Public Accounts Committees in Eastern and Southern Africa: A Comparative Analysis
This article provides the first and most comprehensive analysis of Public Accounts Committees (PACs) from Eastern and Southern Africa building on the work of McGee, Jacobs, Stapenhurst, and Staddon. By analyzing an original set of data, this article shows that PACs in these two regions are bigger, have more staff members, and are more likely […]
Factors Affecting Participation in a Civil Society Network (Nangonet) in Ngara District
Civil society networks are currently understood by academics and practitioners to be an important pillar of development in the Third World. They have been assigned many different roles: as a prerequisite or catalyst for accountability, good governance, and economic development; as an agent of democratization; as a protector of vulnerable citizens; as a mobilizer of […]
Socio-Economic Factors Limiting Smallholder Groundnut Production in Tabora Region
Groundnut is among the most important crops for smallholder farmers in Tanzania, providing both food and income for households. Groundnut is a nutritious source of fats, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals for human consumption and parts of the crop can be used for livestock feed. This study identified factors which contribute to the stagnation of […]
Structural Barriers, Constraints, and Urban Youth Employment The Case of Ilala Municipality, Dar-es-Salaam
The growing rural-to-urban migration, which is dominated by young people aged 15–35, is increasing the urban youth unemployment rate and driving the escalation of urban poverty in Tanzania.1 Using the national definition, the employment rate for urban youth aged 15–24 and 25–35 was 39.1 per cent and 69.5 per cent, respectively, in 2006 (NBS, 2007: […]
Structural Barriers, Constraints, and Urban Youth Employment
The Case of Ilala Municipality, Dar-es-Salaam This study investigates the constraints that urban youth face in their quest for employment in the urban mainstream economy. RAWG (2012) warns that the unincorporated informal enterprises created by rural-to-urban youth migrants will result in the creation of informal urban enterprises with low levels of labour productivity. These informal […]
REPOA Annual Report 2013
Generating knowledge to inform national policies and programmes to improve the quality of life of all Tanzanians is the essence of REPOA’s vision and mission. In line with the recommendations of the mid-term review report undertaken in 2012, REPOA continued to strengthen its capacity to become Tanzania’s leading think-tank for policy research for development. All […]
Rewards for High Public Offices and the Quality of Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa
Increasingly, setting the institutional arrangements for remunerating high public officeholders (HPOs) is seen as a central design issue for improving governance. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), recent efforts to review and revise national constitutions and/or introduce new government structures have brought this issue to the fore. Changes in these “grand institutions” provide rare opportunities to devise […]
National Agricultural Input Voucher Scheme (NAIVS 2009–2012), Tanzania
Opportunities for Improvement This brief discusses the scope for improving agricultural input subsidies with reference to the implementation of NAIVS in Tanzania (2010/11– 2011/12). It begins with the importance of awareness of NAIVS and examines the awareness levels among the farmers in the programme. The discussion then addresses the challenges encountered in service delivery, particularly […]
REPOA e-Newsletter Issue No. 5
18th Annual Research Workshop Afrobarometer Survey findings Policy Research Training workshop for Zanzibar MDAs REPOA visit universities in Morogoro Roundtable discussion; comparing the cashew sectors of Tanzania…
Do I Have To Pay Tax? Citizens’ Awareness Of Their Tax Obligations In Tanzania
The survey results indicate that more citizens are aware of their tax obligations when access to tax information is easy. Furthermore, citizen’s educational attainment is associated with greater awareness of tax obligations, while urban residents are more often aware of their tax obligations than rural residents. Based on this evidence, the brief recommends improving access […]
Citizens’ Perceptions and Attitudes Towards Taxation, Tax Enforcement and Tax Officials
The last two decades have seen Tanzania implement important reforms of its tax system in search for more reliable financing for development, other than foreign aid. Thanks to these efforts, revenue raised domestically has grown noticeably, from 12.2 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in fiscal year 1997/8 to 17.8 percent of GDP in 2011/12. […]
Achieving High Economic Growth with Rapid Poverty Reduction
The Case of Vietnam Over the last few decades, development policy has been dominated by mainstream economic theories that focus on the need for economic growth above all else to achieve sustainable development. But, in practice, many of the developing countries that have undergone radical structural adjustment of their economies to increase growth have not […]
Examining the Institutional Framework for Investment in Tanzania
A perspective from the Executive Opinion Survey, 2012-13 This policy brief looks at the country-level findings from the 2012/13 Global Competitiveness Report prepared for the World Economic Forum; highlights the current institutional set up in relation to investment; and identifies institutional and policy reforms that could stimulate growth and make Tanzania more competitive on the […]
Supporting Tanzania’s Cocoa Farmers
Background to the study: Agriculture is the leading sector of the Tanzanian economy and the most critical for inclusive pro-poor growth. Agriculture provides employment for more than three-quarters of the population, accounts for 75% of the country’s exports, and contributes almost 50% to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Cocoa was introduced into Tanzania in the 1950s […]
Why Poverty Remains High in Tanzania: And What to Do About It?
By using growth incidence curves and pseudo-cohort analysis, we show that Tanzania’s growth from 2001 to 2007 has not been favourable to the poor. The underlying reason for this disparity appears to be the slow growth in agriculture, on which most rural poor make a living. However, we argue that the development of agriculture alone […]
Socio-Economic Transformation for Poverty Reduction
Eight Key Messages for Unlocking Tanzania’s Potential What will it take for a robust socio-economic transformation in Tanzania to be realized? Drawing on extensive research into high-achieving countries including learning missions to Viet Nam, China, Namibia and Brazil, this brief identifies eight key messages for unlocking Tanzania’s socio-economic potential and realizing the goal of transforming […]