Afrint III Macro Study, Tanzania - Gender and Inclusion

Abstract

The Afrint study, was designed as a panel study that commenced in 2002, to assess the African food crisis and national efforts from 8 African countries to achieve food self-sufficiency for main staple crops. In the case of Tanzania, this study focused on maize and rice. The first report (Isinika et al. 2003) reviewed the situation of food production and supply in Tanzania over a 40 year period from 1961 to 2001. The second report (Isinika & Ashimogo, 2009) covering 5 years (2002 – 2008) examined the progress Tanzania had made since 2002/03 to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in relation to addressing the African food crisis. This third report comes at a time when agriculture remains an important sector in the economy, especially in terms of food supply and employment, but its role in terms of contribution to the GDP and GDP growth rate has been declining steadily since 2007. Meanwhile the role of other sectors including; mining, tourism and the service sector have risen at the macro level. Meanwhile, at the micro level, the contribution of nonfarm income has become more pronounced (BOT, 2014). It is now also widely accepted that inclusive development that caters for the needs of all community members, including their participation in decision making and in sharing benefits promotes equity and is more likely to accelerate the pace of achieving economic development and poverty reduction (Ombakah, 2014). This paper examines the extent to which the policy and institutional framework in Tanzania has lived up to this aspiration, to promote inclusive,pro-poor and gender sensitive development in agriculture