Ambassador Wiebe de Boer - Tanzania
Meet the ambassador
What first struck you about Tanzania? How does life here compare to life in the Netherlands?
‘Nothing in Tanzania can be compared to the Netherlands. The look of the streets, the climate, traffic... everything is more organised in the Netherlands. Here in Tanzania you often have to improvise. And that’s what I like. On my arrival in Dar es Salaam in 2021 it struck me that the streetscape here is very similar to what you have in some South American countries. Before coming here, I was the Dutch ambassador to Peru, and before that to Panama. Outside, it’s colourful and there are lots of young people. There are bustling markets. Tanzanians like to go out, and because they have big families and live in small houses, they tend to live outdoors a lot of the time. People are friendly and outgoing.’
What should Dutch people know about Tanzania?
‘Dutch people are familiar with Tanzania as a holiday destination, with beaches and wildlife reserves. They’re less aware of the fact that the country is developing fast. It’s in the top three of the fastest growing economies in Africa. Last year, the Tanzanian economy grew by five per cent. And that’s a good thing too, because the population – now at 60 million – is also growing really fast. Every year 800,000 young people leave school, and they all need to build a life.’
What main topics is the Dutch embassy in Tanzania working on?
‘Agriculture is an important topic. Tanzania has some fantastic farmland, much of which has still to be cultivated. The country has the potential to be East Africa’s bread basket. And it’s also got to feed its fast-growing population. So it’s crucial to improve food production. Now 40% of the harvest is lost during transport or in storage. Improving transport and storage, and breeding better seed using technology and expertise from the Netherlands is a major focus for the embassy.’
‘We’re also moving towards local production of potatoes, with good seed potatoes from the Netherlands. Basically, we’re trying to promote the potato as a better source of nutrition than rice, the traditional staple. Potatoes need only ten per cent of the water it takes to grow rice. Tanzania is now feeling the impact of climate change. The north of the country in particular has become much drier in the past few years.’
'Sustainable tourism is another priority topic for the embassy. Tanzania has lots to offer tourists. Many people are familiar with the Serengeti, a beautiful area with savannah and forests, but that is only one of the many huge wildlife areas here. Some of them have still to be discovered. The embassy wants to share its ideas on how to develop sustainable tourism – safaris using electric vehicles instead of diesel-powered jeeps, for example.’
The Netherlands wants to help make farming in Tanzania cool. What do you mean by that?
‘For many Tanzanians, becoming a farmer is something for the least intelligent child in the class. Wrongly so. Many Tanzanians move to the city to find a job or set up a business. But there are more opportunities in rural areas. With a small piece of land, you can produce many different crops and gain access to modern life. There are also opportunities for the country’s youth. And for women too. I’m impressed by the power of Tanzanian women. They have a ‘can do’ attitude, and are more business-like than men. If I ask entrepreneurs for a timetable or plan, the women always respond, but the men never do.’
How does the embassy conduct dialogue with the government and businesses in Tanzania on topics like farming and tourism?
‘We organise roundtable meetings bringing together everything and everyone concerned with a certain theme. They include businesses from Tanzania and the Netherlands, educational institutions and government representatives. A roundtable meeting is usually held on location and can last a couple of hours, or a whole day. We organised a round table meeting on potato production in Arusha, in Tanzania’s farming region. At the end of the day, we had several recommendations and action points to discuss with the agriculture minister. I think this is a great way of bringing the right people into contact with each other and taking real steps forward.’
What’s special about Tanzania?
‘The country has 170 tribes, 50% of the country’s population is Christian, and 50% is Muslim. And despite all these differences, people live together peacefully. Tanzania is a beacon of peace and stability in the region. Certainly if you compare it to its neighbours, like the DRC, and consider the terrorist attacks in the north of Mozambique, then you can understand that the peace and calm here are quite exceptional. People work together on all fronts, and throughout society.’
What do you want to achieve as the ambassador to Tanzania?
‘I’m proud of our embassy’s role as a platform, bringing together the right people in Tanzania and the Netherlands. I want to build on this in the years ahead. Just recently we collaborated with the Tanzania Centre for Democracy in organising a meeting in which we trained the youth leaders of the governing party and the four opposition parties to use social media more effectively. There are considerable differences of opinion and resistance between these parties, but after we’d provided the training, we saw that they were making contact and gaining new-found respect for each other. Results like these give me a real boost.’