SOCIAL EXCLUSION IN TANZANIA

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SOCIAL EXCLUSION IN TANZANIA

• AD HOC EXPERT MEETING
• 7-9 MAY, 2008
• ADDIS ABABA, ETH.

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Outline of the presentation

• Criteria for SE analysis in Tanzania
• Main groups experiencing social exclusion
• Forms of social exclusion in Tanzania
• Government initiatives
• Conclusion

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Social exclusion in Tanzania

• Using Rodgers social exclusion analysis model in
  developing economies, analysis of social
  exclusion in Tanzania is based on the following
  areas
• Levels of living as reflected in exclusion from
  goods and services exclusion from public goods
  and services is often a question of location,
  knowledge, connections and the ability to pay.

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Continued

• Exclusion from livelihood livelihood is also
  threatened by exclusion from land, from other
  productive assets or from markets for goods. Land
  is a source of livelihood as well as of social
  integration
• Exclusion from security and human rights the
  attainment of particular basic human rights may
  be a precondition for overcoming economic
  exclusion. For example the right to freedom of
  assembly and expression is important as a basis
  of effective mobilisation to overcome exclusion.

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Continued

• Process of development Differences in
  development ideologies and strategies can result
  in varied patterns of social exclusion. The
  institutional arrangements, which mediate between
  economic and social development, may include or
  exclude, limit gains to a few sectors or groups
  or spread benefits more evenly.

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Main groups experiencing SE

• Women, In all national indicators such as
  literacy, unemployment, HIV prevalence rate etc.
• Also, under customary land law, women generally
  have inferior land rights relative to men, and
  their access to land is indirect and insecure.

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Continued

• Street children, stroll through a market or past
  a hotel or at the roadside of any major street in
  the centre of capital, towns or urban areas there
  is street children.
• They are stopping cars and people to beg or to
  ask for work. Others shining shoes, selling
  sundry articles of uncertain origin, or hurrying
  to wash the windscreens of cars stopped at
  traffic signals.

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Continued

• PLWHA, Commonly reported HIV-related social
  exclusion includes discrimination when trying to
  obtain inheritances, inadequate medical attention
  from their families and many HIV patients are
  rejected by their families and communities.

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Continued

• Youth, this group constitutes 19.6 percent of the
  Tanzania population.
• Social exclusion among the youth is mainly in
  terms of unemployment.
• Unemployment in Tanzania stands at 11 per cent.
  The target is to reduce the problem of
  unemployment to 6.9 per cent by 2010.

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Continued

• Elderly, account for about 4 per cent of the
  population. Social exclusion facing the elderly
  include loneliness, low income, dwindling respect
  and lack of access to health services and, in
  some areas, they are being molested on account of
  belief in witchcraft.

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Continued

• People with disabilities, The problems facing
  people with disabilities include stigma,
  discrimination and lack of training, employment
  and facilitating devices such as wheel chairs,
  Braille books, crutches and artificial limbs.

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Forms of SE in Tanzania

• It is mainly viewed in two forms which are
• (i) a result of poverty
• (ii) Discrimination

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Government initiatives

• Tanzania is implementing the National Strategy
  for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP). It
  is a five year development framework (2005/06
  2009/10).
• The strategy has three clusters namely, growth
  and reduction of income poverty improvement of
  quality of life and social well-being and good
  governance accountability.
• Through different policy frameworks, the Gov has

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Continued

• created legal, regulatory and policy frameworks
  that promote social inclusion.
• Policies such as Women development policy,
  National Youth Development policy, Policy on
  Development of People with Disabilities, National
  Ageing policy etc.
• Through these policies, The Gov. has improved
  economic opportunities and access to services for
  excluded groups
• promoted their political participation in
  society, and their capacity to organise and
  mobilise themselves

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Continued

• Recently, the Gov has developed a social
  protection framework that ensures that the needs
  and rights of the poor are adequately protected
  and addressed including preventing the population
  from falling into poverty and vulnerability to
  enable them gainfully engage in productive
  activities
• Specific strategies for social inclusion of
  vulnerable groups include

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Conclusion

• Although social exclusion within countries is the
  result of the way in which economic, social and
  political institutions are changing and the
  nature of domestic policies, social exclusion
  cannot simply be attributed to "internal
  factors". International relationships are
  increasingly and ever more deeply implicated in
  what is happening in the country.

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Continued

• A major event shaping social exclusion is the
  reform programmes which are encouraging economic
  restructuring and redefining the role of the
  state in social provision and economic activity.
  In each case, reforms which seek to open up
  economies to competition from the rest of the
  world have been associated with the erosion (or
  complete breakdown) of old social contracts which
  were a central means of social integration. In
  this process, citizenship rights have shrunk .

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Continued

• Therefore it is an opportune time to re-examine
  our developmental initiatives if we are to
  strengthen social inclusion, gender equality and
  health promotion in the Millennium Development
  Goals in Africa.

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END

• An END.