Tanzania, United Republic of
The SIGI Country Report for Tanzania provides a new evidence base to improve the rights and well-being of women and girls in Tanzania and promote gender equality through the elimination of discrimination in social institutions. It builds on the newly collected data – both quantitative and qualitative – on social norms and practices through a rigorous methodology and participatory approach involving a wide range of national and international stakeholders. The report analyses how discriminatory social norms and practices continue to constrain women’s empowerment and restrict their access to opportunities and rights, notably across three key dimensions: their economic situation, their place within the household and their physical integrity and agency over their own body. In the framework of Tanzania’s commitment towards realising Sustainable Development Goal 5 on the promotion of gender equality, the report provides policy recommendations that aim to address gender-based discriminations, transform social norms, promote women’s empowerment and build a truly inclusive society.
Tanzania has made significant strides in its efforts to promote women’s empowerment and gender equality. The 2005 revision to the Constitution created momentum for the government to “accord equal opportunities to all citizens, men and women alike” and to eradicate discrimination. National development plans in Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar have prioritised women’s empowerment and taken a gender sensitive approach, while gender has been mainstreamed in selected sectoral policies. Yet, persistent challenges continue to negatively affect women’s and girls’ opportunities and rights.
This chapter explores forms of discrimination that Tanzanian women may face in the private sphere and family, building on data collected within the framework of the SIGI Tanzania. In particular, it focuses on two highly significant forms of discrimination in the family context: girl child marriage and the unequal distribution of unpaid care and domestic work and decision‑making power. These critical challenges also provoke negative spillovers in other aspects of women’s and girls’ lives such as economic dependency or violence and harassment in the private sphere. The first section of the chapter focuses on the prevalence of girl child marriage, identifying the main consequences and exploring underlying discriminatory social norms that help explain the persistence of the practice in certain regions of Tanzania. The second section investigates intra-household dynamics, roles and responsibilities, examining imbalances regarding unpaid care and domestic work and decision-making power at the household level. The section uncovers the link between these inequities and discriminatory norms associated with the traditional roles of men and women at the household level. The chapter concludes with some concrete and actionable policy options aimed at eradicating the practice of girl child marriage and recognising, reducing and redistributing unpaid care and domestic work.
This chapter presents the main national and sub-national results of the SIGI Tanzania composite index. The first section shows how discriminatory social norms and practices constrain women’s and girls’ position particularly in the family sphere as well as their civil liberties. Based on the results of the index, the second section of the chapter identifies key areas in need of urgent action: girl child marriage and bride price, unequal intra-household dynamics (in terms of unpaid care and domestic work, and decision making), violence against women, reproductive autonomy, access to agricultural land, freedom of movement and access to justice.
The Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania recognises that all human beings are born free and equal. It enshrines equality of all persons without any discrimination on the basis of their nationality, tribe, place of origin, political opinion, colour, religion, sex or station in life. It further advocates for equal opportunity in various rights including, among many others, the right to life, the right to participate in public affairs, the right to education, the right to work, the right to fair remuneration and the right to own property. Several legal provisions have been enacted and institutions established to safeguard the provision of equal opportunities based on these rights for all persons living in Tanzania.
This chapter focuses on women’s economic empowerment in Tanzania, building on data collected within the framework of the SIGI Tanzania. The first section explores different aspects of women’s participation in the labour market, ranging from access to employment to the type of jobs and sectors in which they work. The section also highlights how social norms, including those limiting women’s education, and traditional views of women’s roles, affect their status and position in the labour market. The second section of the chapter examines women’s access to agricultural land, a critical productive asset in Tanzania. It assesses the current situation of women regarding ownership and control over agricultural land, highlighting recent legal changes that may yield positive benefits. The section also shows how women’s low ownership and control over land results from discriminatory customs, inheritance practices and norms that establish men as the majority owners and decision makers in this area. The chapter concludes with some concrete and actionable policy options aimed at improving women’s access to the labour market and land ownership in Tanzania.
Since 2009, the OECD Development Centre has shed light on the structural and multiple barriers affecting women’s and girls’ lives in developing and developed countries through the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI). At the global level, the SIGI measures discrimination against women in social institutions across 180 countries. By taking into account laws, social norms and practices, the SIGI captures the underlying drivers of gender inequality in order to promote gender-transformative policies that are built on data and evidence. The SIGI is also one of the official data sources for monitoring Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 5.1.1.
The SIGI Tanzania shows that women and girls in Tanzania face high levels of discrimination in social institutions – the established set of formal and/or informal norms and practices that govern behaviour in society. SIGI Tanzania’s average score is 35. SIGI scores range from 0 to 100, with 0 indicating no discrimination and 100 indicating absolute discrimination. Furthermore, results show that discrimination in social institutions is higher in Zanzibar, with a score of 44 than in Mainland Tanzania, which has a score of 35. Similarly, women and girls encounter higher levels of discrimination in social institutions in rural areas (38) than in urban ones (32). Across Tanzania’s 31 regions, there are large variations in levels of discrimination among social institutions (). This variation reflects the persistence of certain discriminatory social norms and practices in certain areas of the country, an understanding of which should guide the design and implementation of policies to promote women’s and girls’ empowerment in different regions.
The conceptual framework of the SIGI Tanzania covers four dimensions spanning major socio-economic areas that affect women’s and girls’ entire lifetimes:
Discrimination in social institutions – the established set of formal and/or informal laws, norms and practices that govern behaviour in society – continue to severely hamper empowerment opportunities for women and girls in Tanzania. Results show that discrimination in social institutions is higher in Zanzibar than in Mainland Tanzania as well as in rural areas than in urban ones. Large variations exist across Tanzania’s 31 regions, which reflect the persistence of certain discriminatory social norms and practices in certain areas of the country, an understanding of which should guide the design and implementation of policies to promote women’s and girls’ empowerment across all aspects of their lives.
The SIGI Tanzania country study is conducted by the OECD Development Centre, in partnership with UN Women Tanzania, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Office of the Chief Government Statistician (OCGS) of Zanzibar, and in close collaboration with the Ministry of Community Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups of the United Republic of Tanzania and the Ministry of Health, Social Welfare, Elderly, Gender and Children of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar. The SIGI Tanzania aims to improve the rights and well-being of women and girls in Tanzania and to advance gender equality through the elimination of discrimination in social institutions.
This chapter focuses on women’s physical autonomy in Tanzania, building on data collected within the framework of the SIGI Tanzania. It identifies and assesses the prevalence of gender-based violence against women and girls, including female genital mutilation/cutting, and highlights factors associated with restrictions on women’s reproductive autonomy such as unmet need for family planning, adolescent pregnancy and access to sexual education. The analysis considers both the current situation of women and girls and uncovers underlying factors, including specifically discriminatory social norms.
Today, the global youth population is at its highest ever and still growing, with the highest proportion of youth living in Africa and Asia, and a majority of them in rural areas. Young people in rural areas face the double challenge of age-specific vulnerabilities and underdevelopment of rural areas. While agriculture absorbs the majority of rural workers in developing countries, low pay and poor working conditions make it difficult to sustain rural livelihoods. Potential job opportunities for rural youth exist in agriculture and along the agri-food value chain, however. Growing populations, urbanisation and rising incomes of the working class are increasing demand for more diverse and higher value added agricultural and food products in Africa and developing Asia. This demand will create a need for off-farm labour, especially in agribusinesses, which tends to be better paid and located in rural areas and secondary towns. It could boost job creation in the food economy provided that local food systems were mobilised to take up the challenge of higher and changing domestic demand for food.
This publication contains the 2021 Second Round Peer Review Report on the Exchange of Information on Request of Tanzania. It refers to Phase 1 only (Legal and Regulatory Framework).
L'emploi informel, défini par l'absence de protection sociale basée sur l'emploi, constitue la majeure partie de l'emploi dans les pays en développement, et entraîne un niveau de vulnérabilité à la pauvreté et à d'autres risques qui sont supportés par tous ceux qui dépendent des revenus du travail informel. Les résultats de la base de données des Indicateurs clés de l’informalité en fonction des individus et leurs ménages (KIIbIH) montrent qu'un nombre disproportionné de travailleurs de l'économie informelle de la classe moyenne reçoivent des transferts de fonds. Ces résultats confirment que les stratégies de gestion des risques, telles que la migration, jouent un rôle dans la minimisation des risques potentiels du travail informel pour les ménages informels de la classe moyenne qui peuvent ne pas être éligibles à l'aide sociale. Ils suggèrent en outre que les travailleurs informels de classe moyenne peuvent avoir une demande solvable d'assurance sociale, de sorte que, si des régimes d'assurance sociale adaptés aux besoins des travailleurs informels leur étaient accessibles, les transferts de fonds pourraient potentiellement être canalisés pour financer l'extension de l'assurance sociale à l'économie informelle.
Informal employment, defined through the lack of employment-based social protection, constitutes the bulk of employment in developing countries, and entails a level of vulnerability to poverty and other risks that are borne by all who are dependent on informal work income. Results from the Key Indicators of Informality based on Individuals and their Households database (KIIbIH) show that a disproportionately large number of middle‑class informal economy workers receive remittances. Such results confirm that risk management strategies, such as migration, play a part in minimising the potential risks of informal work for middle‑class informal households who may not be eligible to social assistance. They further suggest that middle‑class informal workers may have a solvent demand for social insurance so that, if informality-robust social insurance schemes were made available to them, remittances could potentially be channelled to finance the extension of social insurance to the informal economy.