Social Changes

Objectives of Health Services After Independence in Africa

1. To expand modern health facilities for African citizens.
2. To increase living standard of people.
3. To reduce and remove the high infant mortality rate and high maternal death rate during child labor.
4. To remove racial discrimination in the provision of health services through promoting health to citizens.

Features of Health Services After Independence

1. Through Ujamaa villages, health services were improved a large group of people were able to receive services from one center.
2. The 5-year development plan, (1964-1969) Tanzania's ambitions to improve health services in rural areas which benefited many people and support for preventive rather than curative aspects of health services.
3. The government recognized the values of medical auxiliaries after Arusha Declaration. Health services were provided free of charge due to the introduction of socialism until 1980's other agencies charged a small amount for health services.
4. During 1970's and the 1980's Tanzania received a lot of aid towards promotion of health services. After economic crisis, progress in health care was undermined by lack of enough financial allocation. As the result, user charges were introduced in government hospitals.

Strengths of Provision of Health Services in Africa After Independence

1. Provision of free health services, enable many Africans to get health services they really needed.
2. Many Africans have now been trained to take charge of health sector in their particular countries medical doctors, nurses and other caregivers was trained. This enable individual countries to have their own expert therefore reduced dependency on expatriate personnel.
3. Provision of vaccines has enabled countries to eradicate many epidemic diseases existed in Africa for a long time such as polio and measles.
4. Establishment of health practitioners training institutions including medical training centers and universities.
5. Infant mortality has reduced dramatically in most African countries. Alternative medicine has now been adopted in a number of African countries to tackle health.

Weaknesses in the Provision of Health Services in Africa After Independence

1. Enough financial resources to provide health services was a problem to most countries.
2. Poor planning and lack of resources has affected provision of infrastructure including clean water and transport.
3. Due to failure to research on local traditional medicines has led African governments to spend many resources in buying medicines from other part of the world.
4. Number of incurable diseases such as HIV and AIDS, Diabetes and Cancer also undermines medical services. Heart ailment have increased in Africa and have contributed to the rising costs of providing health and medical services in the continent.
5. Lack of enough well-trained personnel as many Africans were neglected to be trained during the colonial period. In some African countries, a high level of corruption has led to the sale of government-funded medicines at a throw away to unscrupulous business people. This caused great suffering among the population.
6. International drug manufacturers promoted the Western Approach to medicines due to their self-interests. Africans were encouraged to use powdered milk for infants, although they cannot guarantee access to safe water.

Objectives of Provision of Water Services After Independence

1. To improve provision of clean water and reliable to all citizens.
2. To provide clean and reliable water supplies to the citizens so as to improve the standard of living.
3. To improve sanitation level in the countries.
4. To provide more equitable distribution of infrastructures in the countries.
5. To ensure good health of citizens due to the availability of clean water.

Success of Provision of Water Services After Independence

1. Establishment of boreholes and dams so as to preserve water.
2. Private companies has been given licenses to provide clean bottled water to avoid its citizens to drink unsafe water.
3. Water treatments plants have been established.
4. Infrastructures have been established many countries so as to ensure supply of water to citizens this includes provision of piped water.

Objectives of the Provision of Housing Services After Independence

1. To establish modern housing for Africans. The establishment of modern housing was due to the promises made by politicians during the struggle for independence thus helped to promote standards of living.
2. To promote sanitation for the benefit of the citizens. Majority of African citizen were ensured sanitation.
3. To eradicate racial discrimination, after independence the people of African were supposed to eradicate racial discrimination.
4. To promote better planning in urban centers in order to enhance development.
5. To provide enough accommodation spaces for the and do away with slums especially in urban centers.

The Pattern of Housing Distribution After Independence

1. The best houses have been located in urban centers, urban centers such as Dar es Salaam, Harare, Mombasa as well as Nairobi.
2. European and Asian communities own the best houses. Although we got the political independence in the 1960's but most of the African communities occupy the poorly constructed houses.
3. There were increased of population in the urban centers, after independence the population were increased in the cities such as Dar es Salaam, Nairobi.
4. They used local materials to construct houses in the village (rural areas).
5. The tall buildings mark the main urban centers such as the cities of sky'srapers.

The Steps Taken to Change the Colonial Pattern of Distribution of Housing After Independence in Tanzania

1. The government-controlled land allocation in the country. All free hold land reverted to government ownership and previous owner were expected to pay rent to the government.
2. The government used the control of building and land strategy to alleviate pressure on urban housing and community services. The government established the National Housing Corporation (NHC) whose mission was to provide housing needs through financing as well as other associated services in the country.
3. The government of Tanzania did not have a systematic policy on how to deal with the challenges of urban growth. The African population in the urban centers growing rapidly rather than at the villages.
4. The government of Tanzania emphasized on the need to make use of low-cost materials for construction purposes so as to provide housing for more people, rather than following international standards blindly.

Challenges Facing the Provision of Housing Services After Independence

1. Lack of adequate human resources for instances there were few numbers of qualified town planners in the country who could help to plan and implement the desired programs in most countries.
2. The increase in squatter settlements in most countries like Kenya and Tanzania after independence. This was mainly due to the fast rise in population expansion especially among the youth.
3. There was corruption and bias in funds allocation consequently, more taxpayer's money was used to fund establishment of better housing for the middle class in society and less funds were allocated for the housing of the poor.
4. Most beneficiaries of the new housing schemes were unable to pay their rents to the NHC thereby under mining its efficiency in both Tanzania and Kenya.
5. The bias in the implementation of the projects. This leading to the low-income earners getting disadvantages at the project implementation stage by giving priority to the middle-income earners.

Governments have a responsibility to safeguard the national security of their people. During the past, this task was done by the colonial powers with their local forces, where there was a need to:

• Maintain internal security
• Safeguard their possessions from external security threats

After independence, African governments established:

• Their own armed forces
• Police forces

These were established for the purposes of ensuring security.

The Objectives of Establishing National Armed Forces

1. To promote internal security as well as integrity.
2. To protect the country from external aggression.
3. To participate in nation-building activities.
4. To provide assistance during national emergencies.

Functions of the National Armed Forces

1. To safeguard the national security of the country from external aggression.
2. To assist in the preservation of internal security.
3. To assist the public during national emergencies such as floods, famine, fire outbreaks and other national disasters.
4. To participate in nation-building activities such as roads and bridge construction.
5. The national armed forces also take part in peacekeeping missions such as the United Nations peace keeping operations in different parts of the world i.e. Congo.

Strengths of Military Forces After Independence

1. The military forces have assisted in the preservation of internal security for example this was witnessed during the attempted coup d'état in Kenya in 1982.
2. Military forces have taken part in peacekeeping missions such as the United Nations peacekeeping operations in different parts of the world. Such as Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Lebanon.
3. Military forces have safeguarded the national security of African countries from external aggression for example the Tanzania military force took part in the military campaign against the forces of Iddi Amin of Uganda in 1978.
4. The naval forces played a role in detecting and fighting off criminals who use water masses to commit crimes.
5. Military personnel have been enrolled in higher education institution and have improved their image while relating with members of the public.

National Legal Institutions

Objectives of the National Legal Institutions

1. To settle disputes among different parties.
2. To guarantee rule of law for all citizens.
3. To assist in the development of the laws.
4. To protect the constitution.
5. To administer justice in the country.
6. To swear in senior members of government such as the Prime Ministers and Presidents.

Functions of the National Legal Institutions

1. They ensure that all citizens are protected under the law. Those violating the rights and freedoms of others are sentenced accordingly.
2. They provides for the administration of estates where owners are deceased.
3. The legal institutions helps in the administration of justice by interpreting the law. However, they spell out what penalties should be meted out to offenders and amount to be compensated to the offended party.
4. They protect the national constitutions by ensuring that everything in the country is done within the constitutional provisions in each country.
5. They settle disputes in a state. This is when the conflict arouses in the society, they settle all disputes by using constitution.

Strengths of National Legal Institutions

1. Many professionals have been trained as legal officers in different countries.
2. They based on the equality of all the parties and ensure that there is fairness.
3. The African legal institution system is flexible and embraces some of the traditional methods of conflict resolution.
4. The national legal system benefit from international practices and tradition.