Affiliated Network for Social Accountability (ANSA-Africa)

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Tanzania Gender and Economic Growth Assessment
May 2007
International Finance Corporation

Tanzania has been at the forefront of creating a positive legal framework and political context for gender equality.

In the 2006 World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap report Tanzania was ranked # 1 globally, out of 115 countries, in terms of women’s economic participation. Both government and civil society articulate the importance of gender equality, and numerous policies and strategies identify the need for continued progress. As part of its commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially MDG 3 relating to the empowerment of women, Tanzania has addressed gender issues in the following areas, all of which impact women’s improved participation in the private sector:

Policy. The National Development Vision 2025 aims to attain “gender equality and the empowerment of women in all socio-economic and political relations and cultures.” The country adopted a Women and Gender Development Policy (WGDP) in 2000, to ensure gender mainstreaming in all government policies, programs, and strategies.

Strategy. The 2005 National Strategy for Gender Development specifies how gender mainstreaming is to be implemented. In Zanzibar, the Policy on the Protection and Development of Women of 2001 provides a framework for promoting gender equality.

Ratification of international instruments. Tanzania has ratified most major international human rights instruments, including CEDAW, ICESCR and ICRC, and has signed the African Political and the 1997 SADC Heads of States Declaration on Gender.

Constitutional reform. Through a special amendment passed in 2000, discrimination on the basis of gender is prohibited under the Constitution, which also protects the right of women to own land.

Legal reform. Parliament has enacted a number of laws in support of women’s economic and social well-being, including the Sexual Offences (Special Provisions) Act of 1998 and the two Land Acts of 1999, which established that women should be treated equally with men in terms of rights to acquire, hold, use and deal with land. The Employment and Labor Relations Act of 2004 prohibited discrimination in the workplace on the basis of gender, required employers to promote equal opportunities, introduced maternity leave, and contained provisions protecting a mother’s right to breastfeed and to be protected from engaging in hazardous employment.

Gender-responsive budgeting. Gender budgeting processes are being institutionalized in all ministries, regional and local authorities.

Political participation. Affirmative action to include women in decision-making includes a recent Act increasing the number of women’s special seats in government (33 percent in local government councils and 20 percent in the Union Parliament); an increase in the participation of women in politics to 30 percent, in line with the SADC Declaration of 1997; and a recent Act in Zanzibar increasing the number of women in the House of Representatives to 30 percent.