the Danida Business Partnerships. Focus will be on strengthened competitiveness, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and green growth in Tanzania. Danida Business Partnerships is expected to increase sales in selected agriculture-related value chains and to generate employment of 400-500 new jobs over the next five years.

Denmark is also expecting to use the Danida Business Finance instrument to support demand-driven investments of more than DKK 500 million in sustainable economic infrastructure, primarily in the transport and energy sectors. These investments are expected to enhance energy efficiency, environmental protection of ports and coastal areas, and the promotion of greener transport systems to remote and poor communities.

Over the medium term, there is potential for developing stronger commercial ties between Denmark and Tanzania. Agriculture and food processing, along with green technology, water and energy and construction represent some of the areas that are likely to be of interest to Danish investors and exporters. The discovery of energy reserves also provides potential opportunities, and service export will continue to be significant. Considering the still limited purchasing power of the Tanzanian private sector, public procurement will continue to remain an important area.

The main thrust of Tanzania’s foreign policy is to promote and enhance the country’s economic relations to the outside world. This is taking place under the foreign policy paradigm of ‘economic diplomacy’. While Tanzania’s economic relations with China and India are particularly strong and rapidly deepening, there is also a considerable potential and Tanzanian willingness to strengthen economic relations with other partners, including Denmark. By 2018, Denmark is expected to have doubled its export of goods and services to Tanzania. In the service sector, this will be primarily in the area of maritime transport.

Improved regional integration is likely to strengthen the interest of Danish companies, as a regional approach to Tanzania and the EAC will give access to a larger market, intra-regional trade and investments, and the possibilities to benefit from EAC’s aligned bureaucratic processes and the common tax and customs regulations. Even with these improvements, however, East Africa – and Tanzania in particular – is not an easy market to enter for Danish companies. It is important to have knowledge of the political, social and cultural environment. Sufficient patience and robust attitude in dealing with bureaucratic obstacles and corruption can also be crucial to success. The Danish embassy in Tanzania is prepared to assist Danish companies with knowledge in these areas.

The Tanzanian growth rates appear attractive to European investors, who face low growth in their home markets. However, the current Tanzanian market for consumer goods continues to be relatively small. Even though the East African countries have growing middle classes, it is important to recall that they are growing from a low base, and that goods produced in Europe are still too expensive for the vast majority of East Africans. Considering the high regional growth rates, however, the market could for certain selected consumer goods, become interesting within 5-10 years, and some foreign investors are currently preparing for this development.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark will continue to promote trade and commercial activity between Denmark and East Africa, including Tanzania. The long history of Denmark’s engagement in Tanzania means that the embassy is in a strong position to assist Danish companies in a broad range of sectors. Denmark will make efforts to create synergies between development cooperation and commercial activities by utilizing the experience from the development cooperation in relevant sectors. The embassy in Tanzania aims at positioning itself as an esteemed advisor to companies in the region by enabling commercial interests to benefit from all GoGlobal tools and istruments. As such Denmark will apply a comprehensive approach by using development cooperation, commercial instruments and political dialogue to foster further commercial cooperation between Denmark and Tanzania.

STRENGTHENING DEMOCRACY, GOOD GOVERNANCE, RULE OF LAW AND RESPECT FOR ALL HUMAN RIGHTS

While the Tanzanian government is broadly committed to ensuring non-discrimination, participation, transparency and accountability in the public sector, progress in realizing the core public sector reforms is not living up to expectations. The primary drive for change will need from an active population that makes greater and more broadly articulated demands for a more responsible political system and political leadership.

Focus Area: Supporting the Demand Side of Good Governance and Human Rights for All

The development contract with the government of Tanzania, deals with the supply side of governance and services to the population. As a logical supplement to this side of the development cooperation, Denmark will also support the demand side – the Tanzanian civil society – in working to promote democracy, good governance, rule of law and respect for human rights. There is an important link between provision of budget support, which enables the government to live up to its obligations, and the support to the work of civil society in increasing understanding of and the demands for increased social accountability. Denmark will assist the citizens’ own organisations, such as the Foundation for Civil Society, in ensuring that the poor have a voice in society and enhancing the monitoring mechanism and advocacy in the social sector. Women's rights and gender equality are integral parts of this agenda, which has great strategic importance in relation to population growth, one of Tanzania's major challenges. This area will therefore be central in the Danish assistance effort to Tanzanian civil society.

It is envisaged that support will go mainly to key institutions and organisations that can advocate for and make demands for good governance, help to ensure the systems of checks and balances necessary to a democratic society and generally hold the government accountable to its citizens. Among these institutions could be parliament, civil society (including women’s organisations and legal aid providers), media and private sector institutions such as the trade unions and the employers’ organisations. Denmark will select partners who can promote social accountability and transparency in the government, both locally and nationally, especially as regards the use of public resources. The choice will also include partners who focus on ensuring that basic social services are accessible for all and not least for women. Women have a special need in terms of reproductive health, and area crucial for Tanzania's long-term development. Special interventions may be designed to promote similar objectives in Zanzibar, which in many ways is a special case and which has its own institutions.

The main objectives and expected results of the Danish engagement in this area are:

  • Strengthened demand for good governance via a strong and vocal civil society;
  • A deeper and more developed democracy via stronger institutional checks and balances;
  • Greater respect for rule of law and human rights;
  • Improved transparency and accountability via strengthened capacity of key public sector institutions.

In order to achieve these goals, Denmark will use a combination of policy dialogue and systematic integration of human rights considerations in all development interventions.

Focus Area: Regional Peace and Stability

Denmark supports the demand side of good governance and rights in Tanzanian society, but ensuring peaceful democratic development must also be based on promoting regional peace and stability as a precondition for creating a sustainable environment for economic growth, social development and political stability. Denmark will therefore support and work for closer cooperation on regional and global issues in areas where Tanzania and Denmark could benefit from the partnership.

Traditionally, Tanzania has been an important foreign policy player in Africa. Tanzania continues this tradition – both diplomatically and with more than 2000 peace-keeping troops in African conflict areas – and Tanzania is increasingly active on global issues. Its strengthened democracy, political stability and sustained economic growth have provided a platform for Tanzania being able to act with more assertiveness and authority on regional and global issues. As such, it has the potential to become an even stronger partner for Denmark. A more internationally assertive Tanzania would enable increased cooperation on important global issues such as climate change, human rights, including women’s rights, and counter-terrorism and piracy. It is particularly in the UN and other multilateral forums where there will be possibilities for partnership. Tanzania, a large developing country, shares many values with a small developed country like Denmark, and to the extend that the two countries can strengthen their cooperation on global issues in precisely these forums, it can boost the importance and legitimacy of these issues. As opportunities emerge, Denmark will actively seek to establish closer cooperation with Tanzania in addressing shared challenges.

The increasingly important role of Tanzania in the international efforts to combat piracy constitutes a specific opportunity for cooperation. Tanzania has recently strengthened its counter-piracy efforts, and this could also potentially nurture a much-needed regional cooperation on counter-piracy. Tanzania and Denmark recently entered into a bilateral agreement on the transfer of suspected pirates. As a result, Tanzania, upon request from Denmark, may accept the transfer of persons detained by Danish naval forces in connection with suspected acts of piracy. The Tanzanian authorities will be able to conduct legal investigations and prosecution. This agreement is evidence that has assumed greater responsibility in the common struggle against piracy, and Denmark is prepared to extend diplomatic and technical support to this end. Furthermore, Tanzania is also active in the international work to fight crime in connection with mass atrocity crimes and attempts to evade prosecution and promote respect for the rule of law.