Land markets and migration trends in Tanzania: A qualitative‐quantitative analysis

While migration has been found to enhance welfare across a range of settings, most of the literature focuses on rural‐to‐urban migrant flows. Using a unique dataset from north‐western Tanzania, this article probes an important, yet overlooked, link between land markets and rural‐to‐rural migration. A mixed‐methods approach is used to discern how these two forces are intertwined in village life. Results indicate that household decisions to migrate are particularly influenced by the ease of market‐based land access in their new communities. This suggests that labour mobility may be facilitated through the development of a well‐functioning land market.     

Child labour measurement: Whom should we ask?

Funding decisions to support vulnerable children are tied to child labour statistics, hence the importance of an accurate measurement. The author analyses whether the type of respondent plays an important role in explaining variations in child labour statistics. Using data from two sites in Tanzania, the analysis shows that “whom we ask” matters considerably when estimating the prevalence of child labour. The results suggest that prevalence increases by approximately 35 to 65 per cent when using child self‐reports rather than proxy reports. This bias affects 14 to 31 per cent of the sample, depending on the indicator. Discrepancies decrease as the child ages and increase if proxy attitudes demonstrate opposition to child labour.     

Demand‐Side Challenges to Poverty Monitoring and Assessment Systems: Illustrations from Tanzania

Over the past decade, considerable attention and resources have been directed at Poverty Monitoring and Assessment Systems (PMASs), a core problem being the limited demand for, and use of, the data they generate. This article discusses the sources of these demand‐side problems and explores the difficulties in trying to address them via PMAS‐related processes, arguing that both institutional factors and design features have contributed to the disappointing performance of these systems. Incentive structures within the public sector in particular have made for an extremely unfavourable environment, and institutional problems have been compounded by questionable design features resulting from faulty analysis, flawed assumptions and conflicting views as to the objectives of ‘poverty monitoring’. Tanzania's PMAS experience is used to illustrate the argument.     

Opportunities for enhancing communication in settlement upgrading with geographic information technology-based support tools

For many residents in developing cities, informal settlements are the sole avenue of access to shelter and basic services, however poor in quality. The need to improve the living conditions in such areas is once again receiving high priority on the international and national development agendas. Current approaches to settlement upgrading favour the adoption of community-based, participatory styles of planning and management. Upgrading inevitably also requires the use, albeit in cooperation with local residents, of more traditional planning and design methods which depend in part on the ability to analyse the physical setting of a given settlement and prepare appropriate solutions to specific problems. Using several examples from informal settlements in Dar es Salaam, it will be shown how a hybrid approach to spatial data provision that incorporates both the traditional sources of spatial data and some of the more participatory approaches can be beneficial. The hybrid approach built around the use of a series of low-cost, up to date aerial mosaics provides relevant spatial data that is relevant and usable by both residents and professionals, thereby presenting opportunities for more communicative and transparent discussions between actors on possible interventions in the settlement.     

Motherhood status and union formation in Moshi,Tanzania 2002–2003

Age at first union is increasing throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa at the same time that not all couples are waiting for marriage before their first sexual intercourse. We assessed the effect of a premarital first birth on entrance into a first union in an urban area in East Africa—Moshi, Tanzania. The data come from the Moshi Infertility Survey of 2002–2003. Women who spent less than a year in single motherhood were significantly more likely than childless women to enter into a first union, although the magnitude of this relationship was weaker for more recent cohorts. Women who had been single mothers for 5 or more years (about two-thirds of women with a premarital birth) were significantly less likely than women without children to enter into a first union.     

A Less Gendered Access to Land? The Impact of Tanzania's New Wave of Land Reform

Contemporary land reforms in sub‐Saharan Africa tend to be evaluated based on the state‐centric reforms of the past, which disadvantaged women. However, this article argues that the new‐wave of land reforms and their decentralised administration institutions and anti‐discriminatory legal frameworks may be different. Based on field research on the implementation of Tanzania's 1999 Land Acts, it identifies an institutional reconfiguration in which the formal institutions are gradually strengthened and the customary institutions slowly changed. This does not in itself pose a threat to women's access to land and some women, who are otherwise often perceived to be weak, are left better‐off. Nevertheless, access to land becomes socially more uneven.     

Situating Condoms in Sexual Lives: Experiences of Same-sex-Attracted men in Tanzania

ABSTRACT. This article examines ways in which same-sex-attracted men in Dar es Salaam perceive, seek, and enact sexual pleasure, and the roles that use and nonuse of condoms play in the lived sexual lives in which such pleasure is sought and created. It also identifies several HIV risk-minimizing strategies that same-sex practicing men are employing in their sexual relations, including but not limited to condom use. The article draws on conversations and interviews conducted during 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork with and among a diverse group of same-sex-attracted men in 2008 and 2009.     

Implications of female genital mutilation on girls’ education and psychological wellbeing in Tarime,Tanzania

Though female genital mutilation is widely practiced in Tanzania, there has been no systematic examination of its long-term implications on girls’ wellbeing. Employing interviews and focus group discussions, this study explored the implications of female genital mutilation (FGM) on girls’ wellbeing in Tarime, Tanzania. The results revealed that the effect of FGM on girls are multifaceted, including early marriages, parents’ negative attitudes towards girls’ education, girls’ change in attitudes and loss of interest in schooling, which lead to poor educational achievement in many ways. Notably, girls who manage to escape FGM suffer from isolation and stigma from their peers who have been circumcised. Arguably, FGM is both a protective and risk factor for girls in Tarime. FGM is a protective factor against stigma and isolation for circumcised girls, and it is a risk factor in denying circumcised girls’ opportunities for education, and in perpetuating stigmatisation for the uncircumcised girls. We have concluded that, in the absence of more positive alternative rites of passage for adolescent girls in Tarime, and despite the widespread awareness about its negative consequences, FGM is likely to continue due to its centrality in the Kuryan cultural, social and economic necessities.     

Participatory action research on HIV/AIDS through a popular theatre approach in Tanzania

A participatory theatre approach stimulated communities to break the silence about sexual and cultural practices leading to HIV transmission, and then to openly discuss what they could do to reduce transmission. Participants were district officials, artists, village and ward leaders, youths, and entire communities. Community theatre specialists trained young community members in participatory research and theatre. These artists then researched and encouraged people in their communities to discuss and evaluate the factors contributing to HIV transmission in their communities. Discussion results were transformed into community and district level performances. This was a very successful IEC effort that identified key risk behaviours and locally developed culturally appropriate, relevant materials, delivered in a popular way. People reflected upon their situation and behaviour, and community leaders addressed harmful practices. Feedback sessions were held with co-ordinators and artists to record lessons learned and make recommendations for improving and expanding the programme.     

Child Sexual Abuse: Community Concerns in Urban Tanzania

The aim of this study was to explore community perceptions about child sexual abuse in Tanzania. Thirteen focus group discussions were conducted with adult community members. The core category, children's rights challenged by lack of agency, was supported by eight categories. Aware but distressed portrayed feelings of hopelessness, lack of trust in the healthcare and legal systems reflected perceived malpractice, decreased respect for children's rights referred to poor parental care and substance abuse, myths justifying CSA illustrated cultural beliefs to rationalize child sexual abuse, disclosure threatened by fear of stigma and discriminationaligned the manifestations that prevent disclosure, actions driven by economic circumstances described the economical dependence of victims, urging a change in procedures reflected informants' wish to ally with local governance and pressure groups, and willingness to act indicated the community's role in supporting victims. The study showed how lack of agency calls for efforts to increase children's human rights at all levels.