Mengi calls for mental, material poverty liberation

IPP Executive Chairman Reginald Mengi

IPP Executive Chairman Reginald Mengi has underscored the role of highly developed infrastructure and availability of reliable energy in poverty eradication.

He made remarks to that effect when presenting a paper on wealth sharing, poverty eradication and safeguarding the environment at a World Council of Churches AGAPE consultation workshop in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

The workshop opened on Wednesday and its theme is "Poverty, wealth and ecology: African ecumenical perspectives".

Mengi delved into the intricacies of poverty and ways to combat it, saying reliable infrastructure was a matter of life and death particularly for farming communities in far-flung villages whose survival heavily depends on the ease with which they transport their produce to the marketplace.

He said energy sources must also be available for people of all walks of life in order to make them more productive.

The IPP Chairman appealed to all concerned to make deliberate efforts of exploring workable means of improving the lives of Africa?s poor and otherwise disadvantaged people.

However, he said it would make more sense for the needy to cultivate and maintain confidence in their own ability to free themselves from the shackles of poverty than to keep waiting for mercy drops from other people.

The Tanzanian industrialist, newspaper publisher and environmental crusader observed that poverty was not inherently a problem but merely a challenge which every member of society, including the poor, must feel duty bound to look for ways of effectively dealing with.

He cited weak governance as one of the other major problems African nations and other developing countries must address because they often precipitate, fuel or complicate poverty and its offshoots in the developing world.

``Provision of health care facilities is also essential in the eradication of poverty because sick people cannot produce,`` said Mengi, who is also Chairman of the Confederation of Tanzania Industries.

Discussing what he referred to as categorised poverty, which he said was either mental-based or material-based, he said salvation lay in wealth sharing.

``You share with the poor in many ways, including contributing to social responsibility and other areas which will benefit their surrounding communities,`` he pointed out.

Borrowing from his own experience, Mengi said people could create wealth and reduce poverty while also helping conserve and promote their environment and ecology.

Environmental degradation and poverty are actually closely related and both impact on the people's social and economic welfare, he noted further.