Tanzania

Gender Equality Context in Tanzania

Tanzania has seen recent progress on issues such as girl’s access to primary and secondary education and women’s representation in decision-making spaces. For example, from 2010/11 to 2014/15, the proportion of women in senior positions increased from 33% to 41%. Women have also seen an improvement in access to employment in “sectors such as manufacturing, trade, hotels and food services”. However, the earnings from agriculture, which is one of Tanzania’s most important economic drivers (20% of the country’s GDP in 2014), are still lower for women than for men.

To prompt further gender equality progress and the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the government of Tanzania has made some efforts to align SDG implementation strategies with its national development plan. By engaging civil society organisations, the government is localising the SDG implementation.

Tanzania has ratified both the 2030 SDG Agenda and the long term 2063 Agenda, as well as regional development plans, such as the South African Development Community (SADC) and the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (2005- 2020). Yet, current national plans still don’t fully capture gender equality issues and women’s empowerment.

To effectively implement the SDGs in Tanzania by 2030, it is suggested that the country has to: 1) effective participation of local government authorities (LGAs) and stakeholders to define how SDGs should be adapted in Tanzania, 2) increase and innovative financing to support the agenda, 3) allocate adequate resources for developing a statistical system to monitor and evaluate progress. Other key challenges that persists concern data evaluation and assessments, data production, and capacity building for monitoring progress.