Tanzania’s Women in Development Policy was developed in 1992 and replaced in February 2000 by a Women’s Development and Gender Policy, with increased focus on gender. In February 2000, the National Subprogram for Women’s and Gender Advancement, which is the national strategy to implement the Beijing Platform of Action, was approved. This strategy addresses 4 out of the 12 critical areas of concern identified in the Beijing Platform for Action [enhancement of women’s legal capacity, economic empowerment of women and poverty eradication, enhancement of women’s political empowerment and decision-making, and women’s access to education, training and employment]. In September 2005, Tanzania’s Ministry of Community Development, Gender and Children [MCDG&C], produced a “National Strategy for Gender Development”. This document is an obvious step towards “laying foundation in promoting gender equality and equity in the country”[1]. The MCDG&C has initiated gender mainstreaming working groups in selected sectors (macro policy, health, agriculture and education).
Pertaining to mainstreaming gender in economic development in Tanzania, various activities are currently engaged by government agencies and institutions such as: Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Planning, Economy and Empowerment, Ministry of Education & Culture, Ministry of Agriculture & Cooperatives, Ministry of Science, Technology & Higher Education, and the Ministry of Health; the civil society [Tanzania Gender Networking Programme and the FemAct Coalition], and donor agencies [the Netherlands Embassy and the Embassy of Sweden], in mainstreaming gender within the budgeting process in Tanzania.
National Framework for Facilitating Women’s Empowerment
Both the National Employment Services Act [1999], and the Employment and Labour Relations Act [2003], provide for promotion of equal opportunities to women and men. While the former focuses on access to employment services, the latter dwells on prohibition of discriminatory practices at work places. The Employment and Labour Relations Act also provides protection to pregnant female employees, through social security. More than 30% of job seekers who have visit the Public Labour Exchange Centres since their establishment in 2002, are women.
In addition a specific window for informing and advising women on job availability and other opportunities has been established within the National Gender Machinery[2]. But the main challenge remains that of transforming the mindsets, especially those of “private sector employers [who] do not often abide by all the standards that promote equality at places of work”[3]. In most cases, wages in the export sector are usually higher than in other sectors such as agriculture. Women, as well as men, in such sectors, gain from expansion in exports through increased average wages. Economic empowerment of women and eradication of poverty is one of 4 areas of focus by the government of Tanzania as regards the Beijing Platform for Action. Not only have guidelines for gender equity in accessing financial services been issued through the National Micro-Finance Policy, but the policy similarly provides ample flexibility in micro-finance institutions in making services accessible to both women and men on terms and conditions they can afford.
Empowerment of women through small and medium enterprises is effected through increasing their access to financial services such as credit, training in entrepreneurship, training in business management, and access to markets[4]. Moreover, efforts are being engaged by the government of Tanzania to enable women gain standard certification of their products and increased access to both local and foreign markets. For instance, the National Micro-Finance Policy, like most recent policies, presents opportunities and provisions for gender equity, states on its paragraph 3.2.5, “access to financial services should be available to both men and women.” Moreover, it also urges that it might be “necessary to make special efforts to incorporate features that make the services accessible to all”[5].
Women’s Access and Control Over Credit and Financial Services
Access to financial services for SMEs has improved negligibly even though the number of financial institutions such as banks and financial intermediaries has increased to over 30. Women in Tanzania access less than a tenth or 8% of obtainable financial resources from banks. Besides stringent conditions and terms, most women shy away from such institutions due to costs involved. However, women constitute the majority of borrowers from micro-credit institutions. Microfinance experiences show that women have higher repayment rates compared to men. However, women face a range of constraints in utilising banking resources. The actual extent of access to credit by women is revealed through a study recently undertaken by IFC [“Tanzania Gender and Economic Growth Assessment”]. As part of efforts to sustain and expand access financial services to women, plans are underway to establishing a women’s bank[6].
Women Entrepreneurship Development (WED) is an example of a semi autonomous micro credit organisation operating within the Small Industry Development Organisation, a unit of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Marketing. WED is a national programme for capacity building SMEs in food processing. Danida has supported the provision of matching grants to this public sector institution because it trains private sector individuals, and some of them become business development service providers in the private sector as a result of the training.
Some studies show that taxation is having a disproportionally more negative impact to women than men. It has been argued that since women have lower earnings, the 20% VAT imposed on most basic commodities implies that women income earners pay a larger proportion of their earnings as indirect tax. There is obviously a need for gender differentiated tax incidence analysis in regards to how various indirect or other taxes impact women compared to men[7].
Women Empowerment through policies and programmes in MSME Development
Among policy commitments announced by the Tanzanian government in the “Guidelines for the Preparation of Medium Term Plan and Budget Framework for 2005/06 to 2007/08”, is “increasing access to finance through improvement of financial services to SMEs”, and “enhancing the business environment by simplifying and modernising legislation on land registration and commercial laws”. In addition, the government has also committed itself towards “removing business impediments in the country through implementation of BEST programme”. Another measure is the reduction of “critical problems affecting the SMEs through initiatives, such as Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise [MSMEs] Project”.
The “Small and Medium Enterprise Development Policy” mentions lack of information, affordability of services, costs, size, absence of working premises, limited access to business training, marketing, technology, and limited access to financial services as among the main constraints facing SMEs[8]. It is therefore within this context that this profile suggests the following measures: Government policy statement on gender and disadvantaged groups suggests the enhancement of gender mainstreaming in all initiatives related to development of SMEs. Strategies proposed by the policy, which are this profile sees should be applied, include: “Facilitating SME service providers to design special programmes for women and disadvantaged groups”.
The “Private Sector Development Strategy for Tanzania” is another document which provides ample suggestions for improving similar strategies in order to come to grips with improving access to markets for women and men. The strategies are inclusive of: Promoting economic empowerment of women in business. Among strategies suggested to this effect are: “addressing the legal, administrative and regulatory barriers that are preventing women from contributing fully to the economy”[9];“Eliminating gender based inequalities in education and access to agricultural inputs with a view to increasing the contribution of women to growth”[10]; and, “addressing the barriers specifically facing women owned enterprises”[11].
[Extracted from a Paper titled “Women’s Control over Economic Resources and Access to Financial Resources: A Case on Strengthening the Business Environment in Tanzania.” By Edward H. Mhina [1] Chief Consultant GAD Consult. [Gender & Development Consultants]
Mr. Edward H. Mhina, the Chief Consultant at GAD Consult, (with University qualifications in Public Administration & International Relations from University of Uppsala in Sweden, and Gender Planning Methodology from the University of London) is also a full member of Tanzania Gender Networking Programme - TGNP. He is a member of TGNP, and has been a TGNP Board Member and Information Generation and Dissemination Committee Chairperson for the past 4 years. Mr. Mhina has so far undertaken more than 210 consultancies for various clients, both public and private agencies within and without Tanzania, since May 1994. The consultant once worked as a researcher for TGNP in studying resource allocation from a gender perspective in the Ministry of Education & Culture, as well as the Ministry of Higher Education, Science & Technology. The exercise produced several reports and papers. TGNP has through such work produced a book titled “Gender Analysis on Budgets in Tanzania”. Additional exposure to gender budgeting activities was gained in relation to the UNIFEM’s regional office’s bi-annual meetings in Harare, Zimbabwe (which was a platform for sharing on progress within gender budgeting in the region). Mr. Mhina was engaged as a researcher to share in new findings and observations within GBI in Tanzania.
Moreover, Mr. Mhina was also involved in gender budgeting exercises in the following areas within and without Tanzania: Presentation of research paper titled “Tanzanian Experiences on NGO and Government Research Partnership in Gender Budgeting” (April 2000), at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London UK (May 2000). In April 2003, the consultant prepared and executed an in-country workshop on “Gender Budget Analysis for Poverty Reduction”, for more than 70 participants from the Ministry of Finance, Planning & Economic Development in Uganda.
In the last 3 years, Mr. Mhina has written several papers on engendering financial reforms and the accountant general offices, for the Association of East and Southern African Accountant Generals – ESAAG. He is currently contracted by ESAAG to document good practices in engendering the Accountant General Offices in ESAAG member countries, as well as research into good practices in regards to gender budgeting in a few selected ESAAG member countries [Zambia, Swaziland, Lesotho, Uganda and Tanzania].
[1] URT:2005.2, page v
[2] Beijing +10 Country Report, pg 17
[3] Beijing +10 Country Report, pg 18
[4] MCDG&C, pg. 9
[5] National Micro-Finance Policy. May 2000. Government of Tanzania
[6] TGGA, pg.43
[7] TGGA, pg 48
[8] SME Development Policy. Pg 9
[9] Strategic Intervention. 2.1 on page 45
[10] Strategic Intervention. 2.2 on page 45
[11] Strategic Intervention. 2.3 on page 45
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