Tanzania records gains in expanding women’s participation
Dar es Salaam. Tanzania has recorded gains in expanding women’s economic opportunities in the past 20 years, according to a new World Bank report.
The report, which was released yesterday, indicates that a larger section of Tanzanian women are now compensated employees, and the ratio of women to men in jobs paying wages and salaries rose from 0.35 in 2000 to 0.64 in 2019.
According to the report, Tanzania’s female labour-force participation rate – which represent the proportion of the population aged 15-64 that is economically active – rose from 67 percent in 2000 to 80 percent in 2019, well above the sub-Saharan Africa average of 63 percent, and among the highest rates on the continent.
The share of women engaged in unpaid agricultural work fell from 78 percent in 2004-05 to 64 percent in 2015-16.
However, gender gaps in land ownership, wage rates, and agricultural productivity continue to slow economic activity while preventing women from maximising their contribution to development.
“Our analysis shows there are enormous benefits to be gained from bridging the gender gap in agricultural productivity, eliminating the gender wage gap, and strengthening women’s land tenure security and Tanzania needs to consider these urgently,” World Bank country director Mara Warwick said.
“In addition, enhancing financial inclusion is critical – it is associated with significantly lower rates of poverty and income inequality, as well as faster rates of economic growth and employment creation,” she said.
Panelists who shared their views and experiences about the women development in Tanzania suggested various ways of unlocking the potential of women in the country.
“As we speak of supporting women and enabling girls, we need to do the same for the boys. I’m sure in the future, things will change,” said Dr Nandera Mhando, commissioner for social welfare.
“The law alone will not change anything. We have to change our mindsets, attitudes and perceptions. I believe if we bank on long-term investment on empowering women, girls and boys, things will change.”
The panelists also advocated utilisation of digital technologies to accelerate financial inclusion and solve some of the gender issues Tanzanian women are grappling with, including access to capital.
“We need to shift our attention to the digital economy to resolve the gender issues we are talking about. Digital platforms can help to deliver information, network, connectivity, and access to market by just utilising technology,” said Ms Irene Madeje, interim executive director at Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSDT) Tanzania.
Way forward
The report’s authors make several recommendations to alleviate disparities and enhance economic efficiency, while contributing to broad and lasting gains in overall household welfare.
The recommendations include promoting women’s economic empowerment by expanding apprenticeship programmes, and offering business and life-skills training to female entrepreneurs.
They also propose training in financial and business skills, which can bolster savings and capital investment, increase the probability of opening new businesses, and strengthen their decision-making power within the household.
Another recommendation is to strengthen women’s land rights by offering land-titling subsidies to lower-income households and providing incentives to encourage spouses to co-title.
“Offering subsidies to lower-income families increases the likelihood that they would acquire a formal land title,” the report says.
The authors also recommend accelerated overall land-reforms.
“Evidence has shown that land reforms that reduce the costs of registering land have increased female land ownership, improved quality-of-service delivery, and boosted registered land sales.”
They propose addressing the gender gap in agricultural productivity by expanding women’s access to male household labour, increasing their use of agricultural inputs, and encouraging their uptake of digital technologies. Alleviating financial constraints and tackling negative gender norms can eliminate distortions on the allocation of agricultural labour.
Also, behavioural interventions can promote financial inclusion among women and strengthen their capacity to manage both their personal and business finances.
“Simply having access to a bank account is associated with a greater propensity to save and invest.”
The authors also call for strengthening of efforts to end child-marriage, lower school dropout rates, and provision of childcare support to expand women’s participation in the workforce.
Conditional-cash-transfer programmes have also proven to be an effective strategy for keeping female students enrolled in school, according to the report. Furthermore, additional legislative initiatives should be introduced to outlaw child marriage and address gender inequalities in secondary education.
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