The project is undertaken in partnership with the Institute of African Leadership for Sustainable Development, also known as the UONGOZI Institute (UI), based in Tanzania. The Institute’s mission is to equip African leaders in delivering inclusive and sustainable solutions through leadership development and research on sustainable development. UNU-WIDER will work with the UI to enhance research capacity and undertake research aimed at informing policy development towards promoting sustainable development and the SDGs in general. Research capacity-building initiatives include research mentorship, internships at UNU-WIDER, strengthening of in-house research capacity through secondment of UNU-WIDER Research Fellow to UI, and tailor-made training research workshops. The project focuses on macroeconomic perspectives, domestic resource mobilization, extractives, industrialization, sustainable livelihoods, and gender as a cross-cutting issue.
Key questions:
- Macroeconomic perspectives: What are the public debt dynamics in Tanzania? What are the links between public debt and credit to private sector? Is there a crowding-out effect? What is the role of public investments versus private investment?
- Domestic resource mobilization: What are the implications of tax-benefit policies for development in Tanzania? Which are the options for a universal old-age pension benefit in mainland Tanzania? What is the distributional impact of the VAT policy? What kind of incentives and policies are needed for mobilizing revenue from the large informal sector?
- Extractives: What is the environmental and socio-economic impact of the extractive sector in Tanzania and what are the associated tax-benefit issues? What would an optimal effective tax rate in the extractive sector look like? What are the strengths and weaknesses of fiscal incentives? How effective is the value chain in the mining sector?
- Industrialization: What explains the lack of movement of workers from self-employed status to employers and the low rate of formalization? What are the linkages between small- and medium-scale enterprises and large enterprises?
- Sustainable livelihoods: What policies are most needed to help the self-employed enhance their livelihoods? How do households diversify their income, through means of survival or means of accumulation? What are the constraints of the informal sector related to access to credit, markets and integration with the formal sector? What are the implications of climate change on livelihoods?
- Gender: What constrains women’s participation in the productive formal sector? What explains gender disparities in financial inclusion? What enabling conditions are needed for female-owned businesses to grow? What are the challenges to market access by women traders in Tanzania? How can gender be mainstreamed in the extractive sector?
UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
The project will produce knowledge to achieving a wide range of SDGs, particularly around SDG8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the goal) as well as Goals 1, 2, 5, and 9.
TEAM
Focal point: Milla Nyyssölä, milla.nyyssola(a)labore.fi
Communications: Anna Toppari
In partnership
Financial support from Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
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Book Chapter
Firms and households in Tanzania’s developmentPart of Book Sustaining Tanzania's Economic Development
Journal Article
Tanzanian social policy in the new millenniumMainland Tanzania has seen two decades of significant social policy reforms and transformations in its social and economic structures, whilst the country continues to grapple with persisting gender inequalities. This article examines Tanzania's...
Working Paper
Implementation of local content regulationBased on a case study of an anonymous mining company in Tanzania, this study assesses the implementation of the local content (LC) regulations and guidelines in the country. The analysis focused on the key LC aspects of the direct workforce...
Working Paper
The link between public debt and public investment in TanzaniaIn a bid to realize its development aspirations, Tanzania has made concerted efforts to increase public investment, particularly in the last decade. A significant proportion of these investments are financed by contracting debt, manifested by the...
Working Paper
Incorporating informal workers into social insurance in TanzaniaExpansion of social protection reach among workers in the large informal economy represents a persisting and thorny challenge in the development context. In Mainland Tanzania, several domestically led policy reforms have been introduced to...
Working Paper
Social protection for working-age women in TanzaniaTanzania has expanded its social protection framework significantly over the past decade, but the country continues to grapple with important gender inequalities. This paper examines, first, the evolution and effects of Tanzania’s social protection...
Working Paper
Employment policy in Mainland Tanzania: what’s in it for women?Tanzania has experienced relatively strong and stable economic growth accompanied by social stability over the past two decades. The country is also pursuing an ambitious development plan with significant employment objectives. For development to be...
Working Paper
Determinants of clove exports in ZanzibarThis paper analyses factors for the declining trend in clove exports in Zanzibar using time series data that were collected between 1980 and 2020 and analysed using the vector error correction model, complemented with qualitative analysis. Clove...
Blog
Bride price or dowry?Why is it that in some countries the parents of a bride pay dowry, whereas in some others the groom has to pay for the bride? What is the impact of...
Working Paper
Exploring social policy trajectories in Mainland TanzaniaIn July 2020, the United Republic of Tanzania gained the status of a lower-middle-income country. This came after two decades of significant social policy reforms and transformations in the country’s economic structures. This paper explores social...
Working Paper
Two decades of Tanzanian health policyTanzania has undertaken important health sector reforms in the new millennium, and the most recent Health Sector Strategic Plan (2021–26) lays out ambitious targets to achieve universal health coverage. Yet, women in Tanzania continue to face...
Journal Article
Informal work in sub-Saharan AfricaDespite rapid economic growth in recent decades, informality remains a persistent phenomenon in the labor markets of many low- and middle-income countries. A key issue in this regard concerns the extent to which informality itself is a persistent...
Blog
How can research help Least Developed Countries achieve sustainable development?The next decade is a make-or-break for the world’s most vulnerable countries. To tackle the unprecedented confluence of COVID-19, climate, and...
Working Paper
The informal sector and the safety of female traders in TanzaniaThis paper assesses the participation of female traders, safety factors, and existing policies and legislation in the informal sector in Tanzania. Primary data were obtained from 11 in-depth interviews, 10 focused group discussions, and 236...
Working Paper
Improving young women’s working conditions in Tanzania’s urban food vending sectorIn this paper, we investigate the working conditions of the young women working as assistants in the food vending sector in Tanzania using interviews and focus group discussions which are supplemented with quantitative survey. Data were collected in...
Working Paper
Promoting environmental sustainability in the artisanal and small-scale mining sector in TanzaniaThis study examines the interaction between formalization of the artisanal and small-scale mining subsector and the regulation of negative environmental impacts in Tanzania. Formalization generally seeks to move the artisanal and small-scale mining...
Working Paper
Effectiveness of strategic environmental assessment in promoting sustainable development in TanzaniaThis paper examines the extent to which strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is implemented in Tanzania and whether its implementation is in line with generally practised procedures/criteria. Out of 17 completed SEA, eight cases were purposively...
Blog
Long-term research in Tanzania sheds light on the reasons rural households diversify their incomeResearchers and policymakers have long asked whether rural households in Africa diversify their income to spread risk or by seizing opportunities to...
Working Paper
Gender differences in formal wage employment in urban TanzaniaThis paper uses the latest Tanzania labour force survey—the Integrated Labour Force Survey—and a censored bivariate probit model to analyse gender differences in labour force participation and gender bias in formal wage employment in urban Tanzania...
Working Paper
Gender disparities in financial inclusion in TanzaniaAlthough Tanzania has made notable progress in enhancing access to financial services, the gender gap in financial inclusion persists. This paper examines gender disparities in financial inclusion in Tanzania using descriptive and regression analyses...
Working Paper
Trade effects of the East Africa Customs Union in TanzaniaBy measuring the effects of forming and joining a regional integration bloc using an augmented structural gravity model, this paper finds that the East African Community (EAC) and EAC Customs Union have significantly enhanced Tanzanian trade into EAC...
Working Paper
Towards sustainable livelihood in the Tanzanian informal economyIn spite of having some intensive national strategies to address poverty, Tanzania lacks a coherent national strategy to ensure sustainable livelihoods for those working in its informal economy, of which street vending is an important sector. Based...
Working Paper
Assessing the distributional impact of lowering the value-added tax rate for standard-rated items in Tanzania and options for recouping revenue lossesThis paper explores the distributional impact of lowering the value-added tax rate for standard-rated items in Tanzania Mainland. Using a static tax-benefit microsimulation model—TAZMOD—which is underpinned by data derived from the Household Budget...
Working Paper
Constraints on the performance and competitiveness of Tanzania’s manufacturing exportsThis study sought to examine the main constraints to manufacturing export competitiveness in Tanzania. Using panel data for the period 1997–2018, the study established that supply-side factors dominate demand-side factors in explaining manufacturing...
Blog
Finding keys for development in AfricaEconomics researcher Aimable Nsabimana shares the relevance and inspiration behind his recent work with UNU-WIDER on climate change and human...
Working Paper
Long-run rural livelihood diversification in Kagera, TanzaniaWhat drives livelihood diversification among predominantly rural households in developing countries and how can welfare-enhancing patterns be established and sustained in the long run? A large literature has focused on whether income diversification...
Blog
Promoting industrialization in Africa: Global versus regional value chainsAs COVID-19 ravages international trade and production, policy-makers are shifting their sights from global value chains (GVCs) to regional value...
Working Paper
Agricultural input subsidy and farmers outcomes in TanzaniaThis paper examines the impact of the government input subsidy—the National Agriculture Input Voucher—on farmers’ production and welfare in Tanzania as well as the factors that influence agricultural production in the country. The analysis is based...
Working Paper
Impact of a Single Customs Territory in the East African Community on Tanzania’s exportsThe implementation of a Single Customs Territory by East African Community countries is intended to ease the movement of goods across borders by cutting costs and time through harmonization and simplification of customs documents, removal of...
Working Paper
Public debt sustainability and debt dynamicsRising public debt in sub-Saharan Africa remains a matter of concern. We provide an analysis of public debt and debt sustainability in Tanzania, focusing on external debt. Though current and previous analyses using the IMF-World Bank debt...
Working Paper
Income diversification and household welfare in Tanzania 2008–2013This paper uses three waves of Tanzanian National Panel Surveys (2008/09, 2010/11, and 2012/13) to construct a panel from 3,676 households that appear in at least two waves to explore the effect of income diversification on household welfare measured...
Working Paper
Closing the gapInnovation generally takes place in male-dominated industries. A gender gap might therefore exist. This study used data from the 2015 Tanzania Firm-Level Skills Survey to investigate the gender innovation gap between female-owned enterprises and male...
Working Paper
Partnership for inclusive growthA recent strand of literature on small and medium enterprise (SME) development identifies linkages with large firms as some of the enablers of development and competitiveness. However, there is a dearth of empirical studies on the topic. In this...
Working Paper
Trade, technology, and absorptive capacityTrade-linked technological change has potential to increase incomes in low-income countries (LICs). The most labour-intensive segments of the textiles and apparel global value chain are in LICs. However, gaps between available technologies and best...
Working Paper
Value chain directionality, upgrading, and industrial policy in the Tanzanian textile and apparel sectorsWith recent changes in the global economy, policy makers are increasingly turning from global value chains to regional and national value chains as drivers of structural transformation in the global South. This paper examines economic and social...
Context
Main subject
Theme: 2019-23, Transforming economies