Country page

United Republic of Tanzania

Photo: FAO/IFAD/WFP/Eliza Deacon

Updates

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) was supported to conduct the 2018 national Household Budget Survey (HBS), which was deliberately designed to address the data needs of at least 85 SDG indicators. This will allow Tanzania to bridge key SDG data gaps, further analyse time use, and for the first-time ever, generate new data on monetary poverty, time poverty and the multidimensional poverty of women.
After the HBS results were launched in June 2019, NBS has been supported to conduct user-producer meetings to analyse and use the results.
Two gender statistics units were established at the NBS in Mainland Tanzania and at the Office of the Chief Government Statistician (OCGS) Zanzibar.
A Technical Working Group on Gender Statistics (TWG-GS) was established for members of the NBS, OGGS, key government institutions, civil society organizations and development partners, led by UN Women. They will oversee the quality production of gender data in Tanzania, advise NBS/OCGS to prioritize areas where more gender data is needed, and foster greater coordination between the two statistical offices.
€400,000 in funding was secured from the Government of Ireland (IrishAid), to conduct a Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) survey in collaboration with the OECD Development Centre, which began in May 2019. The SIGI measures discriminatory social institutions such as unequal inheritance rights, child marriage, violence against women and girls, and unequal land and property rights.
In July 2019, Tanzania passed an amendment to its Statistics Act and Regulations, removing the threat of prison for civil society groups that publish independent statistical information. UN Women, as part in the UN coordination team, participated in drafting the amendment by providing inputs in close consultation with NBS and other development partners.

Progress of the Women Count project in United Republic of Tanzania

For detailed results go to the annual report

0-19% 20-39% 40-59% 60-79% 80-100%

Country Fact Sheet

How are we making women count in United Republic of Tanzania?

Photo: UN Women/Daniel Donald

Betty Mtewele, a market vendor and Chair of the National Women’s Association for Informal Market Traders.

Create an Enabling Environment

The challenges

The United Republic of Tanzania (Tanzania hereafter) has two semi-autonomous statistics systems, both of which have limited coordination, particularly on gender statistics. Neither Tanzania’s national development strategies to achieve gender equality nor its Statistical Master Plans explicitly seek to improve the production and use of gender data. Moreover, the Statistics Act passed in September 2018 includes provisions for significant fines, jail time, or both, for anyone questioning the accuracy of official statistics or producing figures that contradict them.

The Women Count response includes

Ensuring that the National Gender Equality Policy and Tanzania’s Statistical Master Plan (both under revision) explicitly include a gender data action and financing plan;

Integrating gender statistics in the monitoring of national and sectoral strategies and/or action plans;

Strengthening institutional capacities of key statistical actors and inter-agency coordination mechanisms; and

Advocating for a further amendment of the Statistics Act to address existing concerns and to ensure that its implementation integrates a gender perspective.

Increase Data Production

The challenges

Despite existing capacity within the national statistical system to generate gender data to monitor the SDGs and other gender equality commitments, fewer than 30 per cent of the gender-specific SDG indicators are fully available. Few of the indicators produced have additional disaggregation, beyond sex. There is a lack of baseline data on unpaid care work and violence against women and girls, and where gender-specific data has been collected, survey reports are not always published.

The Women Count response includes

Supporting the re-processing of existing gender-specific data from censuses, surveys and routine data systems to address gender data gaps;

Assessing sources for suitable data production to report on indicators at national and subnational levels, as well as the potential for data disaggregation at regional and district levels;

Producing new gender statistics on emerging concerns such as time use, poverty, social norms and institutions, asset ownership and the informal sector; and

Capacity-building and training for statistics producers.

Photo: UN Women/Deepika Nath

Mama Neema stands at the entrance of her traditional boma (homestead) where she built three houses for her family in Kimokouwa village in Arusha, Tanzania. The UN Women-MWEDO partnership has empowered hundreds of Maasai women to acquire land, find additional employment and diversify their economic activities to supplement their families’ income. The most recent trainings were provided as part of UN Women’s 2016 programme on “Women’s Access to Income, Land and Rights”, supported by the Government of Sweden

Improve Data Accessibility & Use

The challenges

Although there are several web-based statistical databases, there is no one-stop-shop or comprehensive source for Tanzania’s latest sex-disaggregated data and gender statistics, featuring both quantitative and qualitative information. The ‘Women and Men Facts and Figures’ series is not regularly produced and presently depends on external support. Finally, user-producer forums on gender statistics are not regularly or systematically organized.

The Women Count response includes

Improving access through a centralized and responsive online database hosting national-level gender statistics to monitor global and national commitments, including on social norms and institutions;

Supporting the regular publication of reports, profiles and booklets on gender across the SDGs as a means of developing capacity for gender statistics use; and

Institutionalizing and supporting user-producer dialogue mechanisms and meetings, such as the annual Gender Statistics Forum.