Personal and Interpersonal Skills

Interpersonal skills refer to the ability that enables a person to interact and live with others in peace and harmony. These include:

1. Empathy This is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others.
2. Effective communication This is the ability to convey information clearly and listen actively.
3. Ability to negotiate This is the ability to discuss and reach mutually beneficial agreements.
4. Ability to make friends This is the ability to build and maintain positive relationships.
5. Ability to overcome negative peer pressure This is the ability to resist unhealthy influences from others.

1. Life skills such as self-awareness and empathy can be used to solve or prevent disease-related challenges.
2. Life skills, especially self-awareness, assertiveness, compassion, and the ability to make friends, lead to the development of social awareness among different people.
3. Life skills help people with different strengths and weaknesses to meet their needs.
4. Life skills, especially self-awareness, assertiveness, empathy and the ability to deal with stress and emotions, are crucial in preventing ongoing problems such as drug abuse, early marriage, unintended pregnancies, and suicide.
5. Through life skills, especially empathy and the ability to negotiate, people learn to cooperate effectively, negotiate together, and resolve social or economic conflicts through dialogue.

Self-reliance

Self-reliance refers to a situation in which individuals, institutions, communities, or nations rely on themselves in doing things and meeting their needs. Growing one's own food, animal husbandry, sewing clothes, providing first aid using natural herbs, doing basic emergency domestic repairs, building a shelter, fishing, hunting, and trapping exemplify self-reliance.

The qualities of a self-reliant person

Self-reliance is about being able to do everything yourself or being socio-economically independent. The following are the most typical qualities of a self-reliant person:

1. Solving problems oneself A self-reliant person solves his or her own problems himself or herself.
2. Management skills A self-reliant person respects the time and other resources for a particular task.
3. Developing independent thoughts A self-reliant person can develop independent thoughts and make individual decisions.
4. Ability to make friends A self-reliant person makes friends and learns to build up positive images while expressing care and empathy for others.
5. Completing what has been started A self-reliant person always completes what he or she is doing.
6. Asking for help To learn more so as to make wise decisions, a self-reliant person reaches out to other people for help, where necessary.

Entrepreneurship

The term entrepreneurship has been defined differently by different scholars. It can mean establishing a business or trade and expanding it to generate more profits. However, the modern definition of the term entrepreneurship refers to changing the world by solving big problems. However, entrepreneurship skills include inner discipline, ability to take risks, innovation, and persistence.

Qualities of entrepreneurs

Successful entrepreneurs are committed and optimistic. They are open to new ideas. The following are the qualities of an entrepreneur:

1. Self-disciplined Entrepreneurs focus on what they are doing and try to overcome any disappointment or obstacles.
2. Self-confident Entrepreneurs are confident about what they plan to do or they are doing.
3. Open-minded Entrepreneurs regard every event and situation as an opportunity to learn and explore new strategies, approaches, and networks to facilitate the attainment of a goal. They always think about improving efficiency and grasping opportunities.
4. Action-oriented Entrepreneurs know that if something has to be done, then it must be done immediately.
5. Competitive Entrepreneurs are always cautious to know the strengths and weaknesses.
6. Creative Entrepreneurs are usually opportunists of the demand available so that they can utilise them to succeed.
7. Self-determined and risk-taking Entrepreneurs are always self-determined and dissatisfied with failures. They regard failures as opportunities and do whatever they can to succeed.
8. Interpersonal skills Entrepreneurs have strong skills that enable them to interact with various people who are potential for their success.
9. Highly ethical Entrepreneurs are always honest and trustworthy.
10. Resource managing Entrepreneurs can manage and use various resources, including money, time and workforce for their success.
11. Doing research Entrepreneurs always search for best opportunities and information on how to utilise new opportunities.

The relationship between self-reliance and entrepreneurship

1. A self-reliant person and an entrepreneur start a business or an activity that generates income. They make an effort and use their creativity to achieve their goals.
2. Self-reliance and entrepreneurship create employment opportunities.
3. A self-reliant person or an entrepreneur is a self-employed person with complete decision-making freedom as hierarchical rules or regulations do not bind them.
4. A self-reliant person and an entrepreneur are responsible for their successes or failures.
5. A self-reliant person and an entrepreneur work tirelessly to improve the quality of their goods or services.

The importance of self-reliance and entrepreneurship

Self-reliance and entrepreneurship are essential in any country. They can improve people's lives significantly. The following is the importance of self-reliance and entrepreneurship in society.

1. Self-reliance and entrepreneurship can help graduates to become self-employed and abandon the notion that the government or private companies must employ them.
2. Self-reliance and entrepreneurship enable people to meet their wishes to get money and improve their lives.
3. Self-reliance and entrepreneurship enable people to gain fame and recognition.
4. Self-reliance and entrepreneurship enable individuals to learn how to interact with others, especially clients.
5. Self-reliance and entrepreneurship make a self-reliant person or an entrepreneur free.
6. Self-reliance and entrepreneurship help individuals to cope with peer pressure, especially when they see many of their colleagues doing businesses.

Challenges facing Tanzanian youths in relation to self-reliance and entrepreneurship

1. Inadequate capital
2. Strict lending conditions
3. Lack of self-reliance and entrepreneurial skills
4. Strict government regulations and red-tape in company registration
5. Limited knowledge and skills
6. Donor dependence on youth empowering programmes

Strategies for promoting self-reliance and entrepreneurship in Tanzania

1. Regular review of the educational curriculum
2. Training in self-reliance and entrepreneurship
3. Creating a friendly business environment
4. Provision of affordable loans

The NPBFP was initiated to empower the economically backward majority in Tanzania by increasing their access to formal financial markets and other services by formalising their property rights and businesses. This programme anticipated that the landowners in rural areas would use their formalised land as collateral to acquire loans from banks. Thus, start business ventures using the loans so as to improve their living conditions. However, the programme faced many challenges. One of the main challenges was the existence of unreliable source of funding to support the programme.

The contribution of NPBFP to the promotion of entrepreneurship and self-reliance

Despite the challenges that NPBFP faced, several achievements were made, as elaborated below.

1. Time management
2. Cost-effectiveness
3. Availability and accessibility of information on land management
4. Capacity building
5. Improvement of institutional frameworks
6. Security of tenure
7. Ownership of the property
8. Certificate of the right of occupancy